Tigers' Casey Mize has a good reason to be mad at his teammates

Tigers' Casey Mize has a good reason to be mad at his teammates originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Casey Mize is a talented pitcher, a former first overall pick, a guy who will be key to how the Detroit Tigers perform this season.

But at the moment, if he wanted, he'd have a good reason to be mad at his teammates.

Clearly, most professional athletes don't think like that. Mize won't be feeling some type of way just because of some early-season defensive metrics.

But what do those metrics say? They say Mize's defense is letting him down.

Take a look at this chart:

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Mize is tied with Mike Burrows (Astros) and Cade Cavalli (Nationals) for having the most-negative outs above average behind them while they're on the mound.

Essentially, less plays have been turned into outs than should've been, and that in turn can lead to runs.

Those aren't necessarily errors. They're just underwhelming individual performances.

Mize has overcome that and has a 2.78 ERA on the season anyway, which is quite impressive given the circumstances.

It really says that Mize has been phenomenal so far, even more so than his already quality numbers indicate.

If the Tigers can figure the defense out behind Mize, look out. He's already dialed in, and there might even be room for improvement.

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