Tillman Tonight

[TGO]

This written to sound as if 95 pitches through six innings is something really bad. That's around 15 pitches an inning. Essentially what Gio Gonzalez (7 ip, 106 pitches), Drabek (7 ip, 113 pitches), Hellickson (6ip , 104 pitches), Buchholz (5 ip, 87 pitches), and Jiminez (6 ip, 107 pitches) threw last night, all in solid efforts.

It seems like you have slightly flawed expectations as to pitch/inning rates. Also, we don;t really know why Tillman is being pulled in some circumstances -- if he's working on things, they would not be riding him as deep as he can go, but rather putting him on a target schedule that allows him to accomplish what he's trying to do.

Exactly. This obviously is an extreme hypothetical but what if he was asked to throw 95 change ups?

[Gurgi]

If someone can figure out Tillman and make him a nugget on the big league level that guy deserves a big raise.

[Tony-OH]

I'll never say never because sometimes you don't know if guys will suddenly get it, but Tillman continues to use a lot of pitches to get guys out and he's most likely never going to be consistent enough to go deep in games as a starter. I'm encouraged by Tillmans' velocity boost this season (at least this spring) and his one inning of work where he sat 95-96 was pretty encouraging for moving him to the pen. I always understand the desire to keep trying guys as a starter because they hold more value in that role, and we know that Petersen has taken an interest him, but at the end of the day, Tillman's value will most likely be determined by his ability to pitch often out of the pen. The only way to know how he will rebound is to try him in the minors, so I disagree with the people who say you can just stick him in the pen in the major leagues. You can if you are going to use him as a long man, but if you have hopes of him becoming a setup guy or possibly even a closer one day, then he needs to be able to pitch often and occasionally on back to back games.

It's better for him to do that in the minor league first.

BTW, as for Johnson, at some point he's going to earn a chance to start in the big leagues. Like his father, scouts are never going to wowed by him, but he's smart pitcher and if keeps getting AAA guys out, he may end up with a chance up here before the year's out.

[ccbird]

This written to sound as if 95 pitches through six innings is something really bad. That's around 15 pitches an inning. Essentially what Gio Gonzalez (7 ip, 106 pitches), Drabek (7 ip, 113 pitches), Hellickson (6ip , 104 pitches), Buchholz (5 ip, 87 pitches), and Jiminez (6 ip, 107 pitches) threw last night, all in solid efforts.

It seems like you have slightly flawed expectations as to pitch/inning rates. Also, we don;t really know why Tillman is being pulled in some circumstances -- if he's working on things, they would not be riding him as deep as he can go, but rather putting him on a target schedule that allows him to accomplish what he's trying to do.

95 isn't bad through 6 innings but it's not great either. The point was it's pretty much the best you'll see Tillman do when it comes to limiting pitch count and it's very rare for him to actually do it. The other point I would argue is it seems Tillman has really struggles once he gets to that 90-100 pitch mark. Just going on most of the starts I've seen of him in the bigs and looking over his game logs I see a lot of logs that say he started an inning and couldn't finish. It seems he doesn't really have the stamina to pitch deep into games as he wears down somewhere in that 90-100 pitch range. 7.1 is the furthest he has ever gone in a ML game and he's only got through 7 complete innings 3 times in 36 ML starts.

[ccbird]

If Peterson knows it, he sure isn't saying so. I'm going to be a little more patient and let Tillman keep working on things for the next 2-3 months. He's been maddening to follow for the last 4 seasons, and I have far less optimism now than I did in 2009-10, but if Peterson says he sees mechanical things that he thinks can straighten Tillman out, then I'm willing to wait to see if he's right, even though I'm not holding my breath.

What do you expect Peterson to say, especially about a former top prospect. The chances of him figuring it out are so low that I'm very confident saying he's not going to make it as a ML starter. I'll happily say I'm wrong if some miracle occurs.

[CA-ORIOLE]

What do you expect Peterson to say, especially about a former top prospect. The chances of him figuring it out are so low that I'm very confident saying he's not going to make it as a ML starter. I'll happily say I'm wrong if some miracle occurs.

Yeah, I don't see it either and that's conceding that Tillman looked in ST like he actually made some improvements in the past couple of years. I guess if guys like Peterson and Stotle still see something there as a starter, we can look at it further, but I'd like to see Tillman perform in his role as a relief pitcher at the ML level this year rather than wait until next year when he has no options. I guess that depends where we are in the standings by the end of the year.

[OFFNY]

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CHRIS TILLMAN O(MAY 21st)

IP:o 5.33

H:o. 8

R:O. 4

BB:. 2

SO:. 4

Pitches: 93 (61 Strikes, 32 Balls)

2012 ERA: 5.01

All 4 Pawsox runs off of Tillman were scored in the 2nd inning.

[Lucky Jim]

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CHRIS TILLMAN O(MAY 21st)

IP:o 5.33

H:o. 8

R:O. 4

BB:. 2

SO:. 4

Pitches: 93 (61 Strikes, 32 Balls)

2012 ERA: 5.01

All 4 Pawsox runs off of Tillman were scored in the 2nd inning.

Infuriating. Ha.

Ah, well. Just hope Peterson knows what he's talking about.

[Skeletor]

I'd still rather see Tillman starting than Hunter.

[kyleott]

It really seems like every one of his lines is underwhelmingly identical (this sentence was as good a time as any in history to create the word 'underwhelmingly').

[byrdz]

R-e-l-i-e-v-e-r

Agreed.

[SoBo]

Is it possible that Tillman is actually working on his adjustments and getting knocked around? Instead of reverting back to his old habits that are effective against AAA hitters but get him in trouble in the show? Just a thought...

[OFFNY]

Is it possible that Tillman is actually working on his adjustments and getting knocked around? Instead of reverting back to his old habits that are effective against AAA hitters but get him in trouble in the show? Just a thought ...

CHRIS TILLMAN O(MAY 11th)

Pitches: 95 (58 Strikes, 37 Balls)

CHRIS TILLMAN O(MAY 16th)

Pitches: 95 (60 Strikes, 35 Balls)

CHRIS TILLMAN O(MAY 21st)

Pitches: 93 (61 Strikes, 32 Balls)

[NewMarketSean]

I'd hate to see the O's lose Tillman next year without giving him a legit shot out of the bullpen, but it's coming to the point where it may not matter.

With Adam Jones playing the way he has been, it's hard to believe that Tillman was considered the big piece of the Bedard trade.

He's shown flashes of quality, but overall he has been a major disappointment.

[OFFNY]

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CHRIS TILLMAN O(May 26th)

IP:o 6

H:o. 5

R:O. 2

BB:. 3

SO:. 6

Pitches: 96 (54 Strikes, 42 Balls)

2012 ERA: 4.78