Only 11 in 100 NCAA baseball players will go on to get drafted by a major league baseball team. But once you’re drafted, there’s no guarantee of playing in the big leagues.
Often players must go through years in the minor leagues before getting the call up. One minor league player who calls Boise his home is doing just that.
Adam Miller is 25 years old, and for a pitcher in the minors, that’s old. But Adam has what most people in the world don’t, an arm that can throw 100 mile per hour.
Adam is in the business of proving people wrong. For him that starts in the gym. His journey to professional baseball has been a little unorthodox. Most professional athletes are prodigies from an early age, but not Adam.
"For me it's just motivation to be able to prove people wrong and say hey look I can do even though you guys said I wasn't going to be able to do it," Adam Miller, a minor league relief pitcher said.
Not even considered the best on his high school or college teams, he worked hard. Hard enough until he was drafted in the 20th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks and sent to the minor leagues.
"You just have to tough it out and wait till you get to the big leagues," Adam said.
Not about to start his fourth season, Adam is ready to make the jump.
He continues to work hard on his game but now married, to chase his dreams he has to work just as hard on his relationship.
October to February are important months for the Millers because for the rest of the year Adam is on the road and the couple will only see each other every six weeks or so.
"6 weeks, is what we decided is probably the limit of time being apart, any longer than that it gets like really hard," Deirdre Miller, Adam’s wife said.
Deidre works two jobs and also does freelance work so they can pay the bills and be able to afford plane tickets to visit.
"Everyone just assumes that because I have a professional baseball player husband that we are just rolling in money," Deidre said.
But quite the opposite, some minor leaguers only get paid about $7,000 a year, so at the Miller’s home the traditional roles are a bit reversed.
"I make her lunches and run the errands, try and cover up the loose ends," Adam said. "He's really good at dishes and vacuuming and laundry," Deidre said.
But that all might change soon, last season he started throwing harder than he ever has before.
"I think one game it registered at 103 [miles per hour]," Adam said.
Already some websites have him as one of the fastest rising prospects in the Diamondbacks system.
So for now they live frugal while Adam works on his game and Deidre brings in the cash. At least until he gets called up.
"Once I'm there we'll go on a few more dates that we do right now," Adam said.
Just this month, Adam has made it one step closer to pitching in the majors; he was just invited to the Diamondbacks spring training. He will head down to Arizona in mid February.
