Detroit Tigers: The most encouraging stat for each starting pitcher

Detroit Tigers RHP Casey Mize: 0% Cutter Usage

Scrapping the cutter has been the lynchpin to Casey Mize’s improvement. When the pitch was good, it did a nice job of keeping hitters honest and would yield weak contact regularly, which in turn kept his pitch counts shiny.

In 2020, his cutter got squared quite a bit and lacked consistency. When it doesn’t move as intended, it’s essentially a batting practice fastball and despite its .244 average against, the expected batting average was .344, suggesting some luck that likely would not have lasted in a full season. Instead, he’s created another variation of the split-finger and leveraged his slurve more; both of which are rare offerings in today’s game.

Detroit Tigers LHP Tarik Skubal: 12.37 Strikeouts Per Nine in May

Some were spooked by Skubal’s start. In April, he walked 14 in 22 innings while striking out just 18 and allowing a whopping eight home runs. It led many to wonder if this was the real Skubal, who did have a past of wildness before surging up rankings in the prospect community.

After a brief bullpen stint, though, Skubal has regained form across his 16 innings in May thus far; striking out 22 and walking just five. For a left-hander with the stuff that Skubal has, he should certainly be missing more bats and averaging at least a strikeout per inning. The high strikeouts and low walks give encouraging peripherals to an otherwise pedestrian 4.50 ERA in May.