Chris Tillman = Batting Practice

[NattieO'sHon]

Palmer said his mechanics are all messed up. Needs to back down. I am hoping Bergy steps up on Sunday. Tillman has plenty of time. He is only 22

[mweb]

He's batting practice indeed - Hayden Penn part II. You can see it in his body language - no confidence. He can't locate and when he does he either telegraphs his curve or throws a 89-90 MPH fastball with no movement.

He'll be out of baseball soon if he keeps pitching like this.

Well you may turn out to be right about him, but it won't be due to the primary reason you kept giving which was his propensity to allow the ball to be elevated.

[ADZ23]

He's just not good enough for the majors. He has a pretty curve that occasionally gets over. That's it.

[O-The-Memories]

He's batting practice indeed - Hayden Penn part II. You can see it in his body language - no confidence. He can't locate and when he does he either telegraphs his curve or throws a 89-90 MPH fastball with no movement.

He'll be out of baseball soon if he keeps pitching like this.

For those that say he's 23 - he made his debut at 21 so it's not like he's a rookie. He's an old 23 He's got ML experience but he's not a ML pitcher.

We made excuse after excuse for Cabrera, and Penn etc, but the problem was they just couldn't be successful at the ML level.

He'll be out of baseball soon? What do you mean by "soon"? If he's not injured, he'll be in someones system for at least a few years. He has/had too much talent not too. I think he's hiding an injury guys. If an injury is causing this velocity drop that sucks.

[gallden]

The most alarming thing to me is his velo and how he doesn't have any. Maybe it's what SG mentioned that Palmer said and his mechanics are hopefully really jacked up. How hard has he thrown?

[blid]

He's 23 years old...

Wasn't he the guy just a few years ago who we expected to see at the front end of the rotation for years to come? I think it's still to early in his career to make assumptions.

Right -- we don't have to give up on him. But he's Not Ready.

[NattieO'sHon]

Did you guys hear what Palmer said when he came out of the game?

He talked about how out of whack his mechanics are.

If that is the case, then send him down and let him try to get it figured out with Griffin.

Connor said he never fixed a pitcher in the majors. He needs to go back down and figure it out. Can they just tell him to throw fastballs? He can throw 94 but can't locate. So they tell him you won't be in the big leagues till you do.

[slappy12]

I don't disagree but him not getting those calls clearly effected his approach. You could tell he was a little disrupted by it too...He hung his head a few times/glared at the ump.

Excuses. . .excuses

[Oriolesfan4life]

Yeah I agree that it is entirely way too early to consider Tillman a lost cause.

In regards to his velocity, he needs to get back up to being in the low to mid 90's if he indeed is healthy. It's one thing to have command problems when you're throwing 93 or 94 but its completely different when you throw 87-89 and still have those same command issues.

[NewMarketSean]

He seems to be missing something on the bridge to the majors since he always does well in AAA. But I don't see how you can justify running him out there when Bergesen is in the bullpen. BB is just a better pitcher, hands down. Tillman may have the higher ceiling, but his ceiling gets lower with each start. In the past I am sure Tillman would get 4-5 more starts. But with Buck here now I'll be surprised if Tillman makes 2 more after this.

[JTrea81]

Excuses. . .excuses

Exactly. We are out to win games now. Tillman clearly is not going to help us do that.

Matusz is still weeks away so Bergesen is our only hope.

But Tillman clearly will not be successful at the ML as he is now. Maybe he can figure it out, but we thought Penn and Cabrera would eventually figure it out as well. At the end of the day Tillman is likely to be another one of those pitchers we should have dealt when we had the chance IMO.

[Sports Guy]

Excuses. . .excuses

I'm not giving excuses...Just telling the truth. That's exactly what happened.

No reason for him to pitch as poorly as he did...There are a lot of mental issues with him it appears...and he apparently has some mechanical issues according to Palmer.

[Sports Guy]

Exactly. We are out to win games now. Tillman clearly is not going to help us do that.

Matusz is still weeks away so Bergesen is our only hope.

But Tillman clearly will not be successful at the ML as he is now. Maybe he can figure it out, but we thought Penn and Cabrera would eventually figure it out as well. At the end of the day Tillman is likely to be another one of those pitchers we should have dealt when we had the chance IMO.

No doubt about that.

He is young and has time..but the clock is ticking on him.

[UMDTerrapins]

I'm most concerned because he isn't throwing 95 with no command. He's throwing 89-90 with no command. He needs velocity or a GREAT changeup to be effective. But a 22 year old in Yankee Stadium who's had to think about this start for several days due to the weather....I'm going to cut him a little slack. If he tanks in his next start I think he should and will get some time at AAA.

[Emory Eagle]

He needs to get on some sort of crazy arm strengthening program and rework his mechanics. With his frame he should easily be hitting 90mph. Something is wrong. He's got a nice curve and a decent change, but that fastball has GOT to get better.