Attack, Chris Tillman, Attack!

After watching Chris Tillman last night, time for me to state the obvious, with graphs.

The first is from Tillman's disastrous outing last night. The second is from his masterful performance against the Rangers on July 10th.

PitchFx graphs courtesy of BrooksBaseball.net...)

A few observations...

1) Tillman was wilder last night, not around the zone as much as he was against Texas.

2) Tillman got behind and had to groove more balls late in the count.

3) The balls Tillman threw in the zone last night were basically in the same distribution as they were against the Rangers

The thing that I take away from this is this: Tillman's stuff plays in the zone. He didn't get hit because his stuff was "up in the zone" or "right down the middle". He can work there. His stuff is that good. If he attacks the zone, he will be fine most nights. Hey Chris! Attack the zone!.

Easier said than done obviously. He is either not throwing in the zone because he is a bit gun shy or that he has mechanical issues that affect his control and he can't throw it across the plate without taking something off his pitches. Either way, the pitching coach should be trying to give Tillman the confidence to go after hitters aggressively or correcting whatever flaws he has in his delivery so that he can hit the zone more consistently. Maybe that guy should be Norfolk pitching coach Mike Griffin since he seems to be the only one to guide these guys to any sort of success.