Bradley Aaron Mills (born March 5, 1985, in Mesa, Arizona) is an American professional baseball pitcher with the Toronto Blue Jays. He throws left-handed and bats right-handed.

[edit] College, draft, and minor-league career

Mills played collegiately at the University of Arizona, and was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the fourth round (145th overall) of the 2007 amateur entry draft. He began his professional career later in 2007 with short-season Class A Auburn, posting a 2–0 won-lost record in 18 innings, striking out 21 with an ERA of 2.00. In 2008, Mills achieved the best record by a pitcher in the entire Blue Jays' minor league organization. Splitting his season with three teams (A Class Lansing, Advanced A Dunedin, and AA New Hampshire), Mills was 13–5 in 27 games (all starts), with 159 strikeouts over 147.1 innings pitched, with an ERA of 1.95. He was chosen a Midwest League Mid-Season All-Star at Lansing. Advancing to AAA Las Vegas 51s for 2009, Mills at the time of his promotion was leading the team in innings pitched with 76.1, and had a 1–8 record, a 4.48 ERA, and 65 strikeouts. ^[1]

[edit] Promotion to Major Leagues

The Toronto Blue Jays had suffered a string of devastating injuries to many of their key front-line pitchers from early 2009 onwards, leading to several promotions from their minor-league system. On June 17, Mills became the latest young pitcher to get an opportunity to show his skills at the highest level when his contract was purchased by the Blue Jays. On June 18, 2009, he made his major league debut by taking over Casey Janssen's scheduled start on the road against the 2008 World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies, giving up 4 earned runs in 3.2 innings; he did not figure in the decision of a game Toronto won 8–7 to complete a three-game sweep.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• MLB.com profile