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Former MLB pitcher Dan Petry breaks down Detroit Tigers' rotation, including Tarik Skubal
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- Former MLB pitcher Dan Petry breaks down Detroit Tigers' rotation, including Tarik Skubal
Former MLB pitcher Dan Petry has a wealth of knowledge about baseball.
More specifically, he is an expert in pitching.
Petry, an analyst for Bally Sports Detroit , posted a 3.95 ERA in more than 2,000 innings across 13 MLB seasons, from 1979-91. Petry, now 65, spent 11 of those seasons with the Detroit Tigers , including a 1984 World Series championship.
Detroit Tigers pitcher Dan Petry.
THE ACE: How Tigers' Tarik Skubal matured into an Opening Day ace with Cy Young potential
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Petry talked to the Free Press, joining a recent episode of the "Days of Roar" podcast , about his evaluations of the Tigers' starting pitchers in the 2024 season. (On the podcast, Petry also discussed Spencer Torkelson 's struggles, the overall performance of the 2024 Tigers, the 1984 World Series team, his near 1,000-inning workload from 1982-85 and how he got his "Peaches" nickname.)
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What are your thoughts on Tarik Skubal ? (Skubal, an American League Cy Young Award candidate, has a 1.92 ERA with 15 walks and 96 strikeouts across 79⅔ innings in 13 starts.)
"So many things to say about him. From when he first started to where he is now, it's so much different. You knew how good he was when he first came up, and how hard he threw, and then he had his slider, and then he was just tweaking the slider a little bit. He got hurt, and then all of a sudden, he develops this changeup that just put him over the top. He's still throwing the same velocity, in that mid-to-upper 90s, but that slider has become a pitch that sometimes he'll get back into a count with or keep hitters off the fastball and changeup. It's that fastball-changeup combination that is just unhittable the way he pairs each of those two fastballs, the four-seam and the sinker, on the outside part of the plate, on the inside part of the plate. One of the other things that he does with that changeup, too, is he doesn't pronate it. He grips it and lets it go. Not only does it go down-and-away from right-handed hitters, but he can throw it inside also, so as much as he uses that fastball inside, that changeup he throws inside, too, so hitters can't just sit on the fastball inside. He's using all of those to both sides of the plate. I think that's what makes him so tough."
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Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal (29) throws a pitch against the Milwaukee Brewers in the second inning at Comerica Park in Detroit on Sunday, June 9, 2024.
Skubal prioritizes throwing first-pitch strikes and working quickly, and once a hitter gets down in the count, it's going to be a long plate appearance.
"One of the things to point out about Tarik that I get very impressed with is he consistently talks to me and asks me questions, but he wants to go deep into games. It's first-pitch strikes and getting guys out quickly. He's coming right after you. If you put it in play, great, but his idea is to get you out of there as quickly as possible to try to keep his pitch count down, so he can at least go seven innings. I know he wants to go more, which you don't see. That's another thing. Keep him strong for September. I know he wants to go deep into games, but all those 100- and 110-pitch outings that you're going to get trying to go deep into games in May and June are going to take that much more out of you in August and September. They're handling him perfectly right now in that pitch-count range, but it's a big thing for him that I absolutely love, that he wants to go deep into games."
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FPS: Tigers' Tarik Skubal is dominating thanks to his obsession with first-pitch strikes
Former Detroit Tigers player Dan Petry, center, speaks at a panel discussion during The Roar of '84 world premiere at Beacon Park in Detroit, Thursday, April 11, 2019. Next to him is teammate Dave Rozema and Kirk Gibson.
If Skubal stays healthy, what can he be, when all is said and done with his career?
"Health certainly is the big thing. He's had them all. He's already had Tommy John. He's had the flexor tendon. You just knock on wood wherever there's wood that he can continue to stay healthy for a nice stretch. If something happens to him in 10 years from now, then readjust, but hopefully, he can have a nice stretch and a good number of years staying healthy. He's young. He's going to throw like this for several more years to come."
