Week in review: Talking free agent pitchers, realignment and Chris Tillman

As we look back at the last week of blog entries in this space, today we welcome more comments on some of those said entries. Monday we reviewed another three free agent pitchers in this space, taking a looking at Tyler Chatwood, Andrew Casher and Miguel González.

Chatwood is a right-hander that will be 28 on opening day. While he went 8-15 with a 4.69 ERA for Colorado, he posted much better numbers on the road. That provides hope that a team signing him and getting him out of Coors Field might get much better results when he doesn't have to pitch in that park. Last season, Chatwood went 3-8 with a 6.01 ERA at home and 5-7 with a 3.49 ERA on the road. His career home ERA is 5.25 and his career ERA on the road is 3.31.

Cashner went 11-11 with a 3.40 ERA for Texas and will be 31 on opening day. After July 1, his ERA was 3.02 and that ranked seventh in the American League in that span. For the season, he ranked ninth in the AL in ERA, second in homers per nine innings (0.8), seventh in pitches per inning (15.8) and groundball percentage (49.0).

González went 8-13 with a 4.62 ERA over 156 innings between the White Sox and Rangers. He had a combined 15 quality starts for the two clubs. With the Orioles from 2012-15, he went 39-33 with a 3.82 ERA.

MLBTradeRumors.com listed Cashner as its No. 27 free agent available on its top 50 list. The outlet predicted he would get a two-year, $20 million deal with Oakland. Chatwood was rated No. 29 and the prediction was for a three-year deal worth $20 million with the Phillies. González was not ranked among the top 50.

On Wednesday, we took a look at a realignment plan for Major League Baseball. It would produce four divisions of eight teams each in one league after MLB added two expansion teams. It would reduce the number of games to 156 while increasing the number of playoff teams to 12. The Orioles would play in a division along with Atlanta, Cincinnati, Miami, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay and Washington.

On Friday, we took a look at Chris Tillman's 2017 season and the possibility he could return to the Orioles next season. Now a free agent, Tillman went 1-7 with an ERA of 7.84. He allowed 12.1 hits per nine innings, 2.3 homers per nine innings, 4.9 walks per nine innings and 6.1 strikeouts per nine innings. Too many walks, too many hits allowed, too many longballs. He went 0-3 with an 8.69 ERA in 10 games versus AL East teams. And his WHIP was a staggering 1.892. But can Tillman recapture the form he showed from 2012 to 2016? He was the Orioles' opening day starter for three straight seasons starting in 2014.

Good showing for the O's prospects: In the Arizona Fall League's Fall Stars Game last night, Ryan Mountcastle went 1-for-2 with a double and an RBI. Tanner Scott pitched two scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Check out his slider, which looked nasty.

Tanner the terrific!@Orioles No. 6 prospect Tanner Scott struck out the side in a 💪 Fall Stars Game performance. https://t.co/QRePh0bOcZ pic.twitter.com/v5xe5U9BTG

-- MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) November 5, 2017