The Paul Skenes vs. Aaron Judge All-Star Game matchup was the best showdown MLB could have hoped for

ARLINGTON — Surely Rob Manfred and company had heard screams — or even outright accusations — for years. Major League Baseball doesn’t know how to market its stars! We have heard this from the public for decades. I don’t necessarily agree with it, at least not for the last several years (Remember the phrase ‘let the children play’?), but this is a familiar conversation topic.

Those people should be praising Major League Baseball after the 2024 All-Star Game, and I’m not even talking about Shohei Ohtani. hit a home runWhich was all kinds of fun.

Over the past several seasons, MLB has placed an emphasis on making the draft as big as possible. It now begins with the first round in primetime on the Sunday before the All-Star Game, at the same location where All-Star festivities are held. Paul Skenes out of LSU was the first overall pick in 2023 to much fanfare. In 2024, Skenes started the All-Star Game for the National League, making him the first No. 1 overall draft pick to be an All-Star the following season and the first to start the Midsummer Classic since Hideo Nomo did so in 1995. Became a novice. ,

And in order, the Skanes faced the MLB leader in hitting, one of the brightest young stars in the world’s sports capital, and two super-duper stars on a team that is arguably the greatest in American sports. Marquee is a franchise.

We couldn’t make it any better than this, right?

Skenes has only made 11 MLB starts, but he is 6-0 with a 1.90 ERA. The raw material matches the numbers, as does his knowledge and awareness despite being inexperienced. Other players are afraid of him, Steven Cowan said that on TV it looks like the pitchers should not be physically able to do what they do. Christian Yelich said the action on Skenes’ sinker – some call it a splinker – is different every time and marvels at how the young Pirates star hitters work. Yelich also praised Skenes for already being such an “advanced” pitcher.

We saw it on display in the first inning at Texas on Tuesday night.

Skenes welcomed the Guardians and AL leadoff Man Cowan with a 98.2 mph hitter that looked comfortable. Cowan leads the majors with a .352 average and is one of the toughest players to strikeout. Yet he looked a little silly swinging through the sinker after which the score became 0-2. It’s not often you can say that he looks foolish with a bat in his hand. He finally put a 99.9 mph fastball into play with a pop out.

Next up was Gunnar Henderson of the Orioles. He took a sinker for a strike on the first pitch, which was probably a good idea since he hadn’t seen that pitch before, which was probably the worst pitch in baseball. Then Skenes sent a fast ball past him. This is a guy who is hitting .286/.373/.584 with 28 homers and looks like he doesn’t know what to do with his bat. Skenes used a sinker to drive a 50 mph fastball back to the mound. A harmless second out.

At this point, it looked like we – and Major League Baseball – were going to lose. That’s because Aaron Judge, the American League’s biggest star, was placed in the cleanup spot in the lineup by Rangers manager Bruce Bochy. Will we really be missing out on seeing Skeens vs. The Judge? I started to get a little irritated at Bochi, even though he is this generation’s managerial goat. Don’t do this to us, butch.

Of course, I shouldn’t have worried so much. Judge’s Yankees teammate, Juan Soto, was coming to the plate.

Of course, I should note that Soto is a monster and this matchup will prove to be incredibly fun. Skenes immediately flashed his stuff with a sinker and Soto took perhaps the worst looking swing we’ve ever seen from him. It was a partial shift, as if he was confused by the action.

“I think it was a split, it’s a pretty good pitch,” Soto said afterward. “I watched it twice so I was definitely trying to get used to it.”

The next two pitches were balls and it was 2-1 and we were in business. Soto again rolled through a slider and Skenes caught him on the ropes. Then Soto finally got a slice of one and fouled the next sinker. Perhaps Skanes and catcher William Contreras were concerned about allowing Soto to see the sinker too many times in a row after a foul ball, because the next pitch was a curve – rare for Skanes – 100 mph fastball for ball four. Before leaving.

“I was trying to take him deeper, no lie,” Soto told reporters with a devilish smile.

And it was on. Judge vs. Skenes. I began to hear a bell ringing in my head signaling that this was the main event.

The matchup itself disappointed, as Judge threw him out on the first pitch. Shame. No long battles that ended with a home run or a strikeout. A little disappointing, but we got a dream matchup. There was an almost palpable buzz in the Texas crowd. It was as good as it gets for an All-Star Game.

“I just got a chance to fight against a young stud in the NL and watch (Soto) fight, it was pretty cool,” Judge said.

Skenes faced four of the better hitters with collectively very good skills in Major League Baseball and what happened was a tapestry of dominance. Sure, he walked Soto, but he also made Juan freaking Soto look bad in addition to Kwan and Henderson. Do you know how hard it is to do that?

“It was good to face them back-to-back,” Skenes said on the Fox broadcast about the battle of the two Yankees stars. “They were tough. Soto was a tough bat and Judge, I went after him and told him to roll one over the other.”

Let’s go back to Yelich on Monday:

“100 is not underrated, but you see 100 a lot. There are a lot of guys who throw 100, but he’s not there, just throwing 100. He pitches,” the Brewers slugger said at media day. doing.” “And even when you have 100 in the tank, it’s a little different. He was changing speeds with us, (the sinker) was somewhere between 91 and 95-96 and his fastball is 100. He knows how to use it. How to do arsenal, it seemed like he knew what he was doing, preparing us, he was quite advanced.”

While Skenes is a fireball, he is not Now! A ball of fire. He is a well-rounded pitcher. He got weak contact from Kwan, Henderson and Judge and barely had to break a sweat. Since then, he still hasn’t allowed a hit in more than a week. Played seven no-hit innings last time When striking out 11. He can strike you out, but he doesn’t have to do it every time. He is a full pitcher; the real deal.

The judge wouldn’t call it a win that he didn’t score a strike against the Skeens – “A win is putting some runs on the board,” he said. However, it was a victory for Major League Baseball. Skeens’ star power was on display for the world at Tuesday’s All-Star Game. No matter the outcome, MLB has already won this one.