Skubal not phoning it in: 'Every throw is valuable'

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Every time Tarik Skubal pitches in a game, he goes to his phone later. It's not for text messages or games. It's to take notes.

It's the Tigers prospect's equivalent of the J.D. Martinez notebook.

"I keep a little note on my phone of outings, good or bad," Skubal said. "And then going into bullpen [sessions], I'll re-read it if I'm trying to work on something or I didn't like something from my outing. That way, I'm never just wasting a day. I feel like you can't get those days back.

"It's funny, because eventually you read them all and it's like a lot of the same things you're working with are consistent through all of them. That's just all lack of focus, I think."

Skubal has learned focus from his battle back from Tommy John surgery at Seattle University to his rapid rise up the Tigers' farm system last season, earning him the 46th spot on MLB Pipeline's Top 100 prospect list after ranking 20th in Detroit's rankings going into last season. He ranks as the club's No. 4 prospect this year and likes to waste time about as much as he likes to waste pitches.

"Every throw is valuable," Skubal said, from playing catch to pitching in a game.

A year ago, he was a big left-hander in Minor League camp converting back to starting after nine relief appearances in 2018, none above Class A West Michigan. On Monday, he was again the talk of Tigers camp, this time dominating a Red Sox lineup that didn't include many stars but had a good mix of proven Major Leaguers and prospects.

A Kevin Plawecki walk was the lone baserunner Skubal allowed in two innings. When Bobby Dalbec, who is ranked the Red Sox's No. 3 prospect, stepped to the plate, having nearly cleared the berm in left-center field a couple innings earlier, Skubal made his final throws valuable.

Having put Dalbec in a 1-2 count with back-to-back 95-mph fastballs, Skubal kicked up his leg, turned to the plate and delivered his hardest fastball for his 28th and final pitch of the afternoon.

"I was going up in the zone," Skubal said, "so I was just [thinking], 'If I'm going to miss, it better be hard.'"

Skubal's fastball hit 98 mph on the Joker Marchant Stadium radar gun as Dalbec swung and missed. It marked the second time this spring Skubal hit 98, and it resulted in his third strikeout of the day.

"I start looking in the stands," manager Ron Gardenhire said, referring to general manager Al Avila and the rest of the front office, "and they're all just turning their faces away from me. I'm not going to win that one, no matter what. But I love watching him pitch.

"He's got a lot of ability, let's put it that way. And he's got a bright future."

Gardenhire didn't know much about Skubal until this camp. All he knew was second hand from others in organization. Gardenhire knew about fellow top prospects Casey Mize and Matt Manning, but he heard some in the organization tell him Skubal could be better.

For this spring, they're on par. One Detroit pitcher mentioned Skubal's fastball with Mize's splitter as two of the nastiest pitches in Tigers camp.

Skubal and Mize, fittingly, are housemates for this camp. They'll talk baseball at times, but "not a whole lot," Skubal said. It's more of a respite for them both, with Mize's wife providing much of the cooking.

"Amazing," Skubal said. "MVP of Spring Training."