The teams wearing purple have been cooking this offseason when it comes to new colorways and helmets. First the Minnesota Vikings revealed their icy white jerseys, now the Baltimore Ravens unveiled a new alternate helmet they’ll wear with their purple jerseys, and they look AWESOME.
These helmets are super cool. I think the logo is actually pretty fun despite the ClipArt-ish look to it, but the true star of the show is the gold on the helmet mixed with the purple. Like, that’s unbelievably cool and it works so well together. The gold stripes going down the helmet help to highlight the gold face mask is super dope, and it ties in the gold on the numbers as well.
The Ravens haven’t unveiled when these helmets will be worn, but best believe that when they do wear them for the first time I’ll be there no matter what.
The Boston Celtics have a chance Monday night to capture their 18th NBA Finals title. And they are putting it all on the line in pursuit of that championship.
Literally.
With the minutes ticking down in the first half, Boston held a 52-39 lead over the visiting Dallas Mavericks in Game 5, and were locked in on the defensive end. Dallas forward P.J. Washington stumbled off the dribble and tried to shove a pass in the direction of Dereck Lively, but the ball was knocked loose by Jayson Tatum.
In the ensuing melee for the loose ball, Derrick White of the Celtics absolutely laid out trying to corral the ball, before catching an entire face full of the parquet floor at T.D. Garden:
If you dare, you can watch the close-up replay of White’s effort:
In the moment, it looked as if Boston would lose the player that has been the “oomph” of their roster since he was acquired via trade during the 2022 season. White made his way to the Celtics bench after staying down on the floor for a moment, and was looked at by Celtics trainers:
He returned to the game immediately after.
And buried a three moments later to give Boston a 60-42 lead.
Look at this guy:
Between that and another heave at the buzzer from Payton Prichard, Boston has had one heck of a first half.
And they are 24 minutes away from their 18th banner.
The Memorial Tournament is returning to its original spot on the PGA Tour calendar.
After striking an agreement with the PGA Tour to stage its event the week before the U.S. Open in 2024, Jack Nicklaus announced Monday that his Memorial Tournament will take place during the first weekend of June.
That means the tournament will begin on Memorial Day Monday, two weeks before the U.S. Open.
“The relationship the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday has enjoyed with the PGA Tour is more like a partnership. The Tour has acted in the best interest of the Memorial Tournament, and we, in turn, have always supported the Tour and its initiatives. That is why a year ago when the Tour presented us its new business model, we were willing to work with them and move the 2024 date to a week before the U.S. Open,” Nicklaus said in a statement.
“Over recent months, we have had a number of conversations with Jay Monahan and his team—ones that have included our presenting sponsor Workday and Co-Founder and Executive Chair Aneel Bhusri—and together we determined that in the best interest of the Memorial Tournament, the Tour and its players, we would return to our traditional date and start Tournament week on the Memorial Day holiday.”
The Memorial Tournament presents a grueling test year in and year out, almost serving as a ‘Mini-major.’ This year’s edition certainly lived up to that billing, as Scottie Scheffler fought firm and fast conditions, as well as a charging Collin Morikawa, to win by a stroke at 8-under par. Scheffler even said it played like a U.S. Open, but it’s extremely difficult for both the mind and the body to play a U.S. Open-type course in back-to-back weeks.
Scottie Scheffler celebrates his par-save on the 18th green, which won him the 2024 Memorial Tournament.Photo by Ian Johnson/Getty Images
Hence, at Pinehurst No. 2 this past week, Scheffler explained why he does not want to play the week before a major going forward.
“I think playing the week before, a lot of it depends on the golf course, but I think last week with the golf course the way it was, it probably was not the best prep work for me coming into another challenging event,” Scheffler said Sunday.
“I shot 5-under during the first round at the Memorial, which would have been the easiest day, and after that, I was 3-under from there on out. I mean, that’s pretty U.S. Open-like, and to play that many rounds, especially with what I’ve been dealing with the weeks leading up or the whole season, been playing a lot of good golf and being in contention, I think maybe my prep would have been a little bit better for this week if I was at home.”
Interestingly, Nicklaus, the 18-time major champion who has won more of them than anyone else, agreed with this sentiment.
“When I played, I rarely played a week before any major championship. So I’m asked to be part of putting on a golf tournament in a week that I would never play,” Nicklaus said before his tournament.
“From a sponsor’s standpoint, Memorial Day has been what our name is, and we were around Memorial Day. [Monday] is normally a huge day gallery-wise for us because it was Memorial Day, and we had maybe a thousand people here [this year on Monday].”