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How about your thoughts on Jack Flaherty ? (Flaherty, who signed a one-year, $14 million contract in the offseason, has a 3.22 ERA with 10 walks and 94 strikeouts across 72⅔ innings in 12 starts.)
"Isn't it kind of amazing? He's one of those best-kept secrets. Tarik Skubal is getting all of the attention, and Jack Flaherty, all he does is follow Tarik Skubal and go out there and pitch really, really well. I think the interesting thing is, when it gets down to that trade deadline, what do you do with him? That's a pretty good piece. He was traded last year from St. Louis to Baltimore . Do you dare do that again, like they did with Michael Lorenzen (last season), and try to get pieces back? Or do you try to sign him and try to extend him while you still have him? Right now, he looks like a top of the rotation kind of guy."
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Tigers pitcher Jack Flaherty throws during the fourth inning against the Rangers on Tuesday, June 4, 2024, in Arlington, Texas.
OK, put your general manager cap on. What would you do?
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"I'll put on my player hat, too, and say, 'Well, wait a minute. I bet on myself this year. I'm still only 28. Do I want to test the free-agent market?' That's where it gets interesting. It's Scott Harris saying, 'We'd love to have you back, here's what we're thinking.' And Jack Flaherty says, 'I like it here in Detroit. I like the guys. I think the future looks really bright, but I'm going to test free agency.' That's where the big game comes into play between the organization and Jack Flaherty."
What stands out to you about Reese Olson ? (Olson has a 3.43 ERA with 21 walks and 58 strikeouts across 65⅔ innings in 12 starts, but in his first 10 starts, he had a 1.92 ERA.)
"He's a guy, he doesn't say anything. He's so quiet. He comes in and is under the radar. The numbers that he's put up, other than the win-loss record, which we all know about the run support not being there and everything, but he just goes out there and pitches solid game after game after game. That's the thing about him. It doesn't matter what lineup teams throw at him, he's got the stuff to combat it. A lot of times, you go up against a team that throws a lot of right-handed hitters at you. Well, he's got the stuff to attack that. If they throw a lot of left-handed hitters at you, he's got stuff to attack that. If he's got a mixture, he can adjust in-game to how he's throwing to both sides of the plate. That's what I think makes him so good. He's got that four- or five-pitch mix, it gets to the plate and goes in all different directions. I call it scattering. It comes to the plate, goes right. It comes to the plate, goes left. It comes to the plate, goes straight down. There are so many different things that he can make do that's very hard to hit. You can't cover everything. Well, how do you cover one side of the plate when the ball is coming in and going every which direction. That's what I think makes him so hard to hit."
Are you concerned with what you're seeing from Casey Mize ? (Mize, who missed last season recovering from back surgery and elbow surgery, has a 4.73 ERA with 18 walks and 39 strikeouts across 59 innings in 12 starts.)
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"We're talking about a guy that really hadn't pitched for two years. He's the No. 1 overall pick. You think that you flip a light switch and everything comes back to being on top of the world. I think that's what's going on with Casey right now. There's a lot of different things that he's trying to figure out. I got to elevate my fastball and throw my curve off it. Right-handed hitters are hitting the ball away, and I've got to come in a little bit more, and then he comes in a little bit more, and they hit those pitches. Is it my slider that is my go-to secondary pitch? Or is it my split-finger? I think it's a matter of him retraining himself to be the pitcher that he is. That's what I think. His velocity is the thing that he's most proud of right now. He's really happy with that. That's the one thing you can't teach. You can't teach how to throw 95 to 98. Now, it's throwing all of the secondary pitches off that and executing. You can throw the secondary pitches, but you have to execute them. I think he's relearning how to execute all those pitches to right-handed hitters, as well as left-handed hitters."
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Inside the Detroit Tigers' rotation, and Tarik Skubal with Dan Petry
