Billy Burns, Brandon Miller Promoted

The Potomac Nationals announced today that OF Billy Burns has been promoted to Harrisburg. Taking his place on the P-Nats roster is OF Brandon Miller, who was also promoted from Hagerstown.

Burns becomes the ninth P-Nat to get the bump this season, but just the second position player. He’s currently riding a 24-game hit streak, which has been aided by a recent propensity to get hit by pitches as he’s twice left the game without an official at-bat, which is one of the exceptions of the hitting-streak rule (10.24b).

For the season, Burns is hitting .308/.417/.387 with 51 stolen bases and 68 runs scored, which is first and tied for second respectively in the Carolina League. Burns was drafted in the 32nd round of the 2011 First Year Player draft out of Mercer University (Georgia) and has played the past two seasons at Auburn and Hagerstown.

Most notably, Burns resumed switch-hitting last season after abandoning it in college, a rather odd decision for an undersized outfielder (listed very, very generously at 5’9″) whose primary weapon is his speed. In the past few weeks, he’s been spotted trying to reduce his reliance on small-ball in favor of turning gap hits into doubles and triples, which he’s obviously had some success doing (five 2B three 3B in July).

Brandon Miller will take his place in Woodbridge, but will presumably continue to play right field where he can leverage his throwing arm as some 14 Sally League runners have walked off the field when trying to take the extra base against the former catcher. Miller has led the Suns all year long in HRs (18), RBIs (72), and strikeouts (135), totals that currently place him tied for fourth, second and tied for second in the Sally League batting leaderboard.

Replacing Miller on the Suns roster is utilityman Wes Schill, who was activated from the Hagerstown DL (placed on it eight days ago). Likewise, Brian Goodwin, who had missed the previous three games with a “stomach ailment” per Dave Sottile of PennLive.com was placed on the 7-Day DL to make room for Burns in Harrisburg.