Yes folks, you read that title right. Former LSU pitcher Paul Skenes will start the 2024 MLB All-Star Game as a rookie.
Skenes has been one of, if not the most successful athlete in all of sports over the last two seasons. He transferred to LSU and began to dominate the college baseball world, setting the SEC record for most strikeouts in a season while posting a 13-2 record behind a 1.69 ERA. He also won the Golden Spikes Award as he helped LSU win their seventh national championship in baseball.
About a month later, Skenes was selected first overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates. He'd spend a very short amount of time in the minors (though, he could've easily spent less time there if the Pirates didn't wait so long to call him up) before taking the field as a major league pitcher for the first time on May 11th.
It has been just over two months since he made his major league debut, and he's already doing things we've never seen before. Yesterday, Skenes became the second pitcher ever to have multiple no-hit, 11+ strikeout games in a single season, joining one of the greatest pitchers of all-time, Nolan Ryan. He did it in just 11 games.
Through his first 11 games, Skenes is 6-0 with a 1.90 ERA. He's struck out 89 batters in 66.1 innings and has allowed an opponent batting average of just .202. He has only given up three runs twice, two runs twice, one run four times and no runs three times. He has more games shutting out opponents than games where he's allowed three runs.
Even though he's just two months into his career, Skenes has been so good that he was named to the NL All-Star team, and one question immediately arose: Will they actually let him start?
Well, the answer to that question is yes, they certainly will. On Friday, the MLB announced he is going to be the NL's starting pitcher this Tuesday, July 16th. He becomes just the fifth rookie pitcher to ever start an All-Star Game (first since 1995), joining Dave Stenhouse (1962), Mark Fidrych (1976), Fernando Valenzuela (1981) and Hideo Nomo (1995).
Paul Skenes is having not only one of the best rookie seasons in baseball history, but one of the best rookie seasons in sports history. What he's doing right now is unprecedented, and I'm just glad he's getting the proper recognition for his efforts.
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