Dontrelle Willis

Effectively wild, anyone familiar with the term?

It's a slang for a pitcher whose stuff is all over the place, yet effectively so to the point that he is able to get outs.

It happens when the batters have no idea what to expect in the batter's box. They step to the plate thinking that they might get walked, beaned, homer or strikeout, anything really, because the pitcher is so unpredictable.

Dontrelle Willis still can’t get the ball over the plate. Maybe he never will.

It’s not looking good for Mr. Willis, who’s desperately trying to show the Tigers—and the baseball world—that 2008 was simply nothing more than a ghoulish, chilling nightmare, not the start of the end.

Willis came to the Tigers in Dec. 2007 in the same trade that brought Miguel Cabrera from the Florida Marlins. He was thought to be a major addition to a rotation that needed one more live arm. Willis wasn’t that far removed from a 22-win season.