Heard the announcers mention that Skenes was down to us and LSU. Made me wonder where we would be if we had landed him? He would not have made up for the errors in the field, but we also would not have used pitchers the same way we have. Believe with him we are a regional team, not necessarily a host but a solid regional team. I have been down on Lemonis but honestly watching Saturday and Sunday, we are not far away, and they fought.
Where would we be with Paul Skenes?
- Thread starter Theconnormead
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He can't pitch but once a week so we'd be going mostly 1-2 on weekends and the same as we have been during the week
No doubt a regional team. But not a national title caliber team. So in that vein, he made the right decision.
The most important thing to have in college ball is a dominant starter. Followed closely by a second, solid starter. Without solid starting pitching, you don't have a chance. Get that, now you need a competent offense. Get that, now you need 1-2 bullpen guys. Get that, you can win it all.
We were a Landon Sims away from a regional team last year. Add in Simmons and Auger and we're probably hosting.
The most important thing to have in college ball is a dominant starter. Followed closely by a second, solid starter. Without solid starting pitching, you don't have a chance. Get that, now you need a competent offense. Get that, now you need 1-2 bullpen guys. Get that, you can win it all.
We were a Landon Sims away from a regional team last year. Add in Simmons and Auger and we're probably hosting.
We'd be hosting a regional. Win the first game of a three-game series and you're in the driver's seat. Plus save more of your pen for games 2 and 3.
Agree on the weekday games, but I think our weekends could have been a little different as you would have likely had more pitching for the other two games. But...I admittedly know very little about real baseball.
He’d probably be a 2-2 type pitcher for us. We don’t typically score runs on Friday and we make a bunch of errors. A lot of no decisions that pen would blow.
Rumor I heard was north of $500K for 1 year. Merely a rumor.
He is projected to get $10M if he is drafted #1 in the draft in July.
He did publicly state he would give $10 per strike out to Folds of Honor, a nonprofit organization that provides educational scholarships to the spouses and children of military and first responders who have died or been disabled.
So I’m counting 10 Th/Fr night losses depending upon when we started our weekend series during a given week, and there were only 3 of those in which our offense got completely shut down. I mean, with a 1.69 ERA and knowing that having a guy like him on Friday night then saves a bunch of arms for the rest of the weekend, I could buy him getting us 6-8 more wins.
That said, I try to stay away from using one of the most dangerous words in the English language. If…
5 or 6 more SEC wins around .500 SEC record with Skenes on roster. Even with Skenes on the team, we would make some Bonehead decisions that would have cost us games.
That said, I try to stay away from using one of the most dangerous words in the English language. If…
Very good idea.....especially when it comes to MSU
Sounds like he really had one choice, and it came with a lot of zeroes behind it.
Probably more like 4 more. Which would still put us at 12-15 right now and fighting for a regional.
In the SEC tournament. But we can't hit it great. We don't field it great. We don't coach it great.
Since rumors are encouraged here.....a kid's father who plays with my son's travel team is an AFA alum.....those are a tight knit group.....his hope was that Skenes may have ended up in Oxford (lol)....he told me that after talking to some of his AFA buddies, that Skenes was always going to LSU because he has family down there....if true, im sure NIL money plus that won the day...
He would be having TJ surgery right now if he was ours.
If we had 40 less walks, we’d be 14-16 in sec play I think.
and that would put us at 10 in the sec in walks allowed.
Same place we are now...oh well didn't get him 17 him we won the series
We’d be a Regional team, but not in the hosting discussion.
We’d still have one of the worst staffs in the conference. Especially if Cade Smith isn’t 100% for half the season.
We’d still have one of the worst staffs in the conference. Especially if Cade Smith isn’t 100% for half the season.
Not only is he a near automatic win, but you save more arms for Saturday and Sunday. Plus his energy and confidence would be contagious. Player leaderships seems to be something lacking this year.
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We have won a total of 1 Friday SEC opener all season, so that would be 8 to 9 more wins this year. Definitely would have made a big difference.
Also would have given us a chance to win 5 Saturday second games with Cade.
Also would have given us a chance to win 5 Saturday second games with Cade.
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Yep. It's not just about adding a great pitcher. It essentially means that you get to subtract your 5-6 worst SEC pitching options. So, not only does a Skenes give you a great chance to win Friday, you aren't going to be scraping the bottom of the bullpen barrel on Sunday.
Skenes had 55.2 IP in SEC play. We don't have a pitcher over 32 IP.
Imagine being able to take 55.2 innings from our current staff and giving it Skenes.
