Morning Rundown: Paul Skenes Makes His Altoona Debut Saturday

The Pirates first overall pick from this year makes his Double-A debut today.

Aug 26, 2023

When comparisons are made to Stephen Strasburg out of college, it’s fair to assume that we were going to see Paul Skenes move quickly through the Pirates system.

After three total starts in Florida (one in the FCL, two with Bradenton), Skenes will jump from Single-A straight to Double-A and pitch for the Altoona Curve on Saturday, facing the Akron RubberDucks.

In four professional innings, Skenes has struck out five while allowing just one hit, which came in his first game with Bradenton.

He pitched a second inning the next time he pitched, which was also the last time we saw him on the mound.

Skenes had a fairly rough workload at LSU, so it would be tough to imagine him pitching too deep into any game here, and while you’d certainly want to get as much experience against professional hitters - there’s another development opportunity for him to close out 2023.

In college he’d only pitch on Friday’s, or generally once per week. That’ll obviously change at the professional level, and we’ve already seen the Pirates start to get him into a routine of doing so.

Generally in Bradenton pitchers also follow the once per week schedule in their rotation. Skenes pitched Tuesday and Sunday, and then will pitch again on five days rest this weekend.

First pitch for Saturday’s game in Altoona is scheduled for right around 6 pm ET. It’s not known how many pitches Skenes will throw, but it probably won’t be too much more than what he’s already been.