Paul Skenes is a force of nature. The Pittsburgh Pirates ace is currently one of the best, if not the best, pitchers in the MLB now. Skenes' ability to completely overwhelm batters makes him a devastating threat to every hitting lineup.
There's one question that remains to be answered, though: how would Skenes fare against the greatest players of all time. The Pirates ace gets his opponents out on a regular basis, but what would happen if he faced someone like, say, Babe Ruth?
Well, Skenes himself attempted to answer that question when he went on Mookie Betts' podcast. The Pirates pitcher said that he believes he'll be able to strike out Babe Ruth himself. His solution? Throw something that even hitters today rarely see: his signature “splinker”.
“Probably just throw a splinker in there, see what happens,” Skenes said. Betts agreed that this was the right decision, pointing out that, “There's no way he's seen a splinker before, not many of us have.”
Skenes' “splinker” is, as the name suggests, a hybrid pitch between a splitter and a sinker. The pitch on its own is already devastating: the Pirates star generates a ton of movement on this pitch. Add to that Skenes' 100+ mph fastball and his excellent control on the splinker, and you have a potential formula for striking out one of the greatest players in MLB history.
The debate about how old-school hitters would fare against pitchers today is one that's been discussed many times. Like Skenes and Betts suggest, there's been a lot of evolution with pitching that it will be hard for the hitters to keep up. Even the fastball has progressed significantly: 100-mph fastballs used to be a rarity, but now it's a necessity for any big-league pitcher.
Skenes is in a prime position to win his first Cy Young award. He boasts an insane 2.05 ERA through 167 innings, striking out 187 batters in the process.
