Bats: Left, Throws: Right
2011 Stats (AA Akron/ AAA Columbus): .289, 18 HR, 67 RBI, .860 OPS, 1.84 K/BB
What? Who? I thought that we had declared this guy a bust long ago. So, how did the 2007 1st rounder put himself back on the map? Mills got healthy, screwed his head on straight and, most importantly, the kid hit. Beau remains a line drive hitter with power to all fields and a serviceable defender. That sounds awesome, but wasn't that also true during the two full seasons (one middling, one truly dissapointing) that the kid spent at AA? Well, Mills had a wicked 2008 at Kinston (.293, 21, 90, .880) before pushing through an adjustment year at Akron (.267, 14, 83, .724) in 2009. 2010 was riddled with injury and incident as Beau fought a nagging intercostal strain all year and dealt with an assualt charge (Bar brawl, Josh Tomlin was charged as well, everything was eventually dropped) leading to just an awful season (.241, 10, 72, .689). 2011 began inauspiciously as well, with Mills in extended Spring Training rehabbing an Achilles strain. Then, Beau got into game action and simply tore the cover off of the ball. His .880 OPS at Akron matched his career high and the .822 he posted after his promotion to AAA was nearly a hundred points higher than his first AA campaign. It seems as if he has figured it out. The strange thing is Mills projects offensively much like Jason Kipnis. There will be bursts of power, but the bacon will be made on fighting off tough pitches and consistently driving the ball to the gaps. If you are looking for a single statistic to define this son of an MLB skipper (see Brad Mills), that is RBI. Even when he was struggling, Beau found a way to bring the runs home. He is, sadly, a left handed batter, but if Mills can produce again in Columbus, he will be on speed dial when Matt LaPorta hits .220 and/or Travis Hafner sprains his eyebrow.
Up Next: #14 OF Thomas Neal
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