Tarik Skubal Not Satisfied Until His Tigers Win A Champion

ATLANTA-- Even after an interesting, adventurous Detroit Tigers group pushed their method into the postseason in 2015, it would have been improbable to anticipate the production they have actually crafted midway through 2025.


At 59-38, Detroit owns the majors' finest record and produced six All-Stars in Atlanta, one of the most of any group. And still, it doesn't appear the Tigers are being lauded as the title contenders that their numbers suggest.


Detroit, which leads Minnesota by 11 1/2 games in the American League Central, is led by reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal and his 10-3 record, 2.23 ERA and league-leading 0.83 WHIP. Fellow All-Star Riley Greene has actually blasted 24 home runs, while a solid bullpen has helped the Tigers post 4 different five-game winning streaks.


And while DraftKings likes Skubal to repeat as the Cy Young (-200 ), the New York City Yankees - with 6 less wins than Detroit - are still a favorite over the Tigers to become the American League group to win the World Series (+650 to +700).


For a group on rate to win its most video games since 1984 - when the Tigers went 104-58 en route to the franchise's last World Series accomplishment - very little matters before October.


"The goal, to me, of baseball is to win and win champions," Skubal said during the All-Star week interview. "So as much as this is an honor and I appreciate this moment and I'm going to have an excellent time over the next couple days, my focus is on winning a championship, which's what the video game's about. So I don't actually believe that I have actually achieved much up until I win a championship."


Sparking the group's turn-around from the dugout, previous World Series champion supervisor A.J. Hinch understands better than most of members in the Tigers clubhouse what it requires to end up a season as the last group standing.


"I am extremely happy with where we're at, at the midway point of the season," said Hinch, who handled the 2017 Houston Astros to the title. "When you begin looking at the series that we have actually won, there are a lot more series won than lost, so I believe we remain in an excellent position to have a really special summertime. We just have to do a lot of work to get there. We have an excellent group. We have a winning group that I'll feel can compare to anyone."


Although the club's All-Star players - Greene, Javier Baez, Gleyber Torres and Zack McKinstry combined to go 0-for-8, and Skubal and Casey Mize integrated to enable three runs on four hits in 1 2/3 innings - the fact that Detroit, which lost 96 video games 3 years earlier, had gamers littered throughout the field is a testimony to the present and future of what has become.


-- Jack Batten, Field Level Media