Detroit Tigers Ace Has Been Even Better Than Bold Prediction Expected
The Detroit Tigers ace has surpassed even the wildest expectations set for him entering the season.
Ahead of the start to the MLB season, ESPN's baseball staff came up with at least one prediction for every team in the league. For the Tigers, David Schoenfield came up with a bold guess on how Tarik Skubal's season would pan out.
"With Gerrit Cole missing the start of the season, the AL Cy Young race is wide open. How about Skubal?" Schoenfield continued, "Just doubling his stats from last season makes him a strong contender: 30 starts, 2.80 ERA, 200-plus strikeouts, .199 batting average, 14 wins. He wins the award."
The writer ended up being right about the Cy Young award. Even though the award hasn't been handed out, Skubal is a lock to take the honors home. He actually undershot just how good the southpaw would be en route to winning the award.
The 27-year-old set career highs in virtually every category as he walked out of the regular season as the AL Triple Crown winner.
He showcased the ability to make it through a season as he started a career-high 31 games. He appeared in 31 games back in 2021, but pitched over 40 less innings.
Given the regularity of pitcher injuries nowadays and the fact that the past two seasons of Skubal's career had been cut short due to injuries, there was at least some worry about his chances of being a workhorse pitcher.
The California native held strong this year, though, making him available to be a key cog in this outstanding postseason run.
Of those 31 starts, 18 ended up being counted as wins. That's two more than the three-way tie for second place at 16. Detroit won 21 total games that their ace started.
Skubal could have likely taken the Cy Young award home if he matched the stellar mark of 2.80 yet again, but he upped the ante with a 2.39 ERA this season. He actually only got up over 2.80 once this campaign and that was after the second game.
The next lowest ERA among AL starters was Houston Astros breakout Ronel, who did have a 2.80 mark.
While he did surpass 200 strikeouts, easily, his per inning numbers actually lowered this season. It was a solid trade-off, though, as he forced worse contact on a regular basis.
Schoenfield deserves credit for calling him to continue playing at a high level, as no one could have expected Skubal to be just this good this season.
