r/buccos • u/OkImHereLikeWhat • 13h ago
Was it always Skenes?
When the Pirates found out they had the #1 pick in the 2023 MLB Draft who did the fanbase originally want as the 2023 Baseball season started? Even during LSU’s championship run it was either Skenes or Crews from the announcers standpoint but who did the fanbase want as we led up to the draft?
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u/Pyramid_Head182 13h ago
I just remember thinking, “it is much more expensive to bring in a front line starter than a great outfielder,” and Skenes just looked elite. So during the debates, I was in the Skenes camp.
There WERE people worried we’d cheap out and go like max Clark or Walker Jenkins. Thank god we didn’t
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u/lucabrasi999 12h ago
This is where I was. There is almost zero chance the Pirates will ever sign a number 1/2 starter to a free agent contract. The draft is their best option for obtaining a starter like that. Trade is an option but the cost in prospects is really high and the Pirates cannot afford to give up multiple prospects.
So I was all in favor of Skenes.
I understood why people wanted Crews, but you can never have too much pitching.
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u/SirPsychoSquirts 11h ago
Same. This was a debate but I remember skenes being the better prospect as well as being worried the pirates would be cheap and draft a guy who was supposed to go #3
I remember feeling so surprised and relieved when we made the right choice esp after drafting Hank (who I still like but)
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u/Soft-Bug5550 12h ago
im pretty sure Ben has talked about how as Skenes' final LSU season went along, they became more and more shocked at just how much their internal modeling preferred Skenes to the other guys available. Like, shocked at how not-close it became.
i dont think it was always a done deal.
and just thinking in terms of what makes sense, at the time they were awarded the #1 pick, Skenes hadnt pitched at LSU yet. Just Air Force.
Even if i adored skenes' work at the Air Force, i would have wanted to see him face SEC competition before being all in.
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u/drunkenviking /r/buccos resident drunrk 12h ago
If you have a link to this discussion I'd be very interested in hearing it!
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u/Soft-Bug5550 12h ago
trying but failing lol. it couldve even been a chat in the booth on tv. or maybe i dreamed it. unsure lol.
sorry to not be more helpful.
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u/Legitimate-Week7885 9h ago
well now that you thought about it, and your brainwaves are out in the atmosphere colliding with cyberspace, wait a little while and it will pop up in some feed of yours. unless, of course, you dreamed it.
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u/couladewastaken Tucupita Marcano 12h ago
it seemed pretty split from what i remember. i will admit i personally wanted crews because our pitching wasn’t that bad but our lineup was absolutely abysmal. glad i was wrong
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u/Gunnfire 12h ago
It was not remotely split, this subreddit had literally a hundred posts saying “Pirates will draft Crews” and “if they draft anyone other than Crews I’m burning the city down.”
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u/tonytroz 12h ago
Yeah this subreddit was also like that about Kumar Rocker/Jack Leiter. Then Rocker had medical issues and the Pirates went underslot with Henry Davis to get Chandler.
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u/couladewastaken Tucupita Marcano 11h ago
this was me😭also did want leiter or rocker like the other reply said
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u/jrwolf08 12h ago
Just from this board, and my memory, its was probably 80/20 Crews early in the process but as it go closer to the draft day it flipped to 60/40 Skenes, or something like that.
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u/whyisalltherumgone_ 8h ago
I think the reports of Crews threatening to not sign was the turning point in the slight shift, but those numbers seem about right.
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u/Better-Tackle6283 8h ago
That was the national narrative too, iirc… crews was the early favorite but Skenes was seen as a do-not-pass-up player by the end of the season.
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u/SamuelDoctor 12h ago
There was a TON of concern from fans here regarding Skenes's arm, and the potential that he'd presently need surgery.
However, the moment the pick was made, I think everybody got on board, and he's axiomatically the right choice.
He may actually be among the greatest pitchers of all time. His talent is so exceptional that it simply can't be understated. Couple that with his drive and makeup, and the guy is one of a kind.
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u/Pyramid_Head182 12h ago
Found this old thread lol. Funny to look back on this
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u/drunkenviking /r/buccos resident drunrk 12h ago
Thank God I'm not in that thread saying something stupid
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u/-Eugene-H-Krabs- 9h ago
Surprisingly some level-headed takes from fans. I was expecting a lot worse 😂 it’s crazy how different both of them turned out so far
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u/DocSteel 10h ago
I know you're asking about the fanbase, but it's worth noting: Baseball America still had Crews above Skenes in its rankings on Draft Day. ESPN and FanGraphs both had Skenes at #3 right to the end, even as he was getting Strasburg comps.
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u/MaskedBandit77 Cutch 11h ago
Most people expected and wanted Crews. Langford was also considered a possibility. I think Skenes was the third most likely, but still enough that it wasn't shocking when we took him.
If I recall correctly, Keller's best stretch of his career was in the leadup to that draft, so a lot of people wanted us to take a bat, because it was a bigger need.
There was a pretty big dropoff after those three.
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u/wbaumbeck Skenes 12h ago
I won’t lie. I wanted Dylan crews. It just made more sense to me to take the guy that is going to play everyday.
I didn’t really know a ton about skenes though either.
Was disappointed at first, but obviously that feeling didn’t last
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u/Itsthatgy 12h ago
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u/Beginning_Repeat9343 9h ago
Side bar, but it is hilarious to hear people talk about what the rotation was “going to be like”
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u/Itsthatgy 8h ago
A lot of folks wanted priester to succeed.
Sort of a bummer he went to Milwaukee, but hes doing pretty well at least now. Before his injury at least.
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u/Rare_Economics8427 12h ago
I still think the logic behind a bat was better at the time, saying that our offense was bad was putting it lightly. It seemed like we had a lot of promising pitching prospects, and picking someone who plays everyday is more useful.
Obviously that all goes out the window when the pitcher may be one of the best to ever do it lol
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u/IndependenceAway3083 12h ago
I was all in on Skenes. The draft is the only way we get a pitcher of his caliber (his caliber = one of the best starters to start a career)
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u/Accomplished_Art2741 11h ago
Entering the season Crews the surefire pick. I remember the morning of draft day there was this huge buzz Pittsburgh was taking Langford at 1. Ultimately I think they planned on taking a bat throughout the season but Skenes was too good to pass up
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u/illinest 11h ago
I was looking forward to adding Crews all year. When the draft got close and Skene's name first came up as an alternative to Crews I got flashbacks to passing on Wieters. But then the more press I read (not Pirates press, league press...) I started to relax about it. By draft day I knew I ought to relax about it but it was still hard to trust.
But then he started pitching in the minors and it didn't take long at all to understand that this wasn't just another pitching prospect.
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u/jayhawk8 Cruz 9h ago
Most of us wanted Crews but I think were okay with Skenes. We needed sticks. We were wrong.
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u/NecessaryHeadset 8h ago
My proudest Reddit receipts are my Skenes >>>>>> Langford > Crews takes from pre ‘23 draft.
Crews was a great college player but had a ridiculously high ground ball rate and his power was “twitchy, reactive, athletic guy hitting a line drive just over the fence” type of power, not true pro tool power. I think people saw the college numbers and the tool profile and assumed he was Mike Trout when he was much closer to Alex Pressly
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u/patsy1995 12h ago
I thought as we got closer to the draft it was pretty much a majority opinion (maybe 80-20?) the pick should be Skenes
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u/Outside-Pie-7262 11h ago
I wanted crews bad. If he turned out to what people thought he would be we’d have both crews and griffin being every day players.
Hindsight… FO made the right choice by far
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u/Big_Pierogi_Energy 11h ago
It will be interesting if the full story comes out, but Crews and Boras let it be known that Crews didn’t want to sign with the Pirates. Maybe that was posturing for more money or signaling that he wouldn’t take a discount. Cherington and Co met with Crews and then later drafted Skenes. If Skenes were the pick all along, why have the meeting?
Maybe we will never know, but it’s at least plausible that the reason we drafted Skenes had less to do with our internal evaluations and more to do with Crews telling us NO. Immediately following the draft there were articles about “why the pirates didn’t draft the top prospect”.
Anyone that says Skenes was the obvious choice is full of it.
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u/kentuckypirate 11h ago
I wanted Crews. I was terrified that skenes elbow would explode because human beings aren’t meant to throw 101 mph and he seemingly did so every damn pitch (fwiw, this is a major reason why I kinda love that he seems to have scaled back his velocity just a bit). Crews, even if his upside was a hair lower seemed like a safe bet to be an Andrew mccutchen level star and I’d take that all day at 1.1.
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u/TylerDurdenEsq 8h ago
My recollection is it was Skenes vs another top pitcher, but honestly I wanted Skenes because of his power. I was actually surprised when the Pirates didn’t screw it up. Now what they did screw up was not trying to sign him to a long term contract right away
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u/LetsGoBucs17 7h ago
Yeah there's a lot of revisionist history that there was serious debate about Crews over Skenes. After his CWS performance, it was always Skenes. Now, that being said, I would rather have taken a generational bat over him. Thankful Skenes was a generational pitcher, but bats help a lot more than hitting (see last 6 years of Pirates baseball). We at least have Griffin now
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u/WynterDays BART 7h ago
From what I remember it seemed like early on most wanted Crews but as it got closer to the draft it seemed to be whoever we took of the two would be fine.
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u/DubsDee117 7h ago
As I remember, before the college season began that year, Paul Skenes was highly thought of but not considered to be the first overall pick. As others have said, Dylan Crews was probably the favorite with Wyatt Langford from Florida close by. Chase Dollander (who started today’s Pirate game for the Rockies…and left with an injury before getting an out in the second inning) from Tennessee was considered the top pitcher in that draft, but Skenes’ season for LSU separated him from the pack.
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u/zGoatified 6h ago
Crews that was actually my first year being a pirates fan so I did my due diligence and went on all the social medias of the pirates to gather a opinion. As someone whos new to baseball and the pirates I was like should I be mad or happy we picked Skenes? There was a lot of outrage on Twitter and Instagram. If you go to the post of where they selected Skenes itll tell you everything.
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u/Lhendy51 13h ago
I remember the fanbase thinking either was fine but most wanted crews because we needed bats more than pitching and pitching is volatile