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On Saturday, May 22, Noah Miller was sitting in his bedroom. He walked into the next room and saw his mom crying.
“Why are you crying?” He asked.
She replied, tears in her eyes, “Owen just got called up.” 
Owen Miller is the older brother of Noah. He was the third-round draft pick of the San Diego Padres in 2018 out of Illinois State. In August of 2020, he was traded to Cleveland in the Mike Clevenger trade. At 24, he found himself in Cleveland, batting sixth and DHing against J.A. Happ and the Twins. Sure, he went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, but he is a big leaguer. And Noah Miller was there. 
“I did get to go. Actually, I missed my graduation for that. It was pretty exciting.”
Yes, Noah was set to graduate on Sunday afternoon. Instead, he said his family got up about 2:30 a.m. and made the trek to Cleveland for a 1:10 game. 
The Cleveland brass found out that Noah was missing his graduation, so they put a big picture of him on their video board congratulating him on his graduation. 
“I actually missed it. I was getting hot dogs with my brother’s girlfriend and my cousin.”
Don’t worry. Miller said that he received his diploma from the school’s principal shortly after. 
That May game in Cleveland was not his first Twins game of the year. He drove down to Milwaukee for the Opening Day pitcher’s duel between Jose Berrios and Corbin Burnes (and that hard-to-watch first loss of the season for the Twins). 
It’s been a hectic past couple of months for Noah Miller. Before baseball season began, he finished his senior season of basketball. When asked if he was any good, he sheepishly replied, “I broke our school’s scoring record, so now I’m the all-time leading scorer at our high school.”
Miller didn’t play in the Area Code Games last summer, and scouts didn’t get as many opportunities to see players in 2020 due to the pandemic. He played his high school baseball season, and he continued to play more this summer. 
Twins Scouting Director Sean Johnson said, “We benefited from the later draft this year because normally a kid from Wisconsin, you’re not going to get to until late April or May, which may not have been enough time to get the looks we got on Noah. I saw Noah play three weeks ago for his summer team just east of LaCrosse, did a day trip that day with Deron Johnson. So we got a lot more looks than we normally would in a June 10 draft. So we used the extra month and said, ‘Who’s playing? Who can we go see?’”
Soon after, Miller was invited to Target Field to participate in a pre-draft workout. Twins area scout Joe Bisenius had been tracking him for quite some time and was in contact with him all year, but when he arrived at Target Field, and there were just three other players, he knew that the Twins had a legitimate interest in him. So he wasn’t totally surprised when the Twins selected him.
“I talked to him (Bisenius) a good amount. I talked to him, especially in the winter. I had a zoom call with him. I think they told me they had eight or nine guys come to see me play. I wasn’t necessarily surprised. When I went to the pre-draft workout, there were only four of us there, and they told me, ‘you’re kind of our guy here,’ that was pretty cool. I knew that my shot to get into the first round was with the Twins. It was a little bit of a surprise, but at the same time, I wasn’t surprised.”
So on Sunday night, Day 1 of the draft, Miller knew there was some chance he would be drafted late in the night, maybe by the Twins, but also realized that he could be selected early on Day 2. 
“It was awesome. I was sitting there, and my agent called me around pick 34, and he was like, ‘Hey man, the Twins might pick you at 36. There’s a chance.’ He said, ‘Just be on the lookout.’ Then he called me again, and he was just like, ‘Again, just kind of be ready if something happens here.’ So I didn’t really know if I was going to or not, and then they picked me, and it was just, I mean, it was unbelievable. It was just me and my family, and we were going crazy.”
Following Day 1 of the draft, Sean Johnson described Miller’s offense. “Johnson noted, “It’s rare anymore to see a player you believe has hit skills from both sides of the plate. Switch-hitters are pretty rare anymore. He has a great swing from both sides. We think that he will have power from both sides.” 
