Jackson Jobe: On the Edge of Stardom

But how does Jobe compare to some of baseball’s greatest pitchers of the last 15 years? I decided to take a look at how some of the game’s recent great hurlers spent their 21st year playing baseball.

Jackson Jobe – 2024 Erie Seawolves, 2024 West Michigan Whitecaps – MILB

As of this writing, Jackson Jobe has an ERA of 2.03 in 66 2/3 innings pitched at Double-A Erie and a 2.00 ERA in nine innings pitched at Advanced-A West Michigan. Jobe has struck out 81 between the two and has a WHIP of 1.07 this season. The biggest worry for Jobe so far has been health. Last season, he missed three months with lumbar spine inflammation before dominating the rest of the season after his June 17 debut.

In 2024, he suffered a hamstring injury, ultimately missing a month and a half before making three rehab starts in June at West Michigan. Jobe seems to be tiring somewhat in August, though still elite, with his 2.86 ERA being his highest of the season and worst since last August’s 3.24.

The consensus seems to be that Jobe will remain with the Seawolves for the rest of this year and come to spring training hoping to earn a spot with the Tigers in 2025. More than likely, the Tigers will be cautious, and he’ll start at least a few games at Triple-A Toledo before making his major league debut sometime next season.

Tarik Skubal – 2018 Seattle Redhawks – Western Athletic Conference | 2018 GCL Tigers West, 2018 Connecticut Tigers, 2018 West Michigan Whitecaps – Minor League Baseball

Who better to start our exercise with than the man we hope Jobe joins in the Tigers’ rotation for years to come, Tigers ace Tarik Skubal. We find 21-year-old Skubal at Seattle University, finally fully recovered from Tommy John surgery in 2016 that cost him most of that season and all of 2017. Despite the time off, Skubal was still on MLB’s radar, drafted in the 29th round of the draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks during his missed 2017 season.

Skubal went into the 2018 season as a D1Baseball.com Top 100 college prospect and an All-WAC Preseason team player. He posted an 8-2 record and a 4.16 ERA and broke the school record for strikeouts per nine innings with 11.93. His biggest issue during his time at Seattle was control, walking 56 in his 80 innings for the 34-23 Redhawks, who didn’t make it to the NCAA Tournament.

Drafting him in the ninth round of the 2018 draft, the Tigers sent him to three different teams for the rest of 2018, where he started to blossom into the dominant pitcher we know today. Pitching 22 1/3 innings for the GCL Tigers, the Low-A Connecticut Tigers, and Single-A West Michigan Whitecaps, Skubal combined for an absurd 0.40 ERA (allowing a single run in Connecticut) and 0.851 WHIP, striking out 33 and walking only four.

Justin Verlander – 2004 Old Dominion Monarchs – Colonial Athletic Association

One of the greatest Tigers pitchers of all time, Justin Verlander was in the midst of capping off one of the best careers in Old Dominion and Colonial Athletic Association history. In terms of ERA, 2004’s 3.51 was actually Justin’s worst at the Norfolk, Virginia, school, but his 151 strikeouts in 105 2/3 innings pitched showed the kind of arm talent that Verlander possessed. He was a semi-finalist for the Roger Clemens Award and a First Team All-CAA pitcher.

He struck out 17 batters against James Madison and 16 more against VCU, with seven games where he struck out 10 or more. Ending his NCAA career, he is still ODU and CAA’s all-time strikeout leader with 427. As most of us probably know, he fell to No. 2 in the 2004 MLB Draft, where the Tigers gave him a $3.1 million signing bonus, and he made his MLB debut on July 4, 2005, after only 118 2/3 innings pitched.

David Price – 2007 Vanderbilt Commodores – Southeastern Conference

David Price, along with his cute French bulldog, Astro, was one of my favorite Tigers when he was traded here from the Rays in 2014. The timing was perfect—I was just starting to pay attention to the game more, and the Tigers were trying to finally get their first World Series win after two failed attempts in 2006 and 2012. Price’s Tigers tenure was strong; he was among the best pitchers in the game over his calendar year with Detroit, but it wasn’t meant to be as the Orioles swept the Tigers in the 2014 ALDS, and Price was shipped off to Toronto at the 2015 trade deadline.

Back in 2007, Price was dominating at Vanderbilt on his way to becoming the No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft. Price dominated his collegiate foes, going 11-1 with a 2.64 ERA and striking out an NCAA-best 194 batters. Price won the 2007 Golden Spikes Award as the best amateur player in the United States and the Dick Howser Trophy as the best player in college baseball. Vanderbilt dominated the season, consistently spending time as the top-ranked team and finishing the season 54-13 as the top seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Expected to make the school’s first College World Series appearance, the team was surprisingly defeated by Michigan in Vanderbilt’s own Nashville Regional Final, where the Wolverines handed Price his only loss of the season, pitching in relief on two days’ rest.

