Paul Skenes

[Just Regular]

I wasn't fluent at that bit either, but I would sign for $20K as the 2nd round pick if Elias wanted to do this move.

If my draft eligibility has expired, I'm going to guess the LSU Tigers have some walk-ons and seniors who'd be good at $20k and help Skenes adapt easily to the Organization.

I believe in Moneyball, Jeremy Guthrie was like this.    I remember Michael Lewis wrote it something like Cleveland agreed to give College Ace Guthrie the $3mm he wanted, and so he "fell" to the 22nd pick, collecting the 4th largest bonus*

https://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?year_ID=2002&draft_round=1&draft_type=junreg&query_type=year_round

*not more than the $3.2mm Adam Loewen got from us then

[RZNJ]

I must admit, Skenes is starting to look human.  Yesterday, against Kentucky.  6 IP,  7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB,  13 K.   111 pitches!

On the season.  53 IP,  9 BB,  103 K.    
 

Stephen Strasburg’s junior season at San Diego state.  
 

119 innings.  19 walks.  195 strikeouts.

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2023 by RZNJ

[backwardsk]

On 4/14/2023 at 1:18 PM, RZNJ said:

I must admit, Skenes is starting to look human.  Yesterday, against Kentucky.  6 IP,  7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB,  13 K.   111 pitches!

On the season.  53 IP,  9 BB,  103 K.    
 

Stephen Strasburg’s junior season at San Diego state.  
 

119 innings.  19 walks.  195 strikeouts.

 

 

 

Does his usage concern you at all? I don’t necessarily mean his pitch count, but more so his pitch selection.  He seems to get by on an amazing fastball, but doesn’t need to rely on his breaking stuff.

[RZNJ]

13 minutes ago, backwardsk said:

Does his usage concern you at all? I don’t necessarily mean his pitch count, but more so his pitch selection.  He seems to get by on an amazing fastball, but doesn’t need to rely on his breaking stuff.

I don’t what his pitch usage is.  His slider has been described as filthy and his changeup as good also.

[RZNJ]

On 4/3/2023 at 10:16 PM, RZNJ said:

Per Baseball America. 

In what was the most anticipated pitching matchup of the entire season, Skenes faced off against Tennessee’s Chase Dollander in front of a record-setting crowd of over 13,000 at Alex Box Stadium on Thursday night. As he has been all season, Skenes was dominant with his full arsenal of above-average or better pitches. Against a loaded Tennessee lineup, the 6-foot-6 righthander allowed just one earned run across seven innings pitched and collected 12 strikeouts while walking one. His fastball sat in the 97-100 mph range for the entirety of his outing and topped out at 101. Skenes’ slider was lethal all night, a pitch which generated eight swings and misses. He manipulated its shape well, as it took on a true sweeper look against righthanded hitters, with more vertical movement against lefthanded hitters. He threw it just 12 times, but his changeup also flashed plus when he threw it with sharp, late fade. Skenes further cemented himself as the clear No. 1 pitcher in this year’s draft and now has a 5-0 record with a minuscule 0.81 ERA to go along with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 83-to-8 across 44.1 innings pitched. 

This sounds like he has a lot more than a fastball.

[Frobby]

Looking at several recent mock drafts, it looks like Skenes has separated himself from Dollander as the top pitcher, but still like looks to be drafted behind Dylan Crews.  

[backwardsk]

23 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

This sounds like he has a lot more than a fastball.

Right, he has good stuff with his secondaries.  He just hasn’t used them as much as he would have to in the bigs.  I heard on a podcast that it was like 75% FB. Not sure how reliable that is and I know people like to make up concerns, but if he’s dominating college hitters with his fastball primarily, I guess there could be some question there.  
 

He’s a great prospect. There’s little chance he gets past #2.

[RZNJ]

21 minutes ago, backwardsk said:

Right, he has good stuff with his secondaries.  He just hasn’t used them as much as he would have to in the bigs.  I heard on a podcast that it was like 75% FB. Not sure how reliable that is and I know people like to make up concerns, but if he’s dominating college hitters with his fastball primarily, I guess there could be some question there.  
 

He’s a great prospect. There’s little chance he gets past #2.

I’d say if his secondary pitches are considered plus but he’s still able to dominate with 75% fastballs, I’d look at that as a positive.  Sure, he’ll probably have to mix it up more as he advances.

[Sports Guy]

 

[RZNJ]

Interesting decision between choosing Skenes or Crews at 1:1.

[OrioleMagic79]

I wish MLB would allow trading draft picks ... sigh

[backwardsk]

He’ll probably get shut down after the CWS, but he could possibly pitch in the MLB this season.

 

 

[BohKnowsBmore]

On 5/10/2023 at 12:36 PM, OrioleMagic79 said:

I wish MLB would allow trading draft picks ... sigh

Honestly the slot system may allow you to effectively do it at a higher level of fidelity, with some clear frictions in other ways

[Just Regular]

Looks like Skenes is about to throw Game 1 of LSU's super regional against Kentucky starting in about 15 minutes, on one of the deep depth ESPN channels.

[Just Regular]

https://www.espn.com/college-baseball/boxscore/_/gameId/401553520

Skenes used 123 pitches Saturday to beat Tennessee in the Opener, so he'll just be cheering on Dylan Crews and the rest of Ben's Tigers tonight as they play #1 Wake Forest for prime position opposite 2-0 Florida in the other half of the bracket.

We'll see if/when they bring him back this week.

I heard Stanford used someone projected as about a 5th round pick 150+ pitches in a complete game earlier in the tournament.     It may or may not have been the highlight of his baseball career.