Brad Mills Taken by Toronto in the Fourth Round

6/07/2007 – U. of Arizona Wildcats

TUCSON, Ariz. – Senior left-hander Brad Mills was taken by the Toronto Blue Jays with the 145th overall pick in the fourth round of the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft on Thursday. Mills, who was tabbed in the 22nd round of the 2006 draft by Toronto but did not sign and returned for his senior season, recently completed his final year at UA with a 9-4 record and a 4.41 ERA in 87 2/3 innings pitched. A true success story, Mills joined the Arizona baseball program as the lone pitcher to make the UA roster out of an 80-player walk on tryout in the fall of 2003 and remains the only player to earn a spot on the team out of an open tryout in six seasons under head coach Andy Lopez. He spent his first two seasons as a spot reliever out of the Wildcats’ bullpen, but worked his way into being a vital part of the UA starting rotation the past two years. He finished second on the 2007 Arizona team in innings pitched (87 2/3), wins (9) and strikeouts (89). A civil engineering major with a 3.23 cumulative GPA, Mills is on schedule to graduate from Arizona this coming December. He was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District 8 team and was a second-team Academic All-Pac-10 selection this season. Mills played for the Harrisonburg Turks of the Valley Baseball League in 2005. The leftie put up impressive numbers for the season … Voted 2005 Turks Most Valuable Pitcher with an 1.62 ERA and a 5-0 record with 62 strikeouts in 39 innings. Mills earned the Southern Division Pitcher of the Week honors after going 2-0 in two starts with a 1.20 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 15 innings. Mills was also voted to the All Valley League squad. He was second in the league in strikeouts and in pickoffs (6). Mills was a part of the TURKS recording a 25-19 season earning them 2nd place in the South Division.