Miles Mikolas

Miles Tice Mikolas (born August 23, 1988), nicknamed "Lizard King",^[1] is an American professional baseball pitcher who is currently with Yomiuri Giants. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres and Texas Rangers.

Amateur career

Mikolas pitched for Jupiter Community High School in Palm Beach County, Florida, where he graduated in 2006.^[2] He then pitched for Nova Southeastern University from 2007 to 2009.

Professional career

San Diego Padres

Mikolas was drafted by the San Diego Padres in the seventh round of the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft.

Mikolas pitched as a reliever for the Class-A Fort Wayne TinCaps in 2010 and posted a 2.20 ERA in 60 games. He began 2011 with the High-A Lake Elsinore Storm and, after posting a 1.13 ERA in 34 games, was promoted to the Double-A San Antonio Missions on July 4.^[3] Mikolas finished out 2011 by compiling a 1.67 ERA as a reliever for the Missions over 28 games. Mikolas was a non-roster invitee to 2012 spring training. He was assigned to the minor league camp later in the spring and started the year with San Antonio.^[4]

Mikolas was called up to the majors for the first time directly from Double-A San Antonio on May 5, 2012.^[5] He made his debut at Petco Park against the Florida Marlins, whom he grew up rooting for.^[2] Mikolas was sent down to the Triple-A Tucson Padres on June 5 after making 13 appearances and allowing 5 earned runs in 13²⁄₃ innings. He was recalled on July 5^[6] and made two more appearances before being optioned back to Triple-A. He was recalled from Tucson again on August 5,^[7] and stayed with the big league club through the rest of the year. For the season, Mikolas amassed a 3.62 ERA and 23 strike-outs versus 15 walks over 32¹⁄₃ innings.

Mikolas was designated for assignment by the Padres on November 20, 2013.

Texas Rangers

Mikolas with the Rangers in 2014

The Padres traded Mikolas to the Pittsburgh Pirates, along with Jaff Decker, for Alex Dickerson after the 2013 season. During that offseason, the Pirates traded him to the Texas Rangers in exchange for Chris McGuiness.^[8] Mikolas was called up to the Rangers' 25 man roster on July 1, 2014.^[9] Mikolas started his first career game against the Baltimore Orioles giving up 3 hits 3 runs in 5.1 innings pitched in a no decision.

The Rangers released Mikolas on November 20, 2014.

Yomiuri Giants

On November 25, 2014, Mikolas signed a one-year, $700,000 (USD) deal with the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball for the 2015 season.

Personal

Mikolas earned the nickname "Lizard King" when, on a bet, he ate a lizard in the bullpen during a 2011 Arizona Fall League game. The video of Mikolas eating the lizard was posted to YouTube.^[10] Mikolas is married to Lauren Mikolas, who has become famous in Japan.^[1]

References

1 2 "U.S. baseball player joins Tokyo's Yomiuri Giants, but it's his wife that's getting the attention". RocketNews24. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
1 2 Capozzi, Joe (May 7, 2012). "'Great feeling' for Padres pitcher Mikolas, a Jupiter High grad, to make debut vs. Marlins". The Palm Beach Post. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
↑ Center, Bill (July 4, 2011). "Daily Update: Darnell, Brach, Gyorko, Mikolas promoted". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
↑ Center, Bill (March 25, 2012). "Padres Report: Five sent to minor league camp". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
↑ Huston Street to go on disabled list with shoulder strain
↑ Brock, Corey (July 5, 2012). "Padres recall Mikolas to bolster bullpen". MLB.com. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
↑ "Padres recall RHP Miles Mikolas from Triple-A". azfamily.com. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
↑ http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/12/texas-rangers-trade-1b-chris-mcguiness-for-pirates-p-miles-mikolas.html/
↑ http://rangersblog.dallasnews.com/2014/07/texas-rangers-designate-joe-saunders-for-assignment-insert-miles-mikolas-into-starting-rotation.html/
↑ "Padres add heat to mix with reliever Miles Mikolas, the legendary Lizard King of the San Diego bullpen". MLBlogs Network. mlbblogger. May 8, 2012. Retrieved 27 February 2013.

External links

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

Yomiuri Giants current roster

First squad	2 Ryota Wakiya 5 Garrett Jones 6 Hayato Sakamoto 7 Hisayoshi Chono 8 Yasuyuki Kataoka 9 Yoshiyuki Kamei 10 Shinnosuke Abe 11 Luis Cruz 12 Takahiro Suzuki 15 Hirokazu Sawamura 19 Tomoyuki Sugano 20 Scott Mathieson 21 Toshiki Sakurai 22 Seiji Kobayashi 23 Ryoji Aikawa 25 Shuichi Murata 26 Tetsuya Utsumi 28 Kyosuke Takagi 30 Ryosuke Miyaguni 37 Seiji Tahara 38 Kazuma Okamoto 39 Miles Mikolas 40 Ken Katoh 42 Leslie Anderson 43 Shinnosuke Shigenobu 47 Tetsuya Yamaguchi 49 Aaron Poreda 50 Chiaki Tone 51 Takehiro Donoue 54 Hayato Takagi 58 Soichiro Tateoka 68 Daiki Yoshikawa 90 Kazuto Taguchi

Second squad	00 Takayuki Terauchi 0 Daisuke Fujimura 13 Ryota Katsuki 17 Kan Otake 18 Toshiya Sugiuchi 27 Kazunari Sanematsu 31 Tetsuya Matsumoto 32 Itaru Hashimoto 35 Kentaro Nishimura 36 Daisuke Nakai 44 Taishi Ohta 45 Nobutaka Imamura 46 Hirotaka Yonahara 48 Toshiyuki Yanuki 52 Shingo Usami 53 Genki Kawano 56 Yasuhiro Yamamoto 57 Katsuhiko Kumon 59 Yuki Koyama 60 Susumu Ohrui 61 Ren Wada 62 Yuki Egarashi 64 Masato Kiyashiki 65 Harutomo Tsuji 66 Atsushi Kita 67 Mizuki Tsuchida 69 Takuya Matsuzaki 91 Kota Nakagawa 92 Kentaro Taira 93 Daisuke Tatsumi 94 Hector Mendoza 99 Toru Anan

Coaching	Manager: 24 Yoshinobu Takahashi Second squad manager: 83 Masaki Saito

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