If you’re a fan of the classic 1993 baseball flick Rookie Of The Year (and if you’re a baseball fan, that should be all of you!), you’ll understand what this next statement means:
Former LSU star pitcher Paul Skenes, now in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system ahead of his eventual Major League Baseball debut, is throwing some stinky cheddar.
Skenes’s fastball was hitting triple digits Monday, and video of the pitch has quickly gone viral on X (formerly Twitter).
Skenes and his flamethrower arm will begin his 2024 season in the minors. Of course, he hasn’t even completed a full year as a professional yet. Skenes was selected #1 overall in last year’s MLB Draft and went pro after leading LSU to a national championship in June.
“As we looked at the boxes that needed to be checked for him to be in a position where we’d feel confident and frankly safe to consider him for the major leagues, a lot of those boxes that haven’t been checked yet are not things he has full control over,” Pirates GM Ben Cherington told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Skenes has only logged 6 2/3 minor league innings to date.
“It’s just a matter of where he is in his career and not having had the opportunity yet to experience everything that comes along with being a professional pitcher,” Cherington continued. “He hasn’t yet quite had the opportunity to adjust to a professional schedule in terms of shorter rest between starts and things like that.
“We looked at the total work volume last year, the innings between LSU and pro ball. We look at what’s a reasonable projection for 2024 and try to manage that for a full season. We just feel like it’s more realistic and better for us to start that process in the minor leagues.”
“The goal is to be a major leaguer and win a World Series,” Skenes said, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “This is where it starts. I’ve spent a lot of time over the offseason thinking about it. Saw the data on guys who have come before me. I knew the likelihood [of making the team] was pretty low.
“I’ve thrown 6 2/3 innings in pro ball. It’s just kind of how it goes.
[Cherington] said it would be unprecedented if I started the year in the big leagues. Not that I don’t think I can do it, but I understand it.”