What Paul Skenes showed in brief 2023 pro debut

Looking back at Paul Skenes pitching in 2023

Photo Credit: WTM

The Pittsburgh Pirates won the first ever MLB draft lottery, giving them the first overall pick for the 2023 draft.

That gave them first choice on one of the better top of the draft classes in recent history, including LSU teammates Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews.

Skenes was touted as the best college pitcher to come out in the draft since Stephen Strasburg, having one of the most dominating seasons at LSU ever.

In 122.2 innings pitches, Skenes struck out 209 batters and posted a 1.69 ERA, helping lead the Tigers to the National Championship.

So, the Pirates seeing an opportunity to draft a front-line level starter, drafted Skenes with that first pick and signed him to a record $9.2 million bonus.

Despite the heavy workload in college, Skenes would ramp back up to pitch what was expected to be up to another 20 innings in pro ball.

He started once in the FCL, before moving to Bradenton where he pitched two more times. After that he was promoted to Altoona, getting two starts before being shutdown for the rest of the season.

What was supposed to be 20 innings, turned out to be 6.2. Not a lot to go on from a professional stand point. He had one blow up game that he didn’t get out of the first inning, outside of that, the numbers were solid.

It wasn’t enough of a sample size to come to any concrete conclusions, but it was enough to get some general impressions and some things I’ll be watching going into next year.