Now Nicklaus gets his wish, as his tournament will welcome the PGA Tour’s best players two weeks before Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh—another brutally tough course—will host the 2025 U.S. Open.
And best of all, Scheffler, now knowing that the 2025 Memorial aligns with his plans, will be there defending his title, too.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThroughfor more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
Confirmation that Elly De La Cruz is actually human is spotty at best. I mean, everything about him says “I am actually a human,” but then he does something like this and you have to question it.
On Sunday afternoon a routine pickoff attempt became one of the most exciting plays of the day as De La Cruz saw the smallest possible opening and decided it was worth going for it. The pickoff attempt was muffed, rolling into the shallow outfield, which was all Elly needed to know he could make a play.
Getting one base off this was impressive enough, but making it home from second was simply unbelievably.
Haters will point out that he’s only batting .230 this season, but it’s largely immaterial. Every week he’s able to make plays that define games in unexpected ways. whether it’s turning his arm into a cannon to throw someone out — or like this play, putting rockets on his cleats and scoring when nobody else could.
Two weeks ago the Formula 1 grid arrived in Montreal with visions of a true title fight on the minds of fans and drivers alike. “I don’t think either championship is over by any means,” Oscar Piastri declared to me when I sat down with the McLaren driver for an exclusive interview following his second-place finish in the Monaco Grand Prix.
“The Constructors’ [Championship] I would say is still open. We’re still a third of the way through the year. So it’s definitely still all to play for. I would say, of course, we’re at a bit of a disadvantage being as far back as we are, but it’s certainly not impossible,” continued Piastri “And yeah, I think even in the Drivers’ Championship, it’s not done and dusted yet.”
However, Max Verstappen had something to say about that latter point in Montreal.
Verstappen’s win in the Canadian Grand Prix, coupled with a DNF for Charles Leclerc, his closest challenger in the Drivers’ Championship, meant the Red Bull driver pulled 25 points further head of his nearest threat. Even with Lando Norris’ P2 in Montreal, Verstappen’s first-place finish saw him gain a few more points on the McLaren driver.
Now, the Constructors’ Championship was another matter. Sergio Pérez suffered a DNF of his own, so while Verstappen added 25 points to Red Bull’s account with his win, Norris’ P2 and Piastri’s P4 saw McLaren bank 28 points in the Canadian Grand Prix. Those two results, coupled with the Ferrari double DNF, meant the field on the Constructors’ side of things tightened up even more in Montreal.
As Piastri said, neither championship is “done and dusted” just yet. And things have only tightened more in the Constructors’ Championship these past few weeks.
Will things tighten even more in Barcelona? That is surely the biggest storyline to watch this week as the F1 grid heads to the Spanish Grand Prix.
But it is not the only one.
What awaits on the driver market front?
Will the fluid driver transfer market deliver more news this week?
With the F1 world descending upon Barcelona, the focus likely shifts to Carlos Sainz, Jr. The Spanish driver has yet to confirm his plans for the 2025 season, when Lewis Hamilton slides into the seat Sainz currently occupies at Ferrari.
Rumors have surrounded Sainz ever since that announcement, with teams such as Mercedes, Sauber — soon to become the Audi works team — and most recently Williams linked with the accomplished driver.
Late last week reports surfaced that despite expectations that Sainz would move to Sauber, ahead of the transition to Audi, that Williams was in the driver’s seat to land the driver. According to these reports, Williams has offered Sainz a four-year deal, giving the driver a potential out after two seasons if he believes the team has not made sufficient progress in his mind.
Of course, nothing is official until ink is put to paper, and Sainz himself has brushed aside various reporting already this season.
“The only thing I can tell you is there is nothing locked in. I’ve seen reports, I don’t know if it’s in Spain, people saying I’ve signed. I look at those things and it makes me laugh because I remember seeing reports three months ago that I had signed for Mercedes, reports that I had signed for Red Bull. Now obviously those places are not going to happen,” said Sainz earlier this month.
“So it’s funny now seeing people say I’ve signed for Williams. It makes me laugh that this goes a bit unpunished for some media person. It concerns me that people can get away with that kind of stuff,” added Sainz. “When I have something to announce, you guys will be the first to know and I will be here openly talking about my future.”
Now Sainz is just one of the drivers yet to announce his future plans. Other drivers we are waiting to hear from include Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon, and more. But with the grid in Sainz’s home country, it is fair to turn our thoughts to an announcement from him first.
