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Detroit — Tarik Skubal is ready. That seems clear. The Tigers are champing at the bit to slot him back in the rotation. That is also obvious.
All that’s left now is to lift the gate and turn him loose.
“I feel like I got done what I needed to get done,” Skubal said of his five-inning, 54-pitch rehab start Sunday at West Michigan. “I slept great. I woke up yesterday feeling great. I feel great today. I have a bullpen (Wednesday) and hopefully that’s the last box I have to check before we make a decision.
“I expect everything to go well tomorrow and hopefully I am back.”
Barring any unforeseen setback, the only decision left is whether Skubal will start Friday at Cleveland or Saturday.
“Very encouraging,” manager AJ Hinch said of Skubal’s performance Sunday. “He looked exactly how he looked in his last live bullpens. The velo was good, the execution was good. The only difference was he had to walk to the bullpen after his last pitch to get some more volume.”
Skubal threw 15 extra pitches in the bullpen before calling it a night.
“That was fun to see,” Hinch said. “Just to see him competing with the freedom and no issues. After his bullpen tomorrow we will announce what’s next.”
More: Here's what Tigers ace Tarik Skubal said after Sunday's rehab start
Skubal had a unique arthroscopic procedure to remove a loose body in his elbow on May 6. The surgeon, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, used a smaller, less invasive needle to extract the loose body and gave Skubal a general timeline of four to six weeks.
If he starts this weekend, it will be five weeks.
“I don’t look at it like we’re ahead of schedule,” he said. “It’s not like we’ve been aggressive. If anything, we’ve been conservative. It was four weeks four or five days ago and technically, if we wanted to, I could’ve been back then.
“I think we’ve taken the right approach. Not aggressive. If my next start is at the five-week mark, then I think that’s the honey-hole of the four-to-six weeks. But I feel good, and that’s all that matters.”
More: An educated guess how Tigers will reintegrate Skubal, Mize, Verlander
Making his first start back against his postseason nemesis, the Guardians, at Progressive Field, well, that’s secondary.
“I’m sure if I wanted to make it something more, I could make it something more,” he said. “But I am going to go out and compete and be who I am. I need to keep the game of baseball just the game of baseball, especially not try to make up for the last five weeks that I’ve been gone. I can’t do that with one outing.
“That will be the challenge, just to keep the game the game and just go out and worry about executing pitches. I am just excited to be back.”
▶ First pitch: 6:40 p.m. Wednesday, Comerica Park, Detroit
▶ TV/Radio: Detroit Sports Net/97.1, 107.9 FM
Scouting report
▶ RHP Mike Paredes (0-0, 4.91), Twins (tentative): The Twins have not yet officially named their starter, but the 25-year-old Paredes is in line for at least bulk relief work in the absence of injured starter Bailey Ober. Teammates with Troy Melton at San Diego State, he’s gone 3.2 innings in his two outings with the Twins, throwing 65 and 70 pitches. He features a 93-mph four-seamer, 88-mph changeup and cutter and a 79-mph sweeper.
▶ LHP Framber Valdez (3-4, 4.21), Tigers: He had to grind to get through five innings against the Mariners last time out. It was his 18th start against them and most of their hitters were quite familiar with his work. That won’t be the case against the Twins, a team he has six starts against (4-2, 3.61). He’s had a hard time establishing his sinker this season. Though the metrics on the pitch are similar to last season when it had a plus-16 run value, it hasn’t been nearly as effective. Hitters are hitting .291 (expected batting average .307) and slugging .409 (expected slug, .506) against it. And his ground ball rate is a career-low 49.3%.
[email protected]
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit Tigers, Tarik Skubal ready to roll in Cleveland this weekend
Continue reading...
All that’s left now is to lift the gate and turn him loose.
“I feel like I got done what I needed to get done,” Skubal said of his five-inning, 54-pitch rehab start Sunday at West Michigan. “I slept great. I woke up yesterday feeling great. I feel great today. I have a bullpen (Wednesday) and hopefully that’s the last box I have to check before we make a decision.
“I expect everything to go well tomorrow and hopefully I am back.”
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Barring any unforeseen setback, the only decision left is whether Skubal will start Friday at Cleveland or Saturday.
“Very encouraging,” manager AJ Hinch said of Skubal’s performance Sunday. “He looked exactly how he looked in his last live bullpens. The velo was good, the execution was good. The only difference was he had to walk to the bullpen after his last pitch to get some more volume.”
Skubal threw 15 extra pitches in the bullpen before calling it a night.
“That was fun to see,” Hinch said. “Just to see him competing with the freedom and no issues. After his bullpen tomorrow we will announce what’s next.”
More: Here's what Tigers ace Tarik Skubal said after Sunday's rehab start
Skubal had a unique arthroscopic procedure to remove a loose body in his elbow on May 6. The surgeon, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, used a smaller, less invasive needle to extract the loose body and gave Skubal a general timeline of four to six weeks.
If he starts this weekend, it will be five weeks.
“I don’t look at it like we’re ahead of schedule,” he said. “It’s not like we’ve been aggressive. If anything, we’ve been conservative. It was four weeks four or five days ago and technically, if we wanted to, I could’ve been back then.
“I think we’ve taken the right approach. Not aggressive. If my next start is at the five-week mark, then I think that’s the honey-hole of the four-to-six weeks. But I feel good, and that’s all that matters.”
More: An educated guess how Tigers will reintegrate Skubal, Mize, Verlander
Making his first start back against his postseason nemesis, the Guardians, at Progressive Field, well, that’s secondary.
“I’m sure if I wanted to make it something more, I could make it something more,” he said. “But I am going to go out and compete and be who I am. I need to keep the game of baseball just the game of baseball, especially not try to make up for the last five weeks that I’ve been gone. I can’t do that with one outing.
“That will be the challenge, just to keep the game the game and just go out and worry about executing pitches. I am just excited to be back.”
Tigers vs. Twins
▶ First pitch: 6:40 p.m. Wednesday, Comerica Park, Detroit
▶ TV/Radio: Detroit Sports Net/97.1, 107.9 FM
Scouting report
▶ RHP Mike Paredes (0-0, 4.91), Twins (tentative): The Twins have not yet officially named their starter, but the 25-year-old Paredes is in line for at least bulk relief work in the absence of injured starter Bailey Ober. Teammates with Troy Melton at San Diego State, he’s gone 3.2 innings in his two outings with the Twins, throwing 65 and 70 pitches. He features a 93-mph four-seamer, 88-mph changeup and cutter and a 79-mph sweeper.
▶ LHP Framber Valdez (3-4, 4.21), Tigers: He had to grind to get through five innings against the Mariners last time out. It was his 18th start against them and most of their hitters were quite familiar with his work. That won’t be the case against the Twins, a team he has six starts against (4-2, 3.61). He’s had a hard time establishing his sinker this season. Though the metrics on the pitch are similar to last season when it had a plus-16 run value, it hasn’t been nearly as effective. Hitters are hitting .291 (expected batting average .307) and slugging .409 (expected slug, .506) against it. And his ground ball rate is a career-low 49.3%.
[email protected]
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit Tigers, Tarik Skubal ready to roll in Cleveland this weekend
Continue reading...
