Has any pitcher gotten off to this good of a start in their career? I mean this guy was obviously MLB ready in college.

26 comments

  2. The fact that he is 6-8 with those stats should be a criminal offense against the whole pirates offense.

  5. Do the Pirates scored negative runs per game?? 6-8 with that ERA is WILD 🤦🏾‍♂️🤦🏾‍♂️

  6. The 2 closest examples I can think of are Jose Fernandez (ROTY, 2.13 ERA) and Fernando Valenzuela (ROTY AND Cy Young same szn). But you can argue Skenes had a better rookie szn than both of those guys w advanced stats like ERA+

  11. Tough to compare.
    Golden was only 19 when he came up. Higher ERA and WHIP but a ton more innings and strikeouts.
    His 2nd year is up there with some of the top pitching years in the past 75+ years or more.

  12. 30 years ago they’d think he’s absolute ass because of that 6-8 record

  16. Doc Gooden was the best pitcher on the planet by age 20. His first two seasons:

    66 G, 41-13 record, 494.2 IP, 544 K, 2.00 ERA, 1.01 WHIP

    If you go back to the 19th century, HOFer John Ward put up these numbers in his first three seasons (age 18-20):

    177 G (154 CG), 108-56 record, 1,516 IP, 585 K, 1.84 ERA, 0.99 WHIP

  17. No, this is historic so far. He recently surpassed Vida Blue as the player with the lowest ERA AND WHIP through his first 44 career starts… since 1920.

    I heard that on the radio broadcast during that start, which was 2 ago I believe. I think he’s thrown blanks in the two starts since.

  19. W-L is a bit of a useless stat when applied to an individual, as it is dependant on the team. A big component that affects this stat is quite literally out of the pitchers hands.

    Another starting pitcher could theoretically have an ERA of 10.00 and be 14-0.

  20. Not to this level, but it does remind me of Strasburg. When he was drafted everyone thought he was MLB ready right away and he was very dominant in 2010 before blowing out his elbow.

  21. Dwight Gooden’s second year at 20y/o with a 12.2WAr. But as good as even his first year was at 19 y/o it wasn’t as good as Skenesfirst two years.

    Skenes looks like he has been doing this for 10 years.

  22. Without looking anything up, I would point to Doc Gooden and Fernando Valenzuela.

  23. Dwight Gooden! Through 133 innings, Gooden had about 170 strikeouts (a rate mentioned as historic for that stretch), a sub-2.00 ERA, and a win–loss record close to 10-7.

  26. Bob Feller started at age 17, and put up great numbers and was an All star at ages 19-22 (then missed seasons due to the war.)

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