The future of F1 in Barcelona
As the grid arrives in Barcelona for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, the future of Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on the F1 grid is in severe doubt. At the start of this calendar year it was announced that the Spanish Grand Prix will move to a new street circuit in Madrid beginning in 2026, on a track that will city’s exhibition center.
The new location will extremely accessible for fans, as the new circuit will be just five minutes away from Madrid-Barajas Adolfo Suarez airport, and near local Metro and train stations. According to the announcement, “ … it is estimated that 90% of fans will be able to travel to the paddock via public transport, while those staying in local accommodation will be a short walk away from the venue.”
While that might be great news for fans, it calls into question the future of an event in Barcelona.
Will Spain soon host two races, or will the new circuit in Madrid remain the sole race on Spanish soil going forward? Or perhaps Barcelona will again host F1 pre-season testing, as it did until 2023, when the site of pre-season testing was moved to Bahrain.
The next step in the never-ending development wars
We are truly in the thick of the 2024 F1 season, and when you add in the layer of a true title fight shaping up — at least when it comes to the Constructors’ Championship — every upgrade matters.
And as you might expect, teams are bringing a host of upgrades to Barcelona ahead of the upcoming tripleheader (more on that in a second).
Andrea Stella, the McLaren Team Principal, teased some upcoming upgrades for the Woking-based outfit recently. “For the coming races, we will have some upgrades, but they won’t be a single kind of big upgrade like we have seen over the last 12 months,” said Stella. “This is more some individual components where we found a little bit of performance and rather than waiting to deploy everything together once ready we take it track side.
“So I won’t say what but we will see some new stuff coming over the few coming races.”
McLaren, thanks to a P2 from Lando Norris and a P4 from Oscar Piastri last time out, actually gained three points in their chase of Red Bull at the top of the Constructors’ standings. And with Ferrari dealt a double DNF in Canada, McLaren pulled 28 points closer to the Scuderia, and they now trail Ferrari by just 40 points.
While Mercedes is a bit farther back in that fight, the Silver Arrows are coming off their best weekend of the year, with George Russell notching a podium finish in Montreal. That result comes as the team has been rolling out a series of upgrades, starting with the Miami Grand Prix. That package has included a new front wing, with Russell utilized in the Monaco Grand Prix and then Lewis Hamilton utilized in Montreal.
But the Silver Arrows are not done, as a new floor is coming for the W15.
“I think definitely, since Imola, we’ve taken the right steps and put parts on the car that are working, something that we were struggling in the past couple of years,” said Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff recently. “Now directionally we seem to be adding performance every weekend and we have new stuff coming also, new parts coming in Barcelona that should help us. So I would very much hope that we can continue this positive trajectory.”
While the new floor is a big component, and a new front wing is something certainly visible to the naked eye, Wolff outlined that Mercedes has been bringing many new components these past few weeks, some of which might not be visible to the untrained eye.
“Sometimes when you bring a highly-visible part like a bodywork or front wing, this is pretty much the talk of what has changed the performance,” added the Mercedes boss.
“But the truth is we have, over the last three races, brought so many new parts, visible and invisible for the eye, that have contributed milliseconds to more performance. I think this is where those marginal gains then have that positive effect. That was just a huge effort of the factory, so I think the wheel has started to get some real motion on it.”
As for Ferrari, the Scuderia planned on bringing their latest set of upgrades later this season, but reports out of Maranello indicate that they may push those new components out for the Spanish Grand Prix, given the disaster that was the Canadian Grand Prix for the team. According to Formu1a.uno, Ferrari was targeting Silverstone for another aggressive package, but the team may be “ … accelerating production times to introduce the most important innovations already in Barcelona.”
Will that truly be the case? We’ll know more in a few days.
Finally there is Red Bull. Will they have some upgrades of their own in Barcelona?
Team Principal Christian Horner hinted recently that they indeed might have some new components ready for Barcelona. “It’s a possible yes,” said Horner when asked if Red Bull would roll out some upgrades in Barcelona. “We’re closer to the top of the curve, so you get into a law of diminishing returns. But there will be subtle upgrades over the summer months.”
As the F1 schedule hits the summer the action on the track — and in the factories — heats up.
Round 1 of a tripleheader
When the 2024 F1 schedule was announced, many noticed that the calendar called for three different triple headers.
The first is upon us.
This weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix kicks off three straight weeks of racing. Following the Spanish Grand Prix, the grid will head to Red Bull Ring, for the Austrian Grand Prix. That weekend adds even one more layer, as the Austrian Grand Prix is one of six F1 Sprint race weekends.
Following Austria, the grid then heads to historic Silverstone, the site of the British Grand Prix.
Beyond the usual challenges an F1 week presents for teams and drivers, having three straight weeks of racing adds even more hurdles — and potential problems — for the ten teams to endure.
So buckle up friends, as a lot of F1 action is heading your way these next three weeks.
33 soon … ?
Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images
When the grid arrived in Barcelona a year ago, Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso were in many ways the talk of the F1 world. Aston Martin was still second in the Constructors’ Championship standings, one point ahead of third-place Mercedes. As for Alonso himself, he was in third place, 12 points behind Sergio Pérez. As you might expect from that place in the standings, the veteran driver was in fine form, having five podiums in six starts.
That beginning of the 2023 season led to talk of “33 soon?”, the rallying cry that followed Alonso’s quest for his elusive 33rd grand prix victory. With the grid arriving in Barcelona, there was hope that perhaps Alonso would earn that elusive victory in front of a home crowd.
However, if anything the results in the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix told the story of what was to come for Aston Martin down the stretch a year ago. Alonso finished down in seventh — behind teammate Lance Stroll — and he would see the podium just three more times over the rest of the year.
“I think sixth and seventh positions were the maximum for us. I thought our performance seemed better in qualifying, so I think we need to look at why and aim to bounce back for Canada,” said Alonso after the race. “We still scored some solid points and we had no risk at the end of the race. I want to thank the fans for their passion, energy and support this weekend. It was very emotional and special for me.”
Canada was one of those final three podiums for Alonso in 2023, as he finished P2 behind Max Verstappen. But that elusive 33rd victory has yet to materialize for the veteran driver.
Can he make some magic happen at home this weekend?
Somehow, someway, Lilia Vu is an LPGA winner again.
Vu, the second-best player in the world behind Nelly Korda, has battled a back injury for most of the season. She even missed the U.S. Women’s Open two weeks ago, and had to withdraw from the Chevron Championship in April because of her back. But Vu overcame that ailment—and an eight-shot deficit on Sunday—to win the Meijer LPGA Classic in thrilling fashion.
Vu carded a 7-under 65 to climb up the leaderboard on Sunday, as she finished at 16-under-par, putting her in a tie with Lexi Thompson and Grace Kim after 72 holes. The trio needed three holes to determine the winner, but in the end, Vu made a birdie putt on the third playoff hole to seal the deal.
“I wasn’t thinking about winning,” Vu said.
“This was the one day I was playing really well. Felt really good with my swing. Coming back from an injury, I was a little up in the air, not knowing my swing, and I felt like I didn’t know where my arms were if I wasn’t tight. I was just trying to make contact today. That’s it.”
Like Vu, Thompson came from behind to get into the playoff. She fired a 4-under 68 on Sunday, while Kim, the 54-hole leader, carded a 1-over 73 on Sunday to fall back to the field.
After all three ladies made birdies on the first two extra holes, they walked over to the par-5 4th. After each player found the green in regulation, Thompson and Kim missed their putts to extend the playoff while Vu sank her birdie putt for the win.
“I think my mindset when it comes to putting is pretty simple: It goes in, or it doesn’t,” Vu said.
“I don’t put a lot of pressure on it. That relieves the pressure for me, and I go for it.”
Vu won her first LPGA win in Thailand in February 2023 from six shots back, so she has experience coming from behind.
“I felt like my first win I had blinders on,” Vu said.
“In the final round, I was focused on making birdies. I felt like that today. I felt like I left some out there, too. So once I got the opportunity for the playoff, I got to the box, and my caddie said, ‘There is nothing to lose now.’ We just went out there and played.”
Vu called this one of her most meaningful wins because she did not know if she could ever play golf pain-free again.
But clearly, she can.
Now, Vu has her fifth career LPGA victory as she eyes another major championship at next week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. Hopefully, her back holds up for her at Sahalee.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThroughfor more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
Ludvig Åberg has been impressive since his PGA Tour debut last year. This week at the U.S. Open is no different, as he held the lead after 36 holes at Pinehurst No. 2.
Yet, he did not have his best stuff with him during the third round, until he arrived at the par-5 10th. After finding the fairway once again off the tee, Åberg had 289 yards left. He pulled out his 7-wood and hit it so well that it even impressed his caddie, Joe Skovron.
