PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – ‘He compares to Paul Skenes’, maybe that was one of the comments that sticks out about the Pirates number one pick when Bucs GM Ben Cherington was asked to compare Skenes to other major leaguers.
When you start to look at it, while there are great pitchers in the majors who have accomplished amazing things. Who in MLB is like the LSU All-American?
He’s 6’6”, 260 pounds who throws an average of 98 miles-an-hour with insane control and has only been a full-time pitcher for one season. Even when he was a two-way player, he was a pitcher and catcher. Most who play multiple positions are pitchers and infielders or outfielders or even designated hitters, not catchers.
Skenes struck out 209 and walked 20 in 122.2 innings with a 0.75 WHIP in the SEC. Not saying MLB pitchers wouldn’t have success against collegians, but when you combine all of that together he appears more and more like the unicorn former MLB GM Dan O’Dowd described to The Cook and Joe Show last week.
“I think this guy is Paul Skenes,” Cherington reiterated in not a flippant comment, rather as a matter of comparison. “I think part of what drew us to him is he’s very focused on being the best version of Paul Skenes and he’s tackled everything that’s in front of him to do that. Look, people talk about Air Force and LSU.”
“Think about at the moment, a young man making those decisions. There would have been easier places to go out of high school than the Air Force Academy. There certainly would have been easier things to do, rather than transfer into the SEC in your draft year. Those are just two examples. There are certainly others, but this is someone who, not just willing to take on challenges, but craves it. To me, we’re just going to be comparing Paul Skenes to Paul Skenes.”
When Skenes was asked about that roughly two hours later on Sunday night. His answer was interesting and involved another Pirates first overall draft pick.
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“I don’t know about comparisons to myself because I think I’m a mixture of a number of different pitchers. But the guys I like to watch and the guys I feel as I move down the mound, deGrom, Strider, Darvish … and I know I probably don’t look exactly like any of those guys, but that’s what I feel as I move down the mound. I really like watching Gerrit Cole compete.”
Signability
Was Skenes picked over his college teammate Dylan Crews (agent Scott Boras, already made claims of wanting richest contract) simply because the Pirates felt like they were more likely to be able to sign him?
“Paul was the first player on our board,” Cherington said. “I can say that. I can also say that at the top of the board, it’s very hard to separate. It wasn’t like it was one and a big gap. It was a group of players, really, at the top of the board and I guess someone has to be first.”
“I don’t think any team, and certainly the Pirates, would not make any selection without talking to players and understanding as best we could what was important to them. So that’s what we were able to work through today, including with Paul, and feel really good based on those conversations that we were in a spot to select Paul and ecstatic about adding him to the Pirates.”