Skip to main content

IronPigs Quotables: LHP Hoby Milner

Hoby Milner, image- Jay Floyd
As a Rule 5 draft pick, lefty reliever Hoby Milner got plenty of exposure in big league spring training this year, but an imperfect exhibition campaign along with limited room on the Indians' roster resulted in the 26-year-old coming back to the team that drafted him (7th round, 2012).

With Cleveland in the Cactus League, Milner allowed seven earned runs in seven innings over seven appearances while striking out nine and walking three. 

After the Indians decided they could not keep Milner around, he rejoined the Phillies, where he was assigned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to open the regular season. 

Earlier this month, I spoke with Milner, who spoke on his experience with Cleveland and coming back to the Phils.  Read ahead for that interview.

-What can you share about your whirlwind off-season and spring after being selected in the Rule 5 draft, going to the Indians and then coming back to the Phillies?

I thought it was a great experience, a great opportunity.  It was a win-win for me.  They picked me and I was going to get the opportunity in big league camp.  They signed Boone Logan in the off-season after they Rule Fived me and, basically, I would have had to have been perfect to get an opportunity there and things just didn't fall into place for me to stay there, so I'm back. 

-Was it a surprise to any members of the team that you were coming back or did the Phillies guys have a heads up?

I talked to a couple of the guys.  Said, "I'm coming back.  I'll be there tomorrow." And I'm pretty sure that most people knew I was coming back at that point.  Yeah, 'cause I went to big league camp.  Fortunately the Phillies were like, "Hey, we want you to come to big league camp so you can get to know the staff and let them see you a couple times."

-You mentioned win-win, so overall you're happy with the exposure you got and the time you spent with the big clubs this spring.  Do you feel like you've developed more?

Yeah, definitely.  I feel like I've got more confidence.  I got to pitch in big league camp all spring and it was fine and just I thought it was good exposure.  The teams that are all out in Arizona, I got to pitch against team I've never faced ever in the minor leagues.  So, it was good.

-Is there anybody that you picked up a lot from in big league camp out there?

You know, not really.  I think the only guy who throws close to how I throw was Andrew Miller and he was at the (World Baseball) Classic the whole time, so I really didn't get to talk to him.  I really just watched how that clubhouse went about their business and they had a lot of veteran guys in that clubhouse and they all seemed to know what they were doing, so I learned a lot that way.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Heroes- Fight of the Century

VS. It's a big day for your boy, Jay Ballz . No work, X-Men Origins: Wolverine premieres, our Phillies face the Metropolitans for the first time this season and tailgating for BOTH doesn't sound all that absurd to me. Anyway, I surveyed some qualified phans and got several opinions on how exactly a fight might go down if the mutant hero Wolverine faced off against Phillies hero Matt Stairs. Well known blogger, Chris, of I've Made a Huge Tiny Mistake , kept it real and said the following- "Wolverine has adamantium ( indestructible metal substance) claws, so that's a great advantage. Stairs' Wonder Bat is neutralized there. See, the problem becomes Wolverine's ability to recover (he has a regenerative power) faster. Stairs is merely human. Sure, he has a goatee, and goatees are great, but they're great for saving sauce, not for defeating mutants. I think Wolverine takes it in a fight to the death in about 15 minutes because Stairs simply doesn'...

Michael Taylor Q&A

Michael Taylor is currently leading the Reading Phillies' offense and is near the top of the Eastern League in most stat categories (3rd in batting avg- .342, 3rd in HR- 14, tied for second in RBI- 55, 2nd in OPS.- .994, tied for 1st in runs scored- 49, tied for 1st in hits...). The 23 year old Taylor is 6 feet 6 inches tall and has quickly grabbed the attention of phans and media alike as a top prospect to watch. I spoke with Mike Taylor over the weekend, and here is that interview. With all the big stats and being among the league leaders in so many categories, do you think you're ready for the next step? It's kind of a difficult question. Do you have anything left to prove here? There's always something to prove. There's stuff to prove every game. I mean that's one thing that's very interesting about this game. It's such a numbers oriented game. You're only as good as your last "whatever statistical category that someone's valuing". ...

Rappers in Phillies Caps

Weekend greetings to you phine pholks out there. Today's post features pictures of rappers wearing Phillies caps. Why rappers in Phillies caps, you ask? Because... Any other questions? We will start things off properly by going with a highly recognizable hip hop star. 50 Cent stays constantly relavant by consistantly creating radio friendly material to help sell (G) units, while he "keeps it real" by still rapping about the thug life he lived before becoming the 2nd highest earning black entertainer in America. 50 is seen here in a recent interview rocking a throw-back Phillies cap. Next up we'll use a throw-back screen cap from what may be the very first major appearance by a rapper wearing Phillies gear. Chuck D, of legendary rap group Public Enemy, wore a Phillies cap in the music video for rap anthem Fight The Power in 1989. The song was the lead single from the soundtrack for Spike Lee's film Do The Right Thing . Next up we'll go with some home grown tal...