Vaughn Dalzell breaks down Pual Skenes’ Rookie of the Year odds as his anticipated debut will come on Saturday versus the Chicago Cubs.
NL Rookie of the Year: Paul Skenes (+1700)
The Pittsburgh Pirates announced the No. 1 overall pick and the 2023 College World Series’ Most Oustanding Player of the Year will make his MLB debut on Saturday vs the Chicago Cubs making this the quickest debut from draft date to start date in 35 years.
PS... See you soon. 😏 pic.twitter.com/r3Uv8vE1qA
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 8, 2024
Skenes has dominated at Triple-A and forced Pittsburgh’s hand in bringing him up. Pittsburgh started the season 9-2 but is 8-19 over the next 27 games entering this three-game home stand against Chicago.
The Pirates rotation ranks 10th in ERA (3.70) and opponent batting average (.231), but the offense is 27th in batting average (.220) with the third-fewest homers hit (27). While Skenes won’t be batting, he could be what the Pirates’ fans and need to inject some excitement back into the team.
The 21-year-old pitcher 6-foot-6 RHP owns a 0.99 ERA with 45 strikeouts to eight walks over 27.1 innings and seven starts. The real hype around Skenes is his four-seam fastball that rivals Hunter Greene’s of the Reds.
Skenes averages 100 MPH on his fastball and throws it 46.9% of the time along with a slider that Triple-A batters are hitting .158 against. Throw in “splinker” which generates a swing and miss on 21% of pitches and reaches 97 MPH, and now you can see why he’s supposed to be the next big thing in Pittsburgh.
With rookies Jared Jones and Paul Skenes now in the rotation, the youth movement has begun in Pittsburgh and it will include a lot of strikeouts. I played Skenes at +2300 to win NL Rookie of the Year back on April 19 and will run it back for another half-unit at +1700 on FanDuel for Skenes.
You can watch some of his highlights here, to see what he’s working with.
Pick: Paul Skenes to win NL Rookie of the Year (0.5u)
MLB Futures in my pocket
2u: Shohei Ohtani to lead MLB in homer runs (+325)
2u: Hunter Greene Over 183.5 Strikeouts (-106)
2u: Jesus Luzardo Over 189.5 Strikeouts (-110)
1u: Tyler Glasnow to win NL CY Young (+600)
1u: Corbin Burnes to win AL CY Young (+400)
1u: Shohei Ohtani to win NL MVP (+450)
1u: Ronald Acuna Jr. to win NL MVP (+500)
1u: Julio Rodriguez to win AL MVP (+1000)
1u: Elly De La Cruz to win NL MVP (+1500)
1u: Elly De La Cruz to lead MLB in triples (+750)
1u: Elly De La Cruz to lead MLB in stolen bases (+700)
1u: Elly De La Cruz to lead MLB in stolen bases (+200)
1u: Jesus Luzardo to lead MLB in strikeouts (+3000)
1u: Hunter Greene to lead MLB in Strikeouts (+1700)
1u: Rockies to have the worst record in MLB (+220)
0.5u: Paul Skenes to win NL ROY (+2300)
0.5u: Paul Skenes to win NL ROY (+1700)
0.25u: Elly De La Cruz to lead MLB in HRs (+6500)
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