re: Skenes hitting would make the lineup terrifying

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No shite. You seem to be ignoring everything I've said about risk/reward to attempt to rebut an argument I didn't make. Nothing that any other player has done in the past or is doing this year matters as it pertains to Skenes. The decision on what Skenes does this year is based around what we're trying to do as a team and where he provides the most value toward that goal. The risks and rewards incorporated into that decision are not based on Florida's current roster or Louisville's roster when Brendan McKay was there. Or Todd Helton, Mark Kotsay, Tim Hudson, or Scooby fricking Morgan. Right now we're down a weekend pitcher and we have bats coming out the wazoo. We want to win a national championship and we need a healthy Paul Skenes pitching in order to do that. That's it.

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These dullards don’t want to hear that, even if it’s coming from one of the most respected baseball posters on the board. They won’t be satisfied until Skenes is a lineup fixture and takes a heater off the knuckles. They think having him in the lineup is worth 5 extra runs a game and want that fantasy at any cost

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Good god, man. No it isn't.

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the poster above you literally went with the worst case scenario hypothetical

At least Project puts context in his rebuttals saying the dynamic of the team Skenes bat is not needed. I disagree, but at least it wasn't an Armageddon argument.

He would rake but...hell no!

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the poster above you literally went with the worst case scenario hypothetical At least Project puts context in his rebuttals saying the dynamic of the team Skenes bat is not needed. I disagree, but at least it wasn't an Armageddon argument

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That you don’t consider worst case hypotheticals is why you’re not to be taken seriously. You act like these are video game characters that can bounce back from anything after you hit the reset button. That’s not real life. In real life, shite happens

Nearly everyone in this thread, myself included, has made the case that this team is built to succeed even without his bat in the lineup and the risk does not justify the potential for a reward that is marginal at best. Yet you dig into this fantasy like a kid who demands his dessert. It’s bizarre, assuming you are in fact older than 8 years old

He may get a few cuts this year and I hope he does. But what you’re suggesting is not going to happen. Nor should it

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MrWiseGuy

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People can have different opinions on this subject.

I wish we’d get more people opining on exactly how good of a bat Skenes brings to the table. To me, there’s a difference if you say he’s a legit elite hitter like our top guys vs. a guy that’s good but not elite.

But you seem to struggle with the logic of the decision. It doesn’t matter if he’s more or less at risk pitching. And it doesn’t matter what others have done.

What matters is the relative value of him hitting vs the relative risk given his importance on the mound.

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I wish we’d get more people opining on exactly how good of a bat Skenes brings to the table

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I posted it.

MLB Pipeline would project him as a top 3 round first baseman. A righty, righty 1B

That means that service thinks he would absolutely mash as righty/righty first base only bats are not highly regarded.

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He'd factor into the top three rounds as a position player thanks to his huge right-handed power to all fields and projected solid defense at first base.

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I don't understand why you keep using this analogy when there's been so many cases of two-way college players?

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As many others have pointed out, what others have done in the past has no bearing here. How do you not understand this?

The goal is a national championship. Frivolously exposing your best pitcher to unnecessary risk that would cause him to miss significant time does not increase your chances of making that a reality.

I assume Jay and Skenes talked about his role here during his recruitment. The fact that he was hitting in the fall tells us that Jay was open to the idea. Did something happen to change that?

Let me just give you a scenario. In the beginning of the fall, Skenes was killing it. His bat eventually cooled off very quickly. The last couple of weeks of the fall he didn't hit at all and that pretty much carried into the spring.

Why did they back off on him hitting? My first thought was that he was having some issues, lets say tightness in his back. The staff told him to back off the hitting and that he was trying to do too much. This is strictly me guessing as to why they backed off.

Fast forward to the regular season. There have been opportunities for him to hit but they haven't put him in.

All that being said, he has been hitting in batting practice. I also know he is very competitive and probably would cherish the opportunity to hit a few nukes.

As for the argument of "does it makes sense to use him or not". We have no proof he can hit better than Pearson or Kling, and they would have to sit under the OP's lineup. Unless he is substantially better it doesn't make any sense to risk the injury. If he is substantially better than I would choose my moments to use him.

We have too many competent hitters to take that risk.

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If I was a player with the same talent level I’d want to play every single game to show my wares off to the scouts.

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The scouts have known about him for awhile, don’t worry