Miller said he’s been switch-hitting for a long time. He said, “Realistically, it was probably like second or third grade just playing wiffleball in the backyard with my brother and my cousins, and in the basement with tennis balls. Then in fifth grade, I finally just realized that it’s something that I should probably do, and it was something that I enjoyed doing, so I just stuck with it from there. My approach from both, pretty much the same for both ways. I don’t have the same mechanics for both ways, but my end goal is the same, and my thought is the same.”
He added that he is equally comfortable from both sides of the plate. “I probably get more at-bats lefty in-game, but I’ve done the work outside of games to make it feel the same.”
Johnson talked about Miller’s defense as well. “He’s extremely instinctive as a defender. He’s not the fastest shortstop in the world, but we think that he has a chance to stay there for a long time. He’ll profile whether he plays short forever or not. Great hands. Great feet. Great clock. It’s all the things you want to see. He’s super-advanced, more advanced than a lot of the college guys you see.”
While Miller acknowledges that he grew up a Brewers fan, he said his favorite player (aside from his brother, of course) is Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford because “he’s such a smooth defender.” 
He said he had played some second base and some third base on some national teams or in tournaments but spent most of his time at shortstop. 
And finally, Johnson talked about Miller’s drive, saying, “Johnson said, “You can just see the competitiveness in him that he got from his brother, and his family and being in that environment.”
Owen Miller went off to Illinois State when Noah was just 12 years old. Noah would hear all of the different things that Owen was working on in college, and he would be sure to work on those things as well. Noah was 15 when Owen was drafted, and he continued to get tips and things to work on and put into his game.
“Very beneficial for me. It was just awesome to have. (Owen) being such a great hitter. Him being my number one hitting coach was kind of the best thing that he’s ever done for me,”
Owen has continually provided solid advice for Noah. “He told me about college. He told me about pro ball. He told me the benefits of both, the cons of both. He thought I was ready for pro ball. He thought that was something that I should maybe do if I get the chance. He said maybe I should take that, and I’m glad I did now. He told me about the grind of minor league baseball, everything like that, just working in the offseason with him, working out with him, hitting with him. Everything that improved my game.”
It certainly isn’t difficult to understand why the Twins are so excited about both Chase Petty and Noah Miller. Soon their long journey up the organizational ladder will begin. It should be fun to watch. 
Jared Walsh. JP Feyereisen. Daulton Varsho. Jarred Kelenic. Gavin Lux. Alex McRae. Jonathan Stiever. Recently-retired Jordan Zimmerman. Twins catcher Ben Rortvedt. Owen Miller. 
All of these players have spent time in the big leagues in 2021. All of these players were born and grew up in Wisconsin. Miller hopes to join his brother and these other Wisconsinites in the big leagues one day. Miller gives a lot of credit to RJ Fergus at Hitters Baseball in Caledonia, Wisconsin, for giving Wisconsin kids an indoor facility for the winter. 
 
 
Next up? The Twins will be talking with Miller and his family and representation and come to terms on a signing bonus. He is likely to sign that contract at Target Field and then head down to Ft. Myers and begin his pro career. If he does get into games, and he should, it will be with the FCL Twins. 
Let the journey begin. 

It isn’t rare to see Major Leaguers have unique skills outside the lines of the ballpark. Twins fans saw Trevor May showcase his gaming skills to the world. Mookie Betts channels his inner Pete Weber with strikes on the bowling ally. 
Make room for Twins prospect Griffin Jax. 
There’s no telling what Jax can do with a bowling ball or a joystick. Yet one thing’s for sure- the Air Force Academy alum and Twins pitcher is going to change the world whether it be on the diamond or as a future business leader in today’s society.
Jax, 26, isn’t just dealing on the bump. He’s currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Business Administration with a focus in Marketing and Data Analytics from Colorado State University.
It’s not uncommon for professional athletes to pursue a degree following their career on the field. Jax’s situation is impressive, as he’s worn the dueling hats of graduate student and professional baseball player simultaneously the past two years.
