Mike Fiers

Mike Fiers
Fiers pitching for the Houston Astros in 2016
Houston Astros – No. 54
Pitcher
Born: June 15, 1985 Hollywood, Florida
Bats: Right Throws: Right
MLB debut
September 14, 2011, for the Milwaukee Brewers
MLB statistics (through April 7, 2016)
Win–loss record	23–29
Earned run average	3.67
Strikeouts	411
WHIP	1.22
Teams
Milwaukee Brewers (2011–2015) Houston Astros (2015–present)
Career highlights and awards
Pitched a no-hitter (August 21, 2015) AL Player of the Week (August 17–23, 2015)

Michael Bruce Fiers (born June 15, 1985) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has also played in MLB for the Milwaukee Brewers. Fiers pitched a no-hitter on August 21, 2015.

Amateur career

Fiers attended Deerfield Beach High School in Deerfield Beach, Florida, graduating in 2003. Fiers enrolled at Broward College, transferred to the University of the Cumberlands for one year, and then transferred to Nova Southeastern University.^[1]

Professional career

Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers selected Fiers in the 22nd round of the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft.^[2]

He began his career playing for the Rookie league Helena Brewers, Class A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, and Class A-Advanced Brevard County Manatees in 2009. Fiers played the 2010 season at Brevard and with the Double-A Huntsville Stars. He began the 2011 season with Huntsville but was promoted to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds in late May 2011.

Fiers pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2012

Fiers was called up to the majors for the first time on September 10, 2011.^[2] On August 7, 2012, Fiers carried a perfect game into the 7th inning in a game against the Cincinnati Reds. He finished going 8 innings allowing 1 run on 3 hits, earning the victory.^[3]

On September 11, 2014, pitching against the Miami Marlins, Fiers hit Giancarlo Stanton in the face with an 88 mph fastball, sending him to the hospital.^[4] With his next pitch, Fiers proceeded to hit Reed Johnson on one of his hands when he attempted to paint the inside corner. Both pitches were called strikes, because the batters were in the act of swinging. Miami third-basemen Casey McGehee started yelling at the umpire, but Fiers thought that McGehee was yelling at him, so he tried to say that he did not do it on purpose, this then caused a bench-clearing shouting match. Fiers apologized to Stanton, and on September 12, 2014, Fiers was fined an undisclosed amount for causing the benches to clear.^[5]

Houston Astros

On July 30, 2015, the Brewers traded Fiers and Carlos Gómez to the Houston Astros for Brett Phillips, Domingo Santana, Josh Hader, and Adrian Houser.^[6] On August 21, 2015, in his third start for the Astros, Fiers pitched a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Minute Maid Park, the 11th no-hitter in Astros' history and the first no-hitter for any team at Minute Maid Park. It was his first complete game as a major league pitcher; he finished the game with a career-high 134 pitches thrown, striking out 10 batters and walking three.^[7]

Scouting report

Fiers throws four pitches. He leads with a four-seam fastball at 88–91 miles per hour (142–146 km/h). He also has a slider (82–85 miles per hour (132–137 km/h)), curveball (70–73 miles per hour (113–117 km/h)), and changeup (79–83 miles per hour (127–134 km/h)). He also experiments with a cutter in the mid 80's for some extra movement to induce ground balls or surprise hitters. His primary off-speed pitch to lefties is the changeup and to righties is the curveball.^[8] His changeup is considered by many to be his best pitch, and he has excellent command of the strikezone with all of his pitches. Despite having relatively low velocity, his command, the movement of his pitches (particularly his slow, looping curveball) all make him quite capable of racking up strikeouts. He had a K/9 of 9.6 during his four years in the minors, and so far in Milwaukee, has a K/9 of 9.4 through his first season in the majors.

References

1. http://observernewspaperonline.com/2014/02/27/fiers-back-home-at-dbhs/
2. "The Official Athletic Website of Nova Southeastern University - NSU Alumnus, Mike Fiers Called to Milwaukee Brewers". Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
3. "August 7, 2012 Cincinnati Reds at Milwaukee Brewers Play by Play and Box Score - Baseball-Reference.com". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
4. "Hit by Pitch, the Miami Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton Is Taken to Hospital". New York Times. September 12, 2014. Retrieved September 12, 2014.
5. "Fiers, DeSclafani disciplined by MLB On May 7, 2015, Fiers became the 73rd pitcher in MLB history to record an Immaculate Inning where he struck out Enrique Hernandez, Carlos Frias, and Joc Pederson on 9 consecutive pitches.". ESPN Go. September 12, 2014. Retrieved September 14, 2014. line feed character in |title= at position 37 (help)
6. Cassavell, A. J. (July 30, 2015). "Astros add Gomez, Fiers from Brewers". MLB.com. Retrieved July 30, 2015.
7. Snyder, Matt (August 21, 2015). "Astros' Mike Fiers throws no-hitter". CBS Sports. Retrieved August 21, 2015.
8. "Brooks Baseball · Home of the PitchFX Tool - Player Card: Michael Fiers". Brooks Baseball. Retrieved May 30, 2012.

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Mike Fiers on Twitter