Jackson Jobe, Izaac Pacheco face off
Cristian Santana showed off his power with this drive near the end of Jackson Jobe’s outing. pic.twitter.com/3TnWpZeYtD
— Jason Beck (@beckjason)
LAKELAND, Fla. — Jackson Jobe and Izaac Pacheco became good friends a few years ago as kids in amateur baseball’s showcase circuit. They fulfilled a shared dream of becoming pro teammates when the Tigers drafted both of them out of high school in last summer’s MLB Draft, then became roommates in the Tigers’ Minor League camp. But they had wondered for the longest time what it would be like to be opponents.
Jobe and Pacheco, the Tigers’ No. 3 and No. 6 prospects per MLB Pipeline, had been talking trash about such a matchup since last summer and how Pacheco’s prodigious power would fare against Jobe’s slider and sneaky fastball. They never faced each other while growing up, and they only admired each other’s talents as peers rather than rivals. Then the Tigers drafted Jobe and Pacheco in the first and second rounds, respectively, last year.
In that sense, they’re a unique tandem in Tigers camp. Detroit has had top prospects rise through the system in groups and become friends since the organization began its rebuild five years ago, but those friendships have generally been among players at similar positions, whether as pitchers (Casey Mize, Tarik Skubal and Matt Manning were all rookie starters in Detroit last year) or hitters (first baseman Spencer Torkelson and outfielder Riley Greene are expected to reach Detroit sometime soon). Moreover, none of those guys were friends before joining the organization.
In a Minor League camp where everybody is pulling in the same direction, this is about as close as Tigertown is going to get to a showdown. The Tigers steered away from it last week, keeping the teenage wonders on separate fields as Jobe faced hitters last Wednesday for the first time since his high-school career ended last May.
It will surely not be the last time they face each other in this minicamp, which runs until the full Minor League camp opens in mid-March. Jobe is expected to pitch again later this week, and there’s a chance the Tigers set up intrasquad games as camp rolls on. But until the rematch, Jobe plans to take advantage of bragging rights.
“It was kind of the same pitch as last time where I wanted it more up and it kind of got on the inside and then it came back a little bit,” Jobe said. “But that’s part of it. That’s what we’re doing this for, to learn from it and get after it. But I did get a lot more swings and misses on my fastball than I did the other day.
“Definitely feels like we’re making progress. I know it’s going to take time. It’s not just going to happen overnight, so I’m not really worried about it. I know Santana’s a good hitter. I’d heard some different things about me possibly tipping my pitches, but that’s something we’re going to check out in the video room and get a handle on it.”