“I think I was going to do it (go to graduate school) eventually no matter what my career was going to be,” Jax said. “I’ve always taken school seriously and made it a priority growing up. A lot of that came from my parents and how they raised my brothers and I.”
A native of Phoenix who grew up in Denver, Jax was drafted by the Twins in the third round of the 2016 draft. He’s worked his way up the Twins organization, going from a young boy eating burgers at Cherry Cricket in the Denver metro to posting arguably the best start at AAA Saint Paul for the Saints so far this year. 
And while his focus currently lies on baseball (and likely will for a long time), Jax understands that it’s important to have a vocation outside of the childhood dream that he’s currently living out.
“At the end of the day, I’m not sure where baseball is going to lead. I’m putting all my chips in that corner and it’s an amazing opportunity and my dream, but I do understand that it’s not going to be there forever and when that comes I want to be ready to enter a new life and opportunity,” Jax said.
School and Strikeouts
While the thought of furthering his education was always an interest, a seed was planted in Griffin’s mind following graduation from the Air Force Academy in 2016. MLB clubs will oftentimes help pay for the tuition of draft picks if they chose to continue their education down the road. Since the Air Force Academy is a military institution, students are waived of tuition upon attendance. 
“The Air Force offered to help me out with a masters degree and that’s how I initially became interested in it,” Jax said.
Online classes and the cancellation of last year’s minor league season helped streamline Jax’s studies in a program that he says will prepare him to bridge the gap between business leaders and analytic gurus.
“You’ve got business decision makers and analytics departments and typically it's tough to get communication between the two because the business folks don’t always understand or adapt to analytics,” Jax said. “On the other hand, the analytics folks don’t always do a great job of sitting business leaders down and talking them through the process of the numbers. My role through this program is to be the middle ground between the two.”
Jax has seen direct correlation between the content of his studies and his with work on the field with the Twins organization. With a focus on data analytics, Jax has dipped his feet into the coding puddle, something that the Twins scouting department uses on the daily. In fact, Jax has worked with the scouting department directly on a coding platform that both parties use.
“One of the classes that I’m in, we’re learning about coding and we use a platform called ‘R’. I was getting ready for my Pittsburgh spring training start earlier this year and I bumped into one of the head scouting directors,” Jax recalled. “He was toying around with ‘R’ and building the team’s scout maps that we use against other teams hitters and pitchers."
Fascinating.
“Right there I was like ‘Wow,’ I didn’t know that this was being used in baseball. I ended up talking to him a bunch and have been leaning on him a lot this semester because it’s (the platform) brand new to me.”
The correlation has helped Jax grow both as a pitcher and a student of the game, and in life. 
“It’s super interesting to see how that (coding and data analysis) directly translates to baseball and how the Twins are using it. It’s definitely peaked my interest.”
Numbers Don't Lie
It’s no secret that baseball has progressed into a sport reliant on advanced statistics and in-depth data analysis. As a high-level pitcher, Jax is no stranger to the recent evolution of stat-driven analysis.
“When I was first drafted in 2016, we weren’t talking about this at all,” Jax said. “And now, I don’t throw a pitch on the mound without having it  tracked, reported, and measured by a machine that will read us all of our reports. Seeing the progression is mind-blowing.”
Jax credits the Twins organization for embracing the new trend in a world that has seen some tension between data-driven baseball and ‘old school feel-it out tactics.’
“The Twins have done a really good job of handling the analytics side of the game,” he said. “Our staff has done a great job teaching us how to enable this stuff to make the most of our careers.” 
Jax believes that the ‘new wave’ of baseball has boosted his performance as he guns for his childhood dream of making the majors. The 6’2 flamethrower was electric in his first start for the Saints last week, tossing five innings of one-run baseball. 
Griffin will graduate from his masters program this summer. And while it’s safe to say that he’s got a bright future on the bump, Jax will positively impact the world wherever life takes him.