Jackson Jobe is a right handed pitcher that is with the Detroit Tigers Double A. He is ranked 9th out of all the prospects in 2024 and 2nd in pitcher. Last season he only pitched 64 innings due to a lumbar spine inflammation. Even with this back injury he had 84 strike outs with only 6 walks and a 2.81 ERA. After that, he joins the Arizona Fall League and starts to shine over there.
Jobe is listed as 6’2’’ and 190 pounds. He was drafted by the Tigers in the first round back in 2021. Jobe is a four pitch pitcher. His arsenal are fastball, sweeper, changeup, and cutter. Cutter is a pitch that he learned most recently. In high school he used to pitch a lot of curveballs, but when he was in the minors he changed that pitch into a cutter and slider. His cutter is a very nasty pitch. The velocity is 90.5mph, 1mph higher than the major’s average and 5’’ glove side movement is 3’’ higher than the major’s average. I think he is still not very comfortable throwing this pitch because this is his fourth most used pitch in 2023. Even though this pitch has a SLG% that is lower than .300, the ball in play is still a very small sample size. In the AFL, he increased more on his cutter’s usage especially against left handed batter. This is a good sign showing that he is more confident in throwing his cutter, a pitch that has very good quality.
Another pitch I like from Jobe is his sweeper, mainly used against right handed batters. His sweeper’s horizontal movement is around major’s average at 12’’ glove side and his whiff rate is 5 percent above league average at 38%. One thing that fascinates me the most is his k-rate at 65%. Mostly we see major league’s pitcher pitch their sweeper out of the zone to let batters chase the pitch. But when he puts the ball in the zone and still has an above average whiff rate shows how good the pitch quality is.
His fastball relies more on the velocity at 96 mph which is 2mph higher than major leagues’ average. Last year I saw most of his fastball earlier in the count are located high above the zone. I am assuming this is to set up his sweeper and changeup later on in the at bat. Although he had a lot of success using this strategy in the minor, when it comes to the major it is a lot more dangerous to locate the fastball high above the zone.
The last pitch Jobe has in his arsenal is his change up. His changeup has an amazing horizontal movement at 14’’ arm side. This is 1.5’’ better than the major league’s average. This let him have an amazing 31.57% whiff rate. Most of the time he will set up his changeup down and away against lefty and down and in against righty. This is a very good one two punch with his fastball when he threw a lot earlier in the count.
The pros of Jobe is his quality of pitches whether it is fastball or off-speed pitches. All of his pitches are at the major league’s level. With that being said one thing that needs to improve is his command, especially his fastball. His K/BB rate dropped significantly when he was pitching in the AFL last season. I am not sure if it is because the ball that is used in AFL is different from MiLB or fatigue. But, with his athleticism and talent I believe he will be ready to pitch in the MLB at some point in the 2025 season.