Morning Mound Visit: Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, and Isaac Paredes called up

With a playoff field of 16 teams, it’s almost a guarantee that a bad team will be playing in October. The Detroit Tigers are doing everything they can to make sure it’s them. After dropping four in a row, the Tigers find themselves at 9-11, but they are bringing up reinforcements. On Monday, the Tigers announced they would be calling up Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal, and Isaac Paredes.

The most recognizable name among the three is Casey Mize. Mize was the first overall pick in the 2018 draft, and he’s the top pitching prospect according to MLB Pipeline. Mize throws four pitches: fastball, slider, cutter, and splitter. The splitter is believed to be his best pitch. Mize is scheduled to start against the White Sox on Wednesday.

In a normal season, we might not have seen the 23-year-old Mize in the majors this year for service time reasons. Either the Tigers feel that he can help them in a potential wild card push, or they feel that Mize is wasting away at the alternate site.

Skubal is upstaged by both Mize and Matt Manning, but Skubal would be the best pitching prospect in lesser systems. Skubal, who will be making his debut on Tuesday, was taken in the ninth round in the 2018 draft. The left-hander also has four offerings which include a fastball, curveball, slider, and changeup.

Because the coronavirus pandemic led to the cancellation of the minor league season, Mize, Skubal, and Paredes haven’t played above Double-A. There might be some growing pains, but these three will be a big part of the next good Tigers team. Mize was arguably ready for the majors last year, and playing actual baseball games has to be better for develop than constant intersquad games against the Tigers’ minor leaguers.

Mike Petriello | MLB.com: One of the questions leading into the 2020 season was what would happen to home field advantage when fans weren’t allowed into the ballpark. So far, the absence of fans has coincided with a drop in home team winning percentage, and if things hold, this will be the lowest winning percentage for the home team in history.

Dan Szymborski | FanGraphs: Mookie Betts might be making John Henry and the Red Sox look like ding dongs day in and day out, but the Dodgers’ other perennial MVP candidate is off to a slow start. Cody Bellinger adjusted his swing over the break, and so far, it hasn’t had the desired effect.

Tyler Stafford | Baseball Prospectus $: Bellinger’s slow start notwithstanding, the Dodgers have a lot of things going for them including having a pitcher like Tony Gonsolin in reserve. In any other rotation, Gonsolin would easily earn a spot, but the Dodgers are so deep they didn’t have room for him at the beginning of the year. Now, Gonsolin is carving a place for himself in LA.