Here’s the thing about Paul Skenes: he broke baseball before he ever broke a sweat. And now –– finally, mercifully, gloriously –– it feels like the Pittsburgh Pirates are acting like a team that realizes what they have.
Because once you see the number, you can’t un-see it: with league-average run support, Skenes’ first 55 MLB starts should have produced a 41–3 record.
Forty-one. And. Three.
That’s not “ace stuff.” That’s “build-the-statue-now” stuff. That’s “you only get one of these in a generation” stuff. And yet, Skenes went 10-10 last year.