He hit that shot to 9 feet from the hole, but to do so, he needed to take an aggressive line over the trees. It was a risky shot regardless of the course, but at Pinehurst, it was nearly impossible.
Åberg does phenomenal things routinely on the golf course, but this was a whole new level—Skovron’s facial expression says it all. Even the young Swede gave Skovron his own goofy reaction as the ball went exactly where he wanted it to.
Fans went wild over the moment, too, but most of their reactions were about Skovron’s priceless reaction.
The 24-year-old narrowly missed the eagle putt and settled for birdie, but people will talk about this second shot for a long time. Most veteran players struggle to hit that shot, and Åberg made it look easy.
Very few players can hit that kind of shot, which was impressive to watch. Skovron, a veteran caddie in his own right, has seen a lot of golf; but for him to make that face proves how incredible the moment was.
Savannah Leigh Richardson is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. For more golf coverage, follow us @_PlayingThrough on all major social platforms. You can also follow her on Twitter @SportsGirlSL and Instagram @savannah_leigh_sports.
Friday night’s game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Florida State Seminoles in the Men’s College World Series has yet to go final.
But a player has already made some history.
Tennessee infielder Christian Moore hit for the cycle in the game, becoming the first player to accomplish that feat since Jerry Kindall hit for the cycle back in 1956.
Kindall and Moore are now the only two players in Men’s College World Series to ever hit for the cycle.
Moore’s first hit came in the bottom of the first inning, when the Tennessee second baseman tripled to lead off the inning for the Volunteers. Then in the bottom of the second Moore checked the double off his “cycle to-do list,” as he laced a line drive down the left-field line to drive in a run:
Moore came all the way around the bases on a throwing error, but the play went into the books as a double.
In the fourth inning Moore laced a single to right, improving to 3-for-3 on the night. But that still left the infielder a home run shy of the cycle.
Moore checked that box in the sixth inning:
As noted by Tennessee’s social media department, Moore’s cycle is just the sixth in program history, and the first for the school in the postseason.
Moore is considered one of the top prospects in the upcoming MLB Draft, and in our most recent mock draft we had Moore coming off the board with the No. 21 pick to the Minnesota Twins.
North Carolina outfielder Vance Honeycutt began his first game in Omaha in the 2024 Men’s College World Series with an 0-for-4 mark at the plate. But he finished Friday’s opening game of the Men’s College World Series against Virginia with a 1-for-5 mark at the dish, with one single.
And what a single it was.
As he has done so many times before, Honeycutt delivered in the clutch for UNC. With the game knotted at 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth and the winning run 90 away from home plate — and two outs on the scoreboard — Honeycutt ripped a breaking ball into left field, plating the game-winning run and advancing UNC into the winner’s side of Bracket 1 in Omaha.
Quite the start for UNC’s Mr. Clutch:
Or as they like to call him down in Chapel Hill, Vance Honey-clutch:
UNC now awaits the winner of tonight’s game between Tennessee and Florida State, two of the most potent lineups in all of college baseball. The Volunteers as a team posted an OPS of 1.029 this season, best for second in the nation, with the Seminoles not too far behind with a mark of .975 which placed them sixth. But the winner of that game will be facing something different in their second contest.
The past 10 seasons for the Detroit Tigers has been a bit of a journey in the wilderness. The 2014 season ended up being the end of an era for the Tigers, as their four-year run of playoff appearances from 2011 through 2014 ended with two ALCS appearances and an American League Pennant victory in 2012. Once that window closed for Detroit, it slammed shut and outside of one winning season in 2016 that saw the Tigers come up three games short of earning a Wild Card spot, there hasn’t been much to get excited about for fans of the hometown team in the Motor City.
As of right now, the Tigers have a tough road ahead of them if they’re planning on returning to October baseball. They’re a distant fourth in the AL Central with their divisional rivals Kansas City and Minnesota currently occupying two of the three Wild Card spots in the AL. They are 33-35 and 3.5 games behind in the race for the final and are currently lumped in with the Astros, Rangers and Blue Jays when it comes to owning similar winning percentages. This is a long season with plenty of peaks and valleys but Detroit still a bit of an outside contender at this point – FanGraphs’ playoff odds is giving the Tigers a 12 percent shot at making the Postseason as a Wild Card with their overall odds of making the playoffs in general at 15 percent.
