Flaherty ‘extremely ready’ for ’24, has sturdy outing versus Phils

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Tigers starter Jack Flaherty was dealing right here towards the Phillies. He struck out 5 and allowed just one hit over 4 innings in Wednesday’s 4-1 loss.

“He was great,” Detroit supervisor A.J. Hinch stated. “He did everything from show his power and strength to his ability to pitch, and change speeds with both breaking balls. I loved everything about his outing today.”

Flaherty was a handful for a strong Philadelphia lineup, and stored the sellout crowd of 9,215 at BayCare Ballpark hushed throughout his 57 pitches, other than Bryce Harper’s line single to proper area within the first inning.

However, it was his subsequent encounter with Harper that offered his most spectacular pitching.

Flaherty acquired Harper to swing and miss at a first-pitch changeup. Then he acquired him to chase a low slider earlier than throwing a four-seam fastball out of the strike zone for a 1-2 depend.

Flaherty didn’t let the two-time MVP off the hook by nibbling with pitches. He got here proper at him with one in every of his finest fastballs of the day — a 96 mph steamer that Harper swung at and missed. He glanced again at Flaherty whereas returning to the dugout after the strikeout.

“When you execute good pitches against good hitters, good things are going to happen,” Flaherty stated.

Harper is 0-for-3 towards Flaherty with one strikeout in common season video games, however has drawn three walks towards him.

Flaherty’s fastball velocity averaged 94.2 mph in the course of the recreation, and it was 94.4 and 95.1 in his final two begins. So, he’s up a tick from the 93.1 fastball common he had final season with the Cardinals and Orioles.

“It’s good to hold [the velocity] as the innings go on and games go on,” Flaherty stated. “It gets to that cruising speed.”

He additionally throws a wonderful slider, changeup and knuckle curve — having “ditched” his cutter.

Flaherty’s finest yr was 2019, when he was 11-8 with a 2.75 ERA and struck out 231 in 196 1/3 innings with 55 walks. He was the Opening Day starter for St. Louis in 2020 and 2021.

“We loved the ingredients,” Hinch stated. “He’s hungry to learn. He came here to help us win. He came here to get better, and he’s attacked it wholeheartedly since the day we signed him…He’s going to really help us.”

Flaherty additionally serves as a wonderful instance for Detroit’s gifted younger pitchers akin to Opening Day starter Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize and Matt Manning.

“Behind the scenes, I believe he’s extremely ready,” Hinch said. “He’s a curious participant with a curious thoughts that at all times desires to discover a option to get a bit of bit higher. He makes use of pitches a bit of extra properly.

“I’ve loved getting to know him at this point…We’ve seen a commitment to making some subtle tweaks to use his stuff a little bit better. I think his fastball has been better this spring — which has been good. And outside of the game [against the Yankees] where he walked three guys, we really want him to miss over the strike zone over the plate. But his mindset is what we wanted to see. And throughout spring, he’s been nothing but a sponge.”

Flaherty, a first-round choose by the Cardinals in 2014, stated he was influenced on that crew by veteran pitchers Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter and Michael Wacha. And even again to highschool, he was studying from standouts. First-rounders Max Fried and Lucas Giolito had been two years forward of him at Harvard-Westlake (Calif.) High.

“You just learn from them and take from them what you can,” stated Flaherty, who’s 42-34 with a 3.75 ERA after seven seasons. “And you hearken to A.J. He’s been with some studs — he’s had [Justin] Verlander, he’s had [Gerrit] Cole. And you discuss to him about how they ready.

“You want to be on that same level. It doesn’t hurt to be prepared. It allows you to go out there and be confident that you’ve done all you can.”

Jobe ‘unlikely’ to see extra Florida recreation motion
Jackson Jobe, Detroit’s high pitching prospect, created fairly a buzz by throwing one good inning with two strikeouts and hitting 102 mph on the radar gun Tuesday towards Minnesota. Yet, the non-roster invitee may not take the mound in one other Grapefruit League recreation.

“I think it’s unlikely,” Hinch stated, “but I wouldn’t say, ‘No.’ We haven’t gotten any further than the one outing — which we all saw was electric. But he’ll go on his normal five-day [rotation], getting ready for the season [in the Minors]. If he falls into some innings that we can use, great. If it doesn’t, we’re not going to alter his plans to get ready for the season.”