PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes believes the Pirates have a better team and believes there are more moves in the works for this season, but it's more about them playing better than being jealous of other teams.
To use his words, Skenes believes they pissed at least 10 games away last year through just bad fundamental baseball. He believes that's where the Pirates immediately improve even without the big-name signing or change to the roster.
"We're going to have our opportunities to win, so we have to take advantage of it," Skenes said Sunday. "It's not a complicated thing. It's simple but it's very difficult to do."
"It's probably a real thing. If you go out and sign the Ohtanis, maybe it becomes a little bit easier – he's Ohtani for a reason – but there's no reason we can't play fundamental baseball and execute at a very high level without having players like that."
"It's not a complicated game."
Skenes said he learned through the experience of last year and talking to guys who have played 15 years, players who have won a World Series, how a locker room should act. It gets back to what Andrew McCutchen told Dan Zangrilli on 93.7 The Fan on Friday, that he is going to take an active, vocal role as a leader.
The 23-year-old All-Star is ready to put his stamp on that room. He won't be bashful to say what he thinks needs to be said and back to McCutchen, who said he believes all need to have a voice. It doesn't mean he'll necessarily be domineering in that room, but you'll know what he is thinking.
"I think so," Skenes said. "I don't know what the character of that will be but I'll have probably a little more say so obviously having established myself a little bit, but there's still a long way to go. I'm not going to overstep but winning is winning. We've got to do what we've got to do to make it happen."
The leadership potentially comes from the likely strength of the team, starting pitching. Reliever Kyle Nicholas discussed Sunday the 'step on your throat' mentality Skenes and Jared Jones bring to the room. He believes that rubs off on all and Skenes said that advantage at starting pitching is a separator with other teams.
"As long as everyone goes into spring training with the mindset to earn it and compete," Skenes said. "We compete against each other and make each other better, so I'm excited for that competition and we're just going to keep raising the bar. We had a really good rotation last year. I don't know where it ranked in the league but we've just got to raise the bar and build a gap between us and the next team and keep building that gap."
Innings limit
It became such a part of the story last season with Skenes being on a first-year pitch count. Expect another one this year. He expects it, but his approach is going to be prepare for a full season with full innings. Skenes said he's not going to throw 240, but he also knows it won't be 160 innings again.
"It's going to be much more 'take the ball and pitch.'" Skenes said. "We haven't spoken about it but it doesn't affect (me). Frankly I was ready, I felt that I was ready to throw 240 innings last year too. I felt good in September so that kind of told me what I did last offseason was right and the training I did during the season too. Obviously, you don't want to be built up for 160 and throw 185. That's stupid. Build up for 240 and land where we land there."