Max Scherzer – 2005 Missouri Tigers – Big 12 Conference

A beloved Tiger, both in college and with Detroit, “Mad Max” Scherzer’s 21st year was his sophomore season at Missouri. He broke out that season with a 1.87 ERA in 106 1/3 innings pitched over 16 starts, earning himself Big 12 Pitcher of the Year and Second Team All-American honors. His Tigers ended up with a solid 40-23 record, making it to the second round of the Fullerton Regional of the NCAA Tournament. Unable to be drafted until after his junior season, Scherzer returned to Missouri the next season and ended up with another strong season before being drafted 11th overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2006.

Chris Sale – 2010 Florida Gulf Coast Eagles – Atlantic Sun Conference

Before Chris Sale became one of the game’s best pitchers and infamously showed baseball his expert knife skills on the White Sox’s 1976 throwback uniform, he was just a 21-year-old playing college baseball at Florida Gulf Coast University. A native of the Tigers’ spring training home of Lakeland, Sale was magical at the Fort Myers school, ending his junior season with an 11-0 record and a 2.01 ERA, striking out an astounding 146 batters (an NCAA-best in 2010) while walking only 14 in 103 innings pitched. I

t was enough to make him the 2010 Golden Spikes runner-up (to Bryce Harper) and a consensus First Team All-American. FGCU’s 38-20 record wasn’t enough to get them into the NCAA Tournament, but it was enough for Chicago to make him the 13th overall pick in the draft.

Similar to the path that the White Sox would later take with Garrett Crochet, the team quickly called him up, and he made his Major League debut the same year. Used exclusively in relief, he posted a 1.93 ERA in 23 1/3 innings pitched and saved four games. The White Sox had a strong team in 2010, but without the expanded playoffs, the 88-74 White Sox ended up seven games back of the wild card-winning New York Yankees. He would remain a reliever the next season before transitioning into a starter in 2012.

Jacob deGrom – 2010 Stetson Hatters – Atlantic Sun Conference

Sticking with another Florida man, Jacob deGrom took a different path than most of the pitchers on the list. DeGrom was Stetson’s shortstop for the first two years of his college career before splitting time between shortstop and pitcher during his 2010 draft year. He started as the team closer, saving a couple of games before the team decided to make him a starter. In 17 pitching appearances and 82 1/3 innings pitched, he had a 5-6 record with a 4.48 ERA. He still played shortstop for the Hatters, not making a single error in 2010, and hit .263 with a .333 on-base percentage and a .347 slugging percentage. Interestingly, his only career college home run came off Chris Sale in the 2010 Atlantic Sun Tournament. The Mets took him in the ninth round of the 2010 draft.

Shohei Ohtani – 2016 Nippon Ham Fighters – Japan Pacific League

To no one’s surprise, Shohei Ohtani at 21 was doing what he does best on a baseball field: everything. In 2016, Ohtani played in 104 games, batting .322 with an OPS of 1.004, hitting 22 home runs, and driving in 67 runs. On top of that, Ohtani added 140 innings of sparkling pitching, leading the league among starters in ERA (1.86) and WHIP (0.957) and finishing third in strikeouts with 174. He was a vital piece in the Ham Fighters, winning the Pacific League Regular Season MVP and helping them to an 87-53 record, a Pacific League pennant, and a Japan Series win.

Clayton Kershaw – 2009 Los Angeles Dodgers – National League

Much like his current teammate above, Kershaw was an anomaly. The Dodger southpaw made his Major League debut at age 20, but started to really shine at 21. He started 30 games for the 2009 Dodgers, pitching 174 innings and finished the year ranked eighth in ERA (2.79) and the league in hits per nine innings (6.263). Fangraphs Pitching WAR rated him the 17th best pitcher of 2009, already at ace level.

The 2009 playoffs weren’t as kind. He pitched solidly in Game 2 of the NLDS, helping the Dodgers sweep the Cardinals, but allowed seven runs in 6 2/3 innings pitched over a start and relief appearance as the Dodgers lost in five games to the Philadelphia Phillies.

Madison Bumgarner – 2011 San Francisco Giants – National League

Madison Bumgarner is one of the rare high school arms that quickly made his way through the minor league system, making his Major League debut just past his 20th birthday on Sept. 8, 2009, vs. the San Diego Padres. By his age 21 season in 2011, he had already played his rookie season and had made 19 career starts. Bumgarner had a strong year, going 13-13 with a 3.21 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP, and finishing 11th in the NL Cy Young race. 2011 also marked the first year that Bumgarner pitched over 200 innings, something he would do seven times in his Major League career.

