Watching Paul Skenes Continuously Obliterate Minor League Hitters Is Straight Up Laughable - The Pirates Need To End This Nonsense Right Now And Call Him Up

Let's make one thing very clear, Paul Skenes should not be pitching in the minor leagues right now. This is like Patrick Mahomes going back to Texas Tech in the fall and fucking around with Big 12 defenses. There's virtually no reason for him to be down there other than to get eyeballs on the Pirates' Triple A team and potentially save the organization some money. Sure maybe he's working out a few variations of sliders and changeups, but there's no challenge for him at this level. None. Zip. Nada. 

Just look at what he does to these poor hitters. The fellas on the St. Paul Saints were just out there looking to get a few decent ABs in and here's prime Randy Johnson on the mound looking to take their soul. What would happen if someone brought a bazooka to a knife fight? See below. 

That's a lineup with a few major leaguers in there too with Max Kepler and Tony Kemp. Didn't matter in the slightest. 

Yeah I'm calling the police if I'm Kemp after that. Guy is a vet just trying to get some work in and he's gotta face this maniac. Fuck that. 34 of his 65 pitches touched 100 mph or more. Skenes has thrown 104 of the 105 fastest pitches thrown by Triple-A starters this year. Silly stuff. 

Here's where he stands so far after four starts in Triple A

Now one thing you might wonder is why he's being limited to such short stints so far. I've got a good feeling his time in the minors will not be much longer. Pittsburgh is saving his bullets so that he can actually finish out the year with the big league squad rather than being shut down with an innings limit situation (remember how annoying that got with Stras in his rookie year). 

Skenes was up to 65 pitches in this start so maybe we're only a few outings away from him being built up enough for the call. The Pirates are basically doing the same thing with prospect Jared Jones, except it's happening at the MLB level. Hopefully by late May we see Skenes join him in the rotation with the Pirates in contention for the NL Central. When he finally toes the rubber for the first time it'll be the most anticipated pitcher debut since Strasburg. I've already bet his strikeout prop over in my head already for whenever that happens. Could be like 9.5 with a limited pitch count, I'm still taking it. 

On top of being an all world pitcher, who has his sights set on being a perennial Cy Young candidate, Skenes seems to have a pretty good head on his shoudlers. Here's a clip of him staying to sign for practically everyone in the park after the game. 

His reward for all of this? Lots of money and Livvy Dunne. 

Guy can't catch a break. Call the man up and give us and Livvy what we want.