Draft Day Chat

In 2007: Mickolio finished the season going a combined 6-4 with a 2.68 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 3 saves, and 55 strikeouts in 53.2 innings. Starting the year with West Tennessee, he didn’t allow a single home run while posting impressive numbers going 3-1 with 2 saves and a 1.82 ERA in 18 outings as a middle reliever. His 1.82 ERA and 1.21 WHIP at West Tennessee was tops among pitchers on his team who pitched in more than 1 game. Earning a promotion to the AAA level with Tacoma in less than one full professional season, he continued to develop going 3-1 with 1 save and striking out 28 in 24.0 innings of work. He also posted a solid 3.75 ERA in 14 games for the Rainiers.

Career Highlights: Mickolio was selected in the 18th round of the 2006 draft by the Seattle Mariners. While pitching out of the bullpen for Everett, he went 1-0 with 4 saves and had a strong 2.78 ERA. This season Baseball America named Mickolio the Northwest League’s 18th Rated Prospect.

In doing so, they said “A native of Montana, where there's no high school baseball, the 6-foot-9 Mickolio played only basketball until the summer before his senior year of high school, when he began playing American Legion ball. He showed enough promise in his first year at Eastern Utah JC in 2003 that the Cardinals drafted him in the 35th round, and he made even more progress after transferring to Utah Valley State..

With his enormous size, Mickolio was an imposing bullpen arm for Everett this summer. His height allows him to pitch on a downward angle and induce plenty of groundballs, as evidenced by his 49-18 ground-fly ratio. He works in the low 90s with a heavy fastball that has plenty of life and touches 94 mph.

Mickolio also flashes a decent slider now and then, though he still has plenty of work to do on it and his changeup. His slider lacks tight rotation and doesn't miss many bats, and he needs to do a better job commanding his stuff within the strike zone. But considering how far Mickolio has come in his short pitching career, it's not a huge stretch to project him as a major league reliever."

Prior to the 2006 draft, Mickolio just finished his senior season at Utah Valley State, and became the fist NCAA player drafted after the University’s move to Division-I athletics. Mickolio was named to the Division-I All-Independent 2nd team after finishing 2006 with a 6-6 record and a 5.30 ERA while leading the team in wins. He was also drafted in the 2002 draft in the 38th round by the St. Louis Cardinals.