Will Baltimore Orioles SP Chris Tillman Finally Find His MLB Groove in 2012?

Chris Tillman is a very interesting case for the Baltimore Orioles.

Once thought of as a top pitching prospect for the Orioles, Tillman's value has free-falled over the last couple of seasons, particularly due to his inability to pitch effectively on a consistent basis at the major-league level.

It's a bit frustrating for both the players and the team to see Tillman pitch so well in the minors (including throwing a no-hitter at the AAA-level in April of 2010), but struggle so much when facing the top-dogs in the majors.

Will this be the year that Tillman figures it all out? Will he finally be able to translate his success from the minors leagues into MLB play?

After all, he is only 23-years-old.

That's still young for any player in baseball, so even though he's had a rough time pitching in the majors, there's no reason to believe he's a bust just yet (although it certainly seems as though he's heading in that direction).

Tillman's spent this offseason working out with former Oriole Brady Anderson, adding muscle to his frame.

Hopefully that muscle will translate into improved velocity, since he used to be able to reach the mid-90's easily, but was lucky to make it up to a very insignificant, 90 mph last year.

I personally don't see him making the Orioles out of spring training unless he has one of the best performances of any payer in camp this spring. More than likely, he'll start the year back at AAA Norfolk, and try to claw his way back to the bigs.

Still, it is possible that he could force manager Buck Showalter to have to manipulate the rotation in order to include Tillman in it. That would be a situation that any Orioles player, front office man or fan would love to see happen, in the hopes of Tillman finding some sort of rhythm in the majors..

Tillman will continue to get every opportunity to succeed at the MLB level from the Orioles, at least through this season.

Plenty of people in baseball are still high on him, even if the number of doubters has steadily increased.

Heck, I can't even say anymore whether I even believe he'll pan out or not. I'm just hoping that he will, for the Orioles sake as well as for himself.

He puts in the time and the effort.

"He deserves to see the fruit of his labor," as former Oriole Luke Scott stated it.

Tillman's failures aren't from a lack of effort, as he's been trying everything he can think of to help better himself as a pitcher. However, his mental outlook on himself and the game itself, could probably use some work.

I'm sure it's rough on a person's psyche when they go out and pitch great one game, but are lit up their next two outings.

Tillman needs to believe that he can do it, because in the end, as Yogi Berra said, "Baseball is 90 percent mental, the other half is physical."

Don't count Tillman out just yet. He's still got time to turn himself into an effective major-league pitcher.

Just don't count on him at this point, either.