Zack Greinke – 2005 Kansas City Royals – American League

Another high school arm, Zack Greinke was drafted sixth overall in 2002 and only two years later debuted during an awful era of Royals baseball, spending his age 20 and 21 seasons on a pair of 100-plus loss Royals teams. Had we taken a trip back to 2005, we would hardly have guessed we’d be looking at one of the better pitchers of the 2000s. Greinke struggled to a 5-17 record, leading the American League in losses.

His 5.80 ERA was 90th of 93 qualified pitchers in 2005. Greinke has always been known as a quiet, reserved, and quirky player, and he almost quit the sport before the next season, citing the attention and pressure to succeed. He was diagnosed with depression and social anxiety disorder and spent most of the next season away from baseball before seeing a sports psychologist and getting on anti-depression medication. From then on, he mostly found personal success on the field, pitching with six MLB teams up until last season with the Royals again.

CC Sabathia – 2002 Cleveland Indians – American League

At 21, CC Sabathia entered the 2002 season fresh off a successful age 20 season where he finished runner-up to Ichiro in the Rookie of the Year race. He had a decent 2002 season, a 13-11 record with a 4.37 ERA, where he arguably was Cleveland’s best pitcher after Bartolo Colon as Cleveland regressed to a 74-88 third-place finish in the AL Central. Sabathia arguably broke out the next year, earning his first of six All-Star Game appearances, followed by a Cy Young in 2006. Another pitcher with longevity, Sabathia pitched all the way until his age 38 season in 2019, amassing 251 wins at the Major League level.

Felix Hernandez – 2007 Seattle Mariners – American League

“King Felix” Hernandez started his age 21 season as the Mariners’ Opening Day starter, becoming the youngest since Dwight Gooden in 1985. He mostly lived up to the hype as Seattle’s best pitcher, going 14-7 with a 3.92 ERA and pitching 190 innings. But in what would become an unfortunate staple of his career, the 88-74 Mariners fell short of the playoffs that year and every other year of Hernandez’s career, and one of the greatest pitchers of the 21st century, so far, never got to pitch in a playoff game.

Paul Skenes – 2023 Louisiana State Tigers – Southeastern Conference | 2023 FCL Pirates, 2023 Bradenton Marauders, 2023 Altoona Curve – Minor League Baseball

The man who preceded Jobe as the top pitching prospect in baseball spent last season as the best pitcher in college baseball. Skenes originally signed with the Air Force Academy as a catcher and had a dominant freshman season, hitting .410 with 11 home runs and 43 RBIs and an OPS of 1.183. He convinced Air Force to let him pitch, and he became the team’s closer his freshman year, saving 11 games.

His sophomore year, while still dominating at the plate (.314/.412/1.046) with 13 home runs, Skenes transitioned to become a starting pitcher. Skenes was just as dominant starting the game as he was closing, posting a 10-3 record and a 2.73 ERA in 15 starts for the Academy.

After 2022, Skenes entered the transfer portal and made his way to Louisiana, where he partnered with Dylan Crews as the best two players in college baseball. Only focusing on pitching, Skenes managed to take it to an even higher level, ending his college career with a 1.69 ERA in 122 innings pitched, striking out an incredible 209 batters. Personally, he won the Dick Howser Trophy, and LSU won the College World Series, where he was named the Most Outstanding Player.

The Pirates weren’t about to let a generational talent pass them by and took Skenes with the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft. Deciding he still had a few more innings left in his arm, the Pirates gave him five starts at three of their affiliates, where he struck out 10 in 6 2/3 innings pitched. Skenes made seven starts at Triple-A Indianapolis this season, ending up with a sub-1 ERA before Pittsburgh had seen enough and gave him his Major League debut on May 11.

Stephen Strasburg – 2009 San Diego State Aztecs – Mountain West Conference

Baseball America called Stephen Strasburg “the best college pitcher of the modern era,” and looking at his numbers, it’s easy to see why. During his 2008 season, Strasburg managed to strike out 23 batters in a single game against Utah. In 2009, Strasburg had an ERA of 1.32, going 13-1 and striking out 195 in 109 innings pitched. He won both the Dick Howser Trophy and the Golden Spikes Award, leading the Aztecs to their first regional appearance in 18 years before becoming the top pick of the 2009 draft by the Washington Nationals.

Strasburg became one of the most hyped prospects of all time to the point that ESPN broadcasted his professional debut at Double-A Harrisburg in 2010. After 11 minor league starts, Washington made the move to call him up on June 8, 2010, just under a month shy of his 22nd birthday. He lived up to the hype, striking out 14 batters in seven innings pitched, allowing two earned runs as the Nats beat the Pirates 5-2. Strasburg ended up with a somewhat injury-plagued career but still made a respectable 247 starts and in 2019 led Washington to their first World Series since 1924 before retiring from baseball in 2022.