Casey Mize, the Tigers top pitching prospect, made his Double-A debut for the Erie Seawolves on Monday night and, well, it was an acceptable outing. He threw a no-hitter, in fact.
Mize needed just 98 pitches to get through his gem, with 70 of those pitches being strikes. He struck out seven. He worked on top all night and rarely even ran up a three-ball count. Most of the contact was weak. He did walk one and hit a batter, preventing a perfect game, but still, what an unbelievable outing. Here's the full box score.
Mize, 21, was the first overall pick out of Auburn in the MLB Draft last June. Heading into this season, Baseball America had him ranked as the 16th-best prospect in baseball while MLB.com pegged him at No. 17.
This wasn't Mize's first start this season. He was busy making Class A-Advanced hitters look stupid before this no-hitter. In four starts with High-A Lakeland, he was 2-0 with a 0.35 ERA, 0.31 WHIP and 25 strikeouts in 26 innings.
Combining those numbers with his no-hitter on Monday, here's Mize in five starts this season: 3-0, 35 innings, seven hits allowed, one earned run allowed, two walks, 32 strikeouts, 0.26 ERA, 0.26 WHIP. Silly.
If Mize stays on this track, there's a chance we could see him up in the majors in September, though it's also possible he's our next player who deals with service time manipulation and has to spend a few weeks in Triple-A next April before debuting late in the month to great fanfare.
Regardless, the Tigers appear to have a frontline starter in the making here. He's obliterating his minor-league competition so far.
