Paul Skenes' Stellar Pitching Performance: A Career Overview

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00:00We want to talk about Paul Skeens. He started the good old Roku game on Sunday morning. That

00:05was the game that starts at, what, noon, I want to say? By the way, Jen Powell had the plate. She

00:10was really good. Did you see the umpire scorecard? Jen Powell was excellent in the mid to high 90s

00:14in both balls and strikes. She's been crushing it so far. It's really cool to see. She's been

00:19crushing it. Paul Skeens did start in a 4-0 win for the Pirates over the Rockies. Skeens goes

00:24seven scoreless, three hits, no walks, seven Ks. That was Paul Skeens' 50th career Major

00:32League start. And Paul Skeens through 50 Major League starts has a 2.02 ERA. The exact numbers

00:40through 50 career starts. Skeens in 294 innings has 351 punch outs, a 2.02 ERA, and a whip

00:48walks and hits per innings pitched of 0.94. The only guy in the live ball era, which began

00:54in 1920 with a better earned run average through 50 Major League starts to open a career, Vida

01:00Blue in the late 60s, early 70s. Vida Blue is one of those guys that you can read about

01:04in books on books on books, and you realize he was as electric as they came. But some

01:11of the big hitting guys, you think about Fernando Valenzuela, you think about Doc Gooden, you think

01:15about these ridiculous starts that we have seen to a career. The only guy by run prevention

01:22that has been better through the first 50 Major League starts of their career in the live ball

01:26era, so the last 105 years, is Vida Blue. He was at 2.01 through 50 starts. Paul Skeens is at 2.02.

01:35It was funny because I was having this conversation with Gabby Sanchez on the Marlins radio broadcast,

01:40and I asked him, when did you realize that there was a generational pitcher here?

01:45Was it in his Major League debut? Did you have to see 10 Major League starts? And he said, honestly,

01:52when he was throwing in Omaha in college at LSU. And then that got my brain turning. It got the

01:59gears churning in my head, and I thought, who did I know was going to be awesome in college? I had to

02:04go back to a couple of guys. I went back to Adley Rutschman at Oregon State. I think we knew that he was

02:08going to be really darn good. And then you go to, for me, the early to mids 2010 shortstops in Dansby

02:17Swanson when he was at Vanderbilt and Alex Bregman at LSU. Those were really the only guys that jumped

02:22out to me. Paul Skeens, this is a generational talent. We are seeing the next all-time great

02:28pitching career unfold, and we've been fully attentive to the first 50 starts of his Major League

02:34career. It's just amazing to think about, yeah, we knew this was possible in college, and we knew

02:40this was likely that he was going to be really good. There's no world where we were thinking he

02:44was going to be this good this quickly. I love what Gabby said because our eyes immediately tell us

02:51how good Paul Skeens is. I remember what he was through 12, 15 starts in his rookie year,

02:57and you came to the table. It might have even been earlier than that, and you said,

03:01this guy is already the best pitcher in baseball. And my brain, who is saying, well, what about the

03:08guys who have been eating innings forever? What about even Scooble just put up that great year,

03:13or Wheeler, who is such a damn good pitcher? But when you watch him pitch, how easy it is for him to

03:18dominate, your eyes tell you he's the best pitcher in baseball. And since he debuted, the eyes and the

03:26numbers are the same. And his ability to just pick up certain pitches and come into the game and use

03:34them and have them be elite offerings, right? His changeup was not very prevalent in college. I know

03:39he mixed it in occasionally, but it wasn't the Paul Skeens pitch that we were watching. Then last year,

03:47during his rookie year, throws it about 115 times, which equated to about 5% of his usage. Opponents

03:53hit under a hundred against it. Then this year, he ups that to 10%. Opponents are hitting under a

03:59hundred against it. And I could just go through all of those pitches. There's so many stories with

04:03all of them. And there's also the bravado on the mound. As soon as he stepped foot, you said,

04:10that's an ace, just the way he carries himself. It's not, it's not like these crazy levers. It's not

04:18full extension. It doesn't, it looks easy. It's easy for him. It looks like he's playing a

04:24different sport. It's a little crossfire ish, actually a lot of crossfire ish, which creates

04:30that deception. But at the end of the day, he's six, six to 15. He's throwing a hundred miles an

04:34hour. So, you know, we can say, Oh, it's the minute aspects of his delivery and the intricacies

04:39there that throw off a hitter enough from the standard characteristics of, you know, a big body

04:45pitcher. Okay. That's really cool and all, but like he throws a hundred and he's got seven

04:49pitches now that he can go to. And they seem to be spawning at any given time.

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