LSU's Paul Skenes Should Pitch In The Big Leagues This Season

If you haven't watched Paul Skenes this season, I can't express to you how disgusting he is. Tennessee has one of the best lineups in the country and didn't sniff a run for seven innings tonight.

You can look at all the numbers — 1.77 ERA and 188 strikeouts in 107 innings entering tonight — but it is a special kind of demoralizing watching this guy pitch against your team. LSU led 2-0 for several innings and it felt insurmountable. Every base hit a collegiate batter gets off this guy feels like a gift from God.

I watch Major League Baseball every single day and I feel comfortable saying Skenes would be in the 80th percentile or so of big league starting pitchers if he got called up tomorrow. I don't know if there's a team that would be willing to do it, but the Pittsburgh Pirates have the No. 1 overall pick and if they stay in the NL Central race through the All-Star break, Skenes would be a pretty incredible addition to their bullpen for a postseason push. Skenes sits at 99 MPH over seven or eight innings, I can't imagine what his fastball would look like if he only had to throw 15 pitches.

I hate how good this guy is. It's bullshit that he's pitching in the College World Series right now. He should be facing Ronald Acuña, not Maui Ahuna.