Straightforward, direct and unswerving, Paul Skenes sat inside a media conference room in the catacombs of PNC Park Tuesday afternoon and fielded one question after another.
About his past.
About the present.
And the ones Pirates fans were most likely most interested in --- about the future.
Know what hit me hardest?
How Skenes did it with workmanlike precision and unwavering conviction. How he didn’t sound like a 21-year-old. How proficient and skilled he was. How he wasn’t wide-eyed and, quite frankly, handled a media conference better than many Major Leaguers I’ve dealt with. How he didn’t stumble over any words and how he wasn’t, at all, unprepared for any question that came his way.
So while it will forever say the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Paul Skenes out of Louisiana State University --- with the first pick in the first round of the 2023 draft --- Skenes lends his maturity to somewhere else.
Yes, those two seasons he spent at the Air Force Academy before transferring to LSU.
“I found that how you live your life, you can’t flip a switch,” he said. “Obviously the military, its foundation is discipline, order and structure. And the habits it forces you to build translate really well to not just baseball, but life.
“Everyone I know at the Air Force Academy leaves there a better man, a better woman and I’m grateful for the opportunities it has given me.”
It gave him a path and stability, that much is certain.
While at Air Force, Skenes both pitched and played catcher. He was simply an athlete --- and a damned good one. So much so that he hit 24 home runs and posted a 2.77 ERA at Air Force. This is far from a case of a player bursting on the scene in his final season of college baseball.
“Everyone knew about him at Air Force Academy,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said of Skenes. “But he brought it to another level when he went to LSU, for sure.”
Sure did.
And that’s the thing with Skenes --- he seemed to live the absolute perfect collegiate baseball experience that brought him to that place on Tuesday, where he was sitting at a podium a newly-minted multi-millionaire with so many hopes and dreams on that right arm.
He learned discipline, structure and the proper life assembly at Air Force.
Then he transferred to LSU for a season and was, simply put, around a bunch of studs who made him a better baseball talent.
LSU had centerfielder Dylan Crews go second overall in this most recent draft with pitcher Ty Floyd also a first-round selection. Pitcher Grant Taylor went in the second round and first baseman Tre Morgan was drafted in the third.
Baton Rouge was bursting with talent and Skenes thrived off the atmosphere.
“I don’t know if I ever told Dylan [Crews] to his face, but I wouldn’t have gone to LSU if Dylan weren’t there,” Crews said. “Those guys made me better every day. I’d like to think I did the same for them. The atmosphere we built there, the organization we had, you can’t get worse as a player. That’s just how the culture was there.”
Personally, Skenes beefed up and filled out his frame a bit. He also pushed that fastball from one that would travel in the mid-90s to one that regularly sailed through the zone, and past hitters, pushing 101mph.
“He got stronger in the right spots,” Cherington said of the body transformation when Skenes went from Air Force to LSU. “Plus, he became more effective with a more powerful delivery. That’s the transformation that happened. There also wasn’t the catching position with him, just the physical strain and toll of that can take a lot out of someone.”
So now we’re here. Paul Skenes officially the property of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Spending Tuesday afternoon at a media conference, then off to left field for a quick throwing session and signing autographs along the rail for fans who look to him as a player who will change the direction of this franchise.
Will he? Who knows, that remains to seen.
But I’ll tell you this much – it won’t be for lack of maturity. No question Skenes is mentally equipped for all of this. No question.