The Best Fastballs in the Detroit Tigers System
Detroit Tigers fans love a good fastball. Everyone loves a good fastball.
Breaking balls and changeups might make batters look silly, but there’s a reason they don’t make movies about curveballs (not good movies, at least). Fooling batters is fine, and a huge part of the game. But we don’t want our heroes to get by solely on trickery. At some point we need to see Nook LaLoosh announce his presence with authority. Or watch Ricky Vaughn forget about the curveball, and give him the heater.
The components of a good fastball — velocity, movement, shape, and location — haven’t changed much over the decades. But fans and analysts are now armed with much more information, and new ways to describe what makes fastballs effective. Hazy scouting terms like sink, ride, and bore, have been replaced with concrete data on spin rates, induced vertical break (IVB), seam-shifted wake, and horizontal movement.
We are going to include that data when we can. We’ll also make note of pure results like whiff rate and batting average against. But, as is our nature, we’re also gonna lean on some vibes. Raw numbers are fine, but it’s nice to add in some projection, too.
So, with that said, here’s a collection of heaters to keep Detroit Tigers fans warm during the cold winter months.
Best Detroit Tigers Fastball – Starters
1 – Jackson Jobe
Yes, the best pitching prospect in baseball has a pretty darn good fastball. Jobe’s four-seamer sits in the 96-98 MPH range, and will touch triple digits in shorter stints. It also shows well above-average spin and life, with 17-18 inches of IVB on average. His fastball gets him a fair amount of weak contact, but it doesn’t generate a ton of swings-and-misses. That may be due to his below-average extension, or the fact that he hasn’t quite dialed in his fastball command yet. Jobe does command his 88-92 MPH cutter very well, however. And it wouldn’t be shocking to see him add a sinker to his arsenal in 2025.
Why not end your day by watching every whiff and called strike from Jackson Jobe in Erie this afternoon? pic.twitter.com/t01JIfdt7d
— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) August 19, 2024
2 – Troy Melton
Troy Melton’s metrics don’t jump off the page like Jobe’s, but his fastball is still a plus offering for him. It sits in the 94-96 MPH range, but will frequently approach 98, and he pounds the strike zone. Melton’s heater earned him a 30% whiff rate in Low-A, but advanced hitters squared it up more often, so he’ll need to continue refining his command.
3 – Rayner Castillo
Castillo was one of the system’s biggest breakout performers in 2024, thanks in part to his impressive fastballs. He saw one of the biggest velocity increases in the minors, and he stands out for how easily he throws mid-90s heat. Castillo’s four-seamer sits around 95 MPH and will touch 97, while his sinker is a tick slower. He doesn’t really miss bats with either offering, but Low-A hitters just couldn’t lift his sinker at all, with an average launch angle of -4 degrees.
4 – Jaden Hamm
Jaden Hamm’s fastball is more about shape and location than velocity. His fastball is generally in the 92-93 MPH range and will occasionally scrape 96, but his over-the-top arm slot gives the pitch deception and a ton of ride at the top of the zone. If Hamm can squeeze out a little more velocity his fastball could be a devastating offering for him.
5 – Garrett Burhenn
Burhenn doesn’t get a lot of love in prospect circles, but we think there’s something here, even though it may be as a reliever. He throws both his four-seamer and a sinker in the 92-94 MPH range, and touches 96. His fastballs serve more to set up his above-average slider and solid changeup, but if/when he moves to the bullpen they could be legitimate offerings in the upper-90s.
Honorable Mentions: Sawyer Gipson-Long, Brant Hurter, Ty Madden, Gabriel Reyes
Best Detroit Tigers Fastball – Relievers
1 – Tyler Owens
The Tigers acquired Owens at the trade deadline and then added him to their 40-man roster after the season. His fastball generally sits in the 95-96 MPH range, but he can run it up close to triple digits at times. And it’s a lively heater that seems to play up even more because of his extension and approach angle.
2 – Tyler Mattison
There’s a little bit of projection here, because Mattison missed all of 2024 with Tommy John surgery. But the Tigers apparently felt comfortable enough with Mattison’s recovery to add him to their 40-man roster, so he makes our list. Mattison’s fastball typically sits in the 94-96 MPH range, and he can run it up to 98. But it’s an incredibly lively offering with plus-plus spin and borderline elite IVB that frequently tops 20 inches.
Tyler Mattison didn’t quite have his best stuff last night, but it’s still pretty loud. Fastball sat at 95mph with ~2700 rpm and a ton of ride, and he mixed in a hard downer curve in the low 80s and a mid-80s change with solid fade. Here’s his full outing: pic.twitter.com/kQ1UPngEY7
— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) July 28, 2023
3 – Yosber Sanchez
No one in Detroit’s system threw as hard as Sanchez in 2024. His fastball averaged more than 97 MPH last year, and he reached triple-digits. He slots third for us because everything else about his fastball is fairly pedestrian, but he can definitely bring the heat.
Got a pretty good look at reliever Yosber Sanchez tonight. Below-average command/control, but showed four pitches:
FB – 96-97, T98
CT – 91-92
SL – 83-85
CH – 81
Here he gets Jonny Butler looking at a slider and Henry Bolte looking at a fastball. pic.twitter.com/l0zoZoSj2W— Tigers ML Report (@tigersMLreport) June 28, 2024
4 – Thomas Bruss
Bruss is a very large human (listed at 6-foot-8, 280 pounds) with a big heater to match. The Tigers signed him out of independent ball and his fastball sat at 96 MPH last year and touched 99. He didn’t get great results with the pitch, and he was far too wild in general, but there’s potential here.
Signed in late February after spending the last two seasons in the independent Frontier League the Tigers Thomas Bruss showed some filthy stuff on the backfields Friday. Fastball sat 95-98 mph with ride mixing a splitter at 86-87 mph and a gyro slider in the mid-80s. Pitched in… pic.twitter.com/zeDCYds8GR
— Geoff Pontes (@GeoffPontesBA) April 1, 2024
5 – Marco Jimenez
Marco Jimenez worked primarily as a starter early in his career, but he moved to the bullpen in 2024 and his ERA dropped from 7.63 to 2.05. Jimenez throws a four-seamer and a sinker, both sitting in the 94-97 MPH range, and he has touched triple-digits in the past.
Honorable Mentions: Wilmer Flores, Tanner Kohlhepp, Jake Miller, Freddy Pacheco, RJ Petit
Bonus Category – 2024 Draft
The Tigers took a lot of pitchers with interesting fastballs in the 2024 draft. Owen Hall (2nd) has touched the upper 90s and could have a plus fastball soon, while Ethan Schiefelbein (2nd) sits in the low-90s but boasts above-average IVB. Josh Randall (3rd) has a heavy sinker that has reached 98 MPH and Michael Massey (4th) reaches the mid-90s with plus carry.
Zach Swanson (9th) can touch the mid-90s with plus-plus spin, while RJ Sales (10th) hits 96 MPH with ride. Lefty Micah Ashman (11th) sits around 91-92 MPH but his invisible fastball drew a 46% whiff rate in Low-A. Lucas Elissalt (13th) sits in the low-90s, but he shows plus spin and carry, and he has room to grow.
Rogelio Castillo