Tillman and Hyde

(Icon Sports Media)

It seemed like last night, on my drive home from downtown (kickball not the baseball game), everyone wanted to talk about Chris Tillman. Surprisingly, even after a good performance against a weak lineup in the Mariners, it seemed like most people were still down on him. That is, except for Steve Melewski of MASN/105.7 who apparently thinks he's the second coming and was staunchly defending him. Obviously Steve and Keith Law don't see eye to eye on the current subject. Also, just as a side note, the people who call into 105.7 post game, pregame and pretty much all hours of the day, in general, are retarded. I know that's not politically correct, but I can't think of a more appropriate word to describe this group. So I'm going with it.

In reality, I'm not sure anyone knows what we've got in Chris. His stat line is a roller coaster ride. So far, when he's good, he's decent but not great. And when he's bad, he's really bad. Sitting on a 6.15 ERA and 1.54 WHIP, it's clear the bad games have more than hurt him.

Obviously, what you want out of a starting pitcher is consistency - to know that at the very least every time he takes the mound the team's got a shot to win. Chris has been the epitome of inconstant, but he's young, so let's forget about that because there's no debate there. What I'm more concerned about is the lack of velocity combined with a lack of command. You can lose one or the other, but if you don't have either, as Keith Law put it, "You're throwing batting practice" (Mr. Melewski suggested last night that you have to have command to be successful to which I will retort with Liriano's no-hitter the other night).

The fact is that Tillman sees himself as a power pitcher and has been pitching that way throughout his minor league career (when he had a mid to low 90's fastball). He's never been known for his command and, frankly, that's been one of the biggest knocks on him over the years. Too many walks, too many men on base. It's an odds thing. You keep spinning the cylinder and pulling the trigger, eventually that bullet is going to chamber. Chris only allowed 7 base runners in 6 innings last night by my count. He had his command. But I don't think it will last. A tiger's not going to change his stripes but on some nights he might wear a jacket.

So, when Chris steps to the mound for his next start and he doesn't have the best command and he's throwing 89 MPH straight as an arrow fastballs over the middle of the plate, what do you think is going to happen?