Quietly, Chad Billingsley is becoming one of the best pitchers in the National League. A righthander out of Defiance, Ohio (same as Jon Niese – catching a theme here?), he was the winner in the Angel’s no-hit loss to the Dodgers a few days ago. Coming up on his 24th birthday later this month, he is slowly starting to put it all together.
Joe Torre told mlb.com that Chad has the stuff in his arm and head to be a number one starter…but this isn’t a rehash of that article. No, what is prompting this post is whthe reason why he is making progress; better command.
His WHiP (walks and hits per inning) is starting to come down, it is at 1.34 for the season, and more significantly, it is 1.22 in the last 10 games. This is lower than his career average and much less than the league average.
WHiP is basically, how many men are put on base. Oh, and one more thing, he has hit more batters this year than years past. That may indicate that he is pitching more inside (or it may indicate early season, wildness, I don’t know).
If you don’t put men on base, you have a better chance of succeeding. At 23, he is still learning to pitch. I predict, and you heard it here first, 2 years from now, starting with year 2010, Billingsley will be consistently in the top 10 for Cy Young for 5 consecutive years.
He’s big, he’s durable, his stuff is great and he’s young. Add command and you are talking top line, number 1 pitcher for years to come.
Tags: Angeles, baseball, Billingsley, Chad, Dodgers, Joe, Los, Torre
