DETROIT – The Detroit Tigers now have two of the top 10 right-handed pitching prospects in all of baseball: No. 1 pitcher Casey Mize and newly ranked No. 10 Matt Manning.
Casey Mize
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Mize has been the No. 1 pitching prospect in the game for more than a month. He rose to No. 6 in the overall rankings May 14 and has since been elevated to No. 2 with four players above him graduating from prospect status.
He's currently on the injured list with shoulder inflammation, but Mize has been completely dominant on the mound this season. After allowing just one run in 26 innings with Single-A Lakeland, he was promoted to Double-A Erie.
The promotion didn't slow Mize, who posted a 1.21 ERA and 0.885 WHIP while striking out 50 batters in 52 innings with the SeaWolves.
Overall, Mize has allowed just 58 of 284 batters to reach base against him this season. He's been everything the Tigers hoped for since they selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 draft.
Matt Manning
Manning is the most recent addition to the list of baseball's top 10 right-handed starting pitchers. The 2016 first-round pick has been nearly as good as Mize while pitching alongside him in the SeaWolves' rotation.
Manning, still just 21 years old, began the season as the No. 52 prospect in baseball. He was recently moved up to No. 33 overall and is the No. 13 overall pitching prospect.
In 13 Double-A starts, Manning has struck out 91 batters in 76.2 innings. He owns a 2.35 ERA, a 0.952 WHIP and low home run and walk rates to go with his elite strikeout numbers.
Manning is coming off one of his worst starts of the season. He allowed three earned runs in 5.1 innings against the Hartford Yard Goats, striking out just three batters on six swinging strikes.
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Other top pitching prospects
The organization's No. 3 prospect, Franklin Perez, who was acquired in the Justin Verlander trade, came off the injured list Tuesday and made a solid start for Single-A Lakeland.
At only 21 years old, Perez has already been on the injured list four times with the Tigers, but when healthy, he's among the league's top pitching prospects.
Beau Burrows and Kyle Funkhouser have recently returned from injury stings. Burrows, the No. 4 pitching prospect in the organization, tossed four scoreless innings and struck out five batters.
Funkhouser made solid starts in Single-A and Double-A before returning to Triple-A Toledo and struggling.
Alex Faedo, the team's 2017 first-round pick, has been excellent, striking out 86 batters in 71.1 innings and posting a 3.41 ERA and 1.05 WHIP. When he keeps the ball in the park, Faedo looks nearly as good as his rotation mates, Mize and Manning.
Tarik Skubal, a left-handed pitcher selected by the Tigers in the ninth round of the 2018 draft, has struck out 72 batters in 61.1 innings with Lakeland. He owns a 3.08 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP.