Paul Skenes Dazzles in Second Start | Is Pirates' Hurler Already Untouchable?

It’s not often you’ll find a fantasy article focused on just one game for a baseball player. But after what Pittsburgh Pirates' Paul Skenes did on Friday, the baseball world is buzzing.

Let’s discuss Skenes’ second career start and his fantasy value in all types of leagues.

Explore the best in-season tool to manage lineup/start decisions including waiver pickups, projections, trade suggestions, trade value charts, rest of season rankings, power rankings, and tons more with Fantasy Assistant. Use our fantasy baseball trade analyzer and trade value charts to break down trade scenarios and weekly projections to find the best fantasy options.

Skenes Dazzles Against Cubs

Skenes made his second MLB start on Friday, May 17, facing the Cubs for the second straight time. Skenes was solid in his debut, but put the baseball world on notice with what he did in round two.

Skenes was nearly perfect. Across his six innings pitched, Skenes did not allow a hit. The 21-year-old struck out 11 batters while walking just one. All of his strikeouts can be watched here.

The only real downfall for Skenes is that he was at 100 pitched through six innings, and with no chance to make it through an entire game, Pittsburgh pulled him despite the no-hitter being intact.

He obviously only walked one batter, but it takes a lot of pitches to strike out 11 batters. Skenes didn’t help himself by only throwing first-pitch strikes to 11 of the 19 batters he faced.

Making his outing even more impressive was the fact that in the seven balls Chicago put in play, only one was a flyball. So of the 18 outs Skenes got, 11 were strikeouts, six were groundouts and one was a flyball. That’s almost unheard of.

Skenes’ Fantasy Outlook

Coming into the big leagues, fantasy owners knew the strikeouts would be there with Skenes. The Pirates have really protected him in the minor leagues, with him only going over five innings once, so being able to pick up wins and pitching deep into games seemed unlikely.

Of course, if you aren’t allowing hardly any baserunners, there’s no reason for your team to pull you from a game (until he gets close to 100 pitches that is). As fun as Friday’s game was, I wouldn’t get super used to the longer outings. I still believe most of his starts will end after four or five innings, with the occasional start going past that mark.

Even though he might be limited in his innings pitched, Skenes can certainly make up for things with his high strikeout totals. With 18 strikeouts in just 10 innings in his first two starts, Skenes is a must-start fantasy player already.

As far as Skenes’ fantasy outlooks go, I’d already say that Skenes is untouchable. 

In redraft leagues, some fantasy owners drafted Skenes and stashed him until now. Other fantasy owners claimed him off the waiver wire. Regardless of how he was acquired, he’s a game-changing fantasy pitcher, and it would take a big overpay for me to even consider moving him now. If my fantasy team got some much-needed depth out of a deal involving Skenes, that’d be about the only way I’d consider moving him.

In keeper or dynasty leagues, Skenes should absolutely be untouchable. He’s 21, and has a long and extremely bright future ahead of him. These kinds of pitchers don’t come around that often, so you’d be best served simply holding on to Skenes for the long haul.

Even in situations where a fantasy team in a dynasty league is in a rebuild and owns Skenes (I’m part of that group), there’s really no reason to move Skenes. He’s young enough where he should still be extremely young when your team is ready to compete. Build around Skenes instead of pushing your rebuild back even further.

It’s crazy to say after just two starts, but Skenes is already one of the best fantasy pitchers in the game. There’s not too many guys who I’d consider untouchable, but Skenes falls under that category for me. I don’t think it’s a hot take either. 

Even considering his hype before the season, fantasy owners had to take a little bit of a gamble on Skenes for this fantasy season (especially in redraft leagues). Don’t overthink things and get yourself into a mindset that this is the best Skenes can be.

Sure, he might not be able to match Friday’s start for a while, but more high-strikeout shutouts are definitely possible, especially against weaker-hitting lineups. Instead of trying to be unique and moving Skenes after the hot start, enjoy the ride and all the fantasy points and value Skenes will bring to your team.