Detroit Tigers: Tarik Skubal Breaks Into Top 100 Prospect List
By Tyler Kotila
The Detroit Tigers are known for their pitching prospects like Casey Mize and Matt Manning, but Tarik Skubal just jumped onto the MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospects list.
By now, Detroit Tigers fans should know that Casey Mize is the organization’s best prospect and Matt Manning is the next best pitcher. All the buzz constantly surrounds Mize and Manning; even Alex Faedo gets more buzz than the latest addition to the MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospect list.
Tarik Skubal is a player who has not had nearly the amount of eyes on him like Mize has, but is now becoming a legitimate asset to an already strong pitching prospect group. The big questions are… who is he? And what will he become?
#100 ranked MLB prospect Tarik Skubal, LHP, Double-A Erie Seawolves
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Skubal was selected first overall in the ninth round of the 2018 Amateur Draft being labeled as one of the biggest “steals” of the 2018 draft. Skubal is currently stationed with the Double-A Erie Seawolves in Erie, Pennsylvania on a staff that has the #2 MLB Prospect on the roster in Casey Mize. Skubal is twenty-two years old, and a southpaw. He has really excelled his development this year which has helped him vault his way onto the MLB Pipeline Top 100 list.
With the Double-A Erie squad, Skubal has managed a 1-1 record through six starts while posting a 1.86 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, and sixty punch outs through twenty-nine innings pitched. Skubal spent some time with the High-A club as well but was promoted to the Double-A Erie club where he remains as of late. Skubal is rated as the sixth-best prospect in the Tigers organization, according to Fangraphs.
Skubal has been assigned a 45 grade “future value” according to Fangraphs with his fastball and change-up being his best assets with 50/55 grade values. Skubal is known to attack hitters with his fastball which has been a go-to for him this season which has allowed him to get plenty of strikeouts and outs in general.
Being an “under the radar” type of guy has only worked in Skubal’s favor as he has jumped onto the prospect list by being so dominant on the mound. If Skubal continues to mow down hitters and turn heads, there’s a good chance the Detroit Tigers are looking at ANOTHER highly ranked pitching prospect. This is great, but there’s just one issue with all that.
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The Tigers have so many pitching prospects that they should focus more on better their positional players in the farm system so that they can contend sooner rather than later. Having 1000 pitching prospects is not going to be the best when the hitters’ are not developing at the same rate, and the hitting is way behind the success of the pitching.