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00:00A great day if you're a Pirates fan and you see Paul Skeens out there on the hill, and
00:08that's what we saw yesterday afternoon.
00:09The Pirates get it done, 5-0 over the Cubs, and Donnie, the Cubs have been playing some
00:14pretty strong baseball, but going up against one of the young, strong Phenom arms in the
00:19game.
00:20And by the way, you're right, the Cubs at the plate have been absolutely on fire for
00:24the past two weeks here, but that also reminds us that when you run into a dominant pitcher,
00:29great pitching usually beats great hitting.
00:31And yesterday you saw that as well in a 5-0 victory for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
00:35Now the shame of it all is, you take a look at Paul Skeens yesterday, five innings pitched,
00:39four hits, no earned runs given up, six strikeouts, 100 pitches here, and a 2.13 ERA.
00:45Yesterday I said to myself, you know he's probably going to get around the sixth inning
00:48with 100 pitches and the Pirates would have the lead, which they did yesterday, but do
00:52you want to risk by not taking a first five innings wager and go with the full game where
00:56the bullpen might be able to give it up against a hot Chicago lineup?
00:59That didn't happen yesterday.
01:00The bullpen was very good for the Pittsburgh Pirates and an easy victory.
01:04Here's the issue, Dubsy, with us, right?
01:06Because we want to see Paul Skeens down the stretch.
01:09Heck, we might even saw Paul Skeens in some playoff baseball if we were thinking about
01:13a month ago.
01:14But that win yesterday, which gives the Pittsburgh Pirates two in a row, they're still in dead
01:18last place in the NL Central at 65-73.
01:21So the questions are going to come up as we get to Paul Skeens in a moment, how long he's
01:24going to pitch.
01:25But those are the type of performances that you look at for the Pirates and say, man,
01:29if this kid can pitch full seasons and stay healthy, how dominant he can actually be.
01:34It was on full display yesterday against a very good Cubs lineup.
01:37They get the shutout victory in Pittsburgh.
01:39And take a look at the numbers that we've seen from Paul Skeens, truly remarkable season.
01:44The boyfriend of Libby Dunn that he is putting together here.
01:47There's question marks on how much more we will see going through the next month or so.
01:51But take a look at the betting side of things.
01:53National League Rookie of the Year.
01:55This award was done and dusted at the break, Donnie.
01:58Paul Skeens was minus 1,200 to take out Rookie of the Year honors.
02:02If you take a look at the Fandle Sportsbook now, it's Jackson Merrill with the Padres
02:06at minus 900.
02:09Absolutely unbackable.
02:10And it's Skeens at plus 700.
02:12So it's too late to jump back in for this award.
02:15But what has been such a drastic change?
02:17Because I feel like Paul Skeens has still been performing at a very high clip for the
02:21Pirates.
02:22Is it a matter of seeing Jackson Merrill out there on the daily, on the nightly?
02:25And I guess the consistency that we've seen from the Padres?
02:29Exactly.
02:30I always call it getting those extra credit points here, Dubs.
02:32And what I mean by that is you're playing in big moments on a night-to-night basis and
02:36delivering.
02:37And Jackson Merrill has been doing that with the Padres who are fighting for a playoff
02:40spot.
02:41The shame of it is we wanted to see Paul Skeens here down the stretch in the month of September
02:45in games where the Pirates had to win to sort of get into that wildcard race and maybe
02:49be a factor down the stretch, which is no longer there.
02:52Well, you saw that graphic up there, 9-2 on the season, an ERA of 2.13.
02:56And you say in your mind, like, in what season, year or millennium is this guy not the Rookie
03:02of the Year with those statistics here?
03:04And also looking at the fans of sportsbook at the odds themselves, you're right.
03:07Paul Skeens was almost a shoo-in for Rookie of the Year.
03:10Paul Skeens was in the top three in the race to win the Cy Young Award.
03:14Now, things have changed since then, but who would have thought with still a month left
03:17to go in baseball, Jackson Merrill is a minus-900 price to take down the National League Rookie
03:24of the Year.
03:25Because you know what's happening, Dubsy?
03:26We are almost expecting Paul Skeens to not pitch much longer in this Major League Baseball
03:31season and Jackson Merrill, the Padres, to continue to play in high-leverage situations
03:36on a night-to-night basis as the Padres fight for maybe the outside chance of winning the
03:40NLS, but more importantly, just making it into the playoffs.
03:43No shame in Paul Skeens' game.
03:45He is a great pitcher.
03:46He should have a phenomenal career moving forward, but it is kind of crazy to see Jackson
03:50Merrill a minus-900 price this Wednesday morning at the fans of sportsbook to win the NL Rookie
03:55of the Year.