Needless to say, the Tigers aren’t exactly the favorites to upset the apple cart in baseball this season. With that being said, there’s one very good reason to pay attention to what Detroit has going on this season and that’s the mound exploits of Tarik Skubal. Skubal is coming off of a 2022 season that saw him establish himself as a bonafide major league starter with an ERA- of 90 and a FIP- of 75 over 117.2 innings. He followed that up by emerging as one of the best pitchers in all of baseball despite missing the first three months of the 2023 season due to a flexor tendon injury that ended his 2022 campaign. Once Skubal did finally return to the mound on July 4, 2023, he hit the ground running and wasted no time in establishing himself as a true ace. When I say that he was one of the best pitchers in baseball last season, I mean it – Skubal led all pitchers in fWAR with 3.3 after he returned to the mound, with Spencer Strider in second place after he produced 2.8 fWAR over that same span.
With all this in mind, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that Tarik Skubal has emerged as a Cy Young candidate now that he’s been fully healthy here in 2024. As good as Skubal was to finish the 2023 season, he’s been even better this season. Skubal finished 2023 with an ERA- of 65 and a FIP- of 47 and both of those numbers are well above average when it comes to starting pitchers. He’s on track to leave those numbers in the dust here in 2024, as he’ll be heading into his start tonight against the Astros with an ERA- of 49 and a FIP- of 54. He’ll also be heading into Houston coming off of his most recent start where he made it through 6.2 innings with five hits and two walks for a grand total of just one run allowed and 10 strikeouts to boot. It was also the 11th time in 13 starts this season where the 27-year-old lefty gave up two runs or less. Needless to say, this man has been absolutely dealing all season.
What makes Tarik Skubal so incredibly tough to deal with is the fact that he’s got five pitches in his bag of tricks and batters have zero idea as to how to actually consistently hit his stuff. His best pitch has been his four-seam fastball and it’s a pitch that has slowly-but-surely been ramping up in velocity over the course of his career. He may have finally peaked in velocity in his most recent start, where he hit 101.7 mph on the radar gun. As this article from Jason Beck of MLB.com mentioned, it was one of the fastest pitches thrown by a starter this season and it was part of a deliberate effort on his part to ramp up his velocity on his heater. With that being said, it’s not just his fastball that hitters have to worry about. His sinker has been sitting at 96 mph – the same speed as his average fastball. Hitters have been bewitched by both pitches, as evidenced by the opposition batting average of .205 against his sinker and .169 against his fastball.
Opposing hitters haven’t fared well against his other three pitches, either. His changeup is his second-most used pitch behind his fastball and hitters are only hitting .223 against it. He also has a slider that he’s commonly used and it only has a .194 batting average against it. Finally, he’s thrown 57 knuckle curveballs this season and you are not going to find a video of anybody getting a hit against it so far in 2024. That’s right: The opposing batting average against his knuckle curve is .000. Granted, it does have an Expecting Batting Average of .243 but the good news for Skubal is that that xBA is by far the highest of any of his four pitches – his fastball has an xBA of .205, his changeup’s xBA is at .219, the sinker is at .191 and the slider’s xBA is microscopic at .161. Simply put, it hasn’t really mattered what Tarik Skubal has been throwing out there – opposing hitters have had an absolute devil of a time trying to deal with any one of them.
If Skubal needs to miss a bat, his changeup (45 percent whiff rate) and slider (35 percent whiff rate) have been his go-to in that regard. If he needs an out, any one of his four main pitches will do as his highest Put Away percentage lies at 31 percent with his changeup while the lowest of those four pitches is 21 percent with his four-seamer. He’s got nasty stuff in his arsenal and he’s throwing all of his pitches with a ton of confidence at the moment. Taking all of this into account, it’s easy to understand why he’s starting to get attention and even early talks of Cy Young Award contention here in June.
There are also surely some rumors floating around that Tarik Skubal could be traded at the deadline but those rumors appear to simply be rumors. Either way, Skubal isn’t the type of pitcher that should be traded if you’re a team that still harbors any type of playoff hopes. Jim Bowden of The Athletic stated that while the Tigers may listen to offers on the likes of Jack Flaherty, Skubal’s going nowhere.
Again, while the Tigers aren’t exactly near the top of the standings, they still figure to be right in the middle of the pack when it comes to the Wild Card chase and as long as that’s the case, Skubal should remain in a Tigers uniform. If the Tigers are going to return to Postseason relevancy in the near future, then that likely requires having Skubal still in a Tigers uniform while they make their return to October. Detroit has a gem at the top of their rotation and this could very well be the season where the entire baseball world becomes extremely aware of Tarik Skubal and what he can do on the mound.
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