MLB Spring Training 2012: Cleveland Indians' Josh Tomlin Improving Pitches

Cleveland Indians pitcher Josh Tomlin is working diligently in spring training to improve his pitching.

In his first outing of practice in spring training, he threw nine pitches that led to three outs.

Indians manager Manny Acta seemed to be highly impressed with Tomlin's performance, and stated that he has command and good location, saying that he is pitching as though he were in mid-season form already.

Tomlin is typically strong right from the start of his pitching. As his pitch counts increase, batters begin to better anticipate his pitches and he gets into some trouble.

Tomlin will spend spring training working on his pitch sequence in an effort to confuse batters and rid himself of that problem. He wants to keep them guessing.

He had a strong 2011 season with a win-loss record of 12-7, 89 strikeouts, a WHIP of 1.129 and a 4.25 ERA in 165.1 innings pitched.

During the season, he pitched strongly and successfully until his pitch count began to rise. The further he pitched and the more his pitch count rose, the more success batters had against him.

Tomlin will focus his spring training workouts practicing throwing different pitches than he's used to earlier in pitch counts. One of his goals is to try to get batters to chase pitches and get quick outs.

He has looked good so far this spring training, but it is still much too early to know if the changes he has made will produce the desired results. His first outing was impressive, and the Cleveland organization hopes that these changes will be successful.

They have a good plan of attack with Tomlin, and it should help him this season when he finds himself in tougher pitch counts.