As with most young pitchers, Skubal had plenty of Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn to his game early on. He was immediately able to miss bats and rack up strikeouts, but the walks were voluminous while batters sent plenty of balls into the stands at a high rate.
Every season, though, he improved and is now one of the preeminent pitchers in the game. Skubal averages 98 mph on the fastball, a 33.6% strikeout rate and a 30.8% K-BB%, which is tops in all of baseball. Skubal is the only pitcher with a number above 30%. The HR/9 was over 2.0 his first two seasons in the league. It’s been sub-1.0 for the last four seasons and is at 0.83 through 54 innings.
For his 10th start of the season, he faces the Cardinals in St. Louis on Tuesday.
Best Tarik Skubal prop bet for second game of series with Cardinals
Tarik Skubal Under 7.5 strikeouts (-140)
You’re not getting plus odds, but I think this is the correct path to take on Tuesday, despite the robust bat-missing ability of Skubal.
Over his last four games, Skubal has racked up 11, 12, eight and 11 strikeouts against Boston, Texas, the Angels and Baltimore. Against left-handed pitching, those teams are 13th, fifth, first and fourth in strikeouts.
St. Louis is 20th.
Skubal has gone under eight strikeouts in three of nine starts this season. Those teams were the Dodgers, Yankees and Royals – 26th, 18th and 22nd in strikeouts against lefties.
