Paul Skenes: 'I Wanted to Finish'

Most baseball fans agree that Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan knows more about the art of pitching than queasy franchise owners who are overprotective of their stars. In the 2024 All-Star Game, the Pittsburgh Pirates rookie phenom and toast of the town Paul Skenes pitched the first inning and threw sixteen pitches before being yanked. After Skenes got New York Yankees’ home run king and clean-up batter Aaron Judge to ground out harmlessly, Skenes should have been allowed a chance to face the National League’s remaining starting nine batters. Skenes, the first player drafted No. 1 to appear in the ASG, was unquestionably the game’s major attraction. He did not pitch again until a week later in front of a local PNC Park crowd---seven days rest after tossing one inning.

In his brief career, managers’ pitch count fixation has dogged Skenes. Before the ASG, Pirates’ manager Derek Shelton pulled Skenes from two no-hitters. Shelton took Skenes out after six hitless innings in his second career start on May 17 at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs. More incomprehensibly, Shelton gave Skenes the hook in his 11th career start, after he dominated the Milwaukee Brewers with seven no-hit innings and struck out a career-tying 11 batters on 99 pitches. Skenes had a frustrated, disgusted look as he walked from the mound. After the game, Skenes said “Definitely, I wanted to finish,” and added that he had never thrown a no-hitter, “not even in Little League.”

Asked why he prevented Skenes from becoming part of baseball history, Shelton disingenuously said, contrary to any evidence, that his pitcher was tired. Skenes only needed six pitches to get through the seventh and no Brewers’ batter had reached base since the second inning. But Skenes had thrown ninety-nine pitches, one away from the one hundred maximum number allowable.

Skenes is 22 years old, 6’6”, 235 pounds, and a smoke-throwing machine. In the 2023 College World Series against the Tennessee Volunteers, Skenes threw 123 pitches, forty-six of them at or above 100 MPH and struck out 12. From May 18 through June 22, he threw at least 120 pitches in three of his last four college starts and more than one hundred pitches in five of his last six starts, including 124 in the CWS regional against the Tulane Green Waves. His arm did not fall off.

Fifty years ago, on June 14, 1974, Nolan Ryan, a Hall of Fame great, threw 234 pitches in his 13-inning stint for the California Angels against the Boston Red Sox. Ryan struck out nineteen while his pitching opponent Luis Tiant went all the way, 14-1/3 innings, and took the 4-3 loss. Counting pitches did not officially begin until 1988 but Ryan’s pitching coach, Tom Morgan, kept track on a handheld clicker. Ryan’s colossal effort 50 years ago did not leave him any the worse for wear. He made his next start against the Yankees, six scoreless innings, on just three days’ rest and finished the season with twenty-six complete games, an impressive total but not good enough to lead the league. Ryan finished fourth behind leaders Fergie Jenkins, Gaylord Perry, and Mickey Lolich. Ryan went on to pitch nineteen more seasons to reach twenty-seven total, pitched past his 46th birthday and tossed his record seventh no-hitter at age 44. When he hung up his spikes, Ryan pitched 222 complete games, struck out 5,714 and tossed 5,385 innings, all MLB records.

Ryan scoffed at the quality start concept. As he told the Los Angeles Times, “If I had pitched only six innings and gave up three runs, I would have had a bad outing, and I was hacked off. And I can tell you what: My manager and general manager were not happy, either. In those days, I was my own closer."

Today’s pitchers are suffering from an excess of advice from pitching, assistant pitching, bull pen, and conditioning coaches who have never played a single inning in MLB competition. Studying videos, analyzing pitching motions, evaluating when and how to release the bulb---too many cooks spoil the broth. Consider the pitching coach career of Jim Turner, the New York Yankees’ mastermind who, over an incredible 24-year career, famously carried around a little black book---no computers or Internet in his era.

With Turner's fastidious notetaking, he directed the New York Yankees' pitching staffs under manager Casey Stengel from 1949-1959, and again under manager Ralph Houk from 1966-1973, taking a break in between with a stint as the pitching coach for the Cincinnati Reds from 1961-1965. Under Turner's first time around, the Yankees won nine pennants and seven World Series, guided by Whitey Ford, Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi and Eddie Lopat, pitchers who finished what they started. Turner also helped in the Reds' pennant-winning 1961 season, coaching a staff led by underrated pitchers Joey Jay and Jim O'Toole to a 3.78 ERA, third best in the National League.

More than any other change in how baseball is played over recent decades, dinosaur fans cannot comprehend the pitch count obsession. Adding to the mystery is that physiologically the shoulder’s construction has been the same for eons and players conditioning routines have improved. Ryan is unique, and Skenes may aspire to match his greatness. But he’ll never reach Ryan’s plateau unless he gets a chance to pitch without interference from owners, coaches, and managers.

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research and Internet Baseball Writers Association member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com