Imagine being able to take 55.2 innings from our current staff and giving it Skenes.
For what its worth I was told by someone who has a relative on the team that he got $700,000, but you know how that goes.
3-4 extra sec wins to date. Skenes did lose 2 friday night games.. and is only a 6 inning starter. Our pen I'm not sure would have held every sec lead, as we've shown
5-6 extra wins in general probbaly.. we won our non conference games.. he wouldnt have made a huge impact outside of maybe 1-2 wins in the non confernece
so we'd be probably where A&M is right now. Sitting on the bubble needing a good final weekend.
He'd make an impact but i'm not sure its the 10 game we think. Rest of the roster is still in shambles. That said a friday night guy is key. And this staff has yet to be able to recruit one.
5-6 extra wins in general probbaly.. we won our non conference games.. he wouldnt have made a huge impact outside of maybe 1-2 wins in the non confernece
so we'd be probably where A&M is right now. Sitting on the bubble needing a good final weekend.
He'd make an impact but i'm not sure its the 10 game we think. Rest of the roster is still in shambles. That said a friday night guy is key. And this staff has yet to be able to recruit one.
A tremendous difference. He would have given us a lot more flexibility with our staff. Quality pitching is the Achilles heel on this team.
I think that is low. With Skenes I would say 8 or 9 more wins with Skenes and Cade going on Saturdays. And we would not be discussing not making the SEC tourney or firing our head coach. This doesn't even count the non-conference losses we had early season that would be added to our total wins.
You could add 3-4 more wins during the OOC portion of the schedule. There were 3 OOC series and a tourney type weekend. Gotta think total......11-12 possible. He might lose 1 or 2 games.
Crazy to think adding one player through NIL would help add that many wins directly and indirectly, but Skenes is that good and Cade would have been so much better pitching second games where our run production was a lot higher. And as others have mentioned, they would eat up a lot more quality innings, saving your bullpen and not needing to pitch guys who are nowhere near ready for SEC batters.
We can play the what if game all day and night. I dont think Skenes is worth 10 wins. To make it simple LSU is 40-12 and 17-9. If Skenes is worth 10 or 11-12 like some have said.
Then LSU would be 28-24 right now and 11-15 in the SEC. LSU would be much better than that without him.
A Friday night guy matters-- having Skenes would make us a worlds better. But as bad as we are, he would have likely had us sititng on the bubble right now, not being a regional host.... AND... on the flip side LSU isnt going from a national seed to out of the tournament without him
Then LSU would be 28-24 right now and 11-15 in the SEC. LSU would be much better than that without him.
A Friday night guy matters-- having Skenes would make us a worlds better. But as bad as we are, he would have likely had us sititng on the bubble right now, not being a regional host.... AND... on the flip side LSU isnt going from a national seed to out of the tournament without him
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Comparing what Skenes would be worth to State is not the same as what Skenes was worth to LSU.
Why?
If a guy is worth 10 wins. Which they have stats that do this now (W.A.R). Then LSU losing Skenes would the equvilant to taking 10 wins off their team. Now I dont think he's worth that, and they dont compute WAR in the college game only the big league game.
I mean this is all hypothetical. So pointless to argue as there is no right or wrong side.
But all the things mentioned skenes would do for us, he's doing for LSU right now. So if he's going to add 10-12 wins for us, then LSU losing all those things would costs them the very same wins.
LSUs pitching staff is similar to ours: No sunday starter (2 guys with 7 eras). Their #2 guy isnt dominate. They'd have to slide their 2 guy into the 1 slot. Those other arms would become saturday arms. Their pen would be effected. They'd lose the swagger someone earlier claimed. Seems like a similar spot. If we are getting 10-12 wins. LSU is losing them
If we had landed Skenes, LSU would have gotten someone else in the Portal. Looking at all pitchers signed in the Portal, only one other has had a solid, impact season as a starter. Connelly Early went from Army to Virginia and posted a 10-1 record with a 2.70 ERA with 70 Ks so far. The other pitcher LSU signed other than Skenes was Thatcher Hurd who is 3-2, 7.00 ERA with 50 Ks. He is the equivalent of us signing Gartman (2-3, 7.25, 47 Ks), so that is a wash.
I'll still stick by my earlier claim that landing Skenes for Friday night, and pitching Cade on Saturdays would have added 8 to 10 more SEC wins and probably 3 to 4 more non-conference wins earlier in the year. That would put us around 3rd or 4th in the SEC standings. That doesn't even account for the better pitching and bullpen we would use on Sundays and a few more possible wins there.
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