Tim Benz: Looking forward to Paul Skenes nailing down Rookie of the Year on baseball's biggest stage

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes has excelled at quite a lot in his rookie season. One thing in particular has been seizing the moment.

• Striking out the first MLB batter he faced (Mike Tauchman of the Chicago Cubs) with five pitches of at least 100 mph.

• Posting 11 strikeouts over six innings of no-hit ball at Wrigley Field in his second start.

• Striking out Shohei Ohtani (on three straight pitches of at least 100 mph) in the bottom of the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 5.

• Pitching a scoreless first inning while getting Aaron Judge to bounce out while starting the All-Star game.

Now Skenes is heading to MLB’s biggest stage for the final start of his first season. He’s currently slated to get the ball at Yankee Stadium on Saturday.

“It’ll be cool,” Skenes said Wednesday. “Obviously, (a) one of a kind of destination for baseball. But at the end of the day, it’s just baseball. Got to treat it like normal and go from there.”

Another stellar start from Skenes in the Bronx would be the ultimate way to punctuate what should be a National League Rookie of the Year campaign.

Skenes spoke about his candidacy Sunday on SportsNet Pittsburgh’s postgame show.

“I haven’t thought about it a ton,” Skenes said. “In my first professional season, just adjusting to the league. I think I’ve done a pretty good job of it. That would be a cool honor to have.”

In fact, Skenes really shouldn’t need to shine in the Big Apple to secure the award. It should be in his back pocket already. That’s with all due respect to San Diego’s Jackson Merrill.

I say that not in the dripping-with-sarcasm “ all due respect ” kind of way many people do when they really mean, “ Pfft! Take a hike! ”

No. Seriously, with all due respect. Merrill has been outstanding for the Padres. In any other year, he’d be a worthy winner of the award. That fact that he is even making this vote a conversation at all is a credit to his performance. Because what Skenes has done has really been mind-boggling.

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In his first season in the big leagues, Skenes has a 1.99 ERA. Via MLB’s Sarah Lang, since 1913 Steve Rogers of the Montreal Expos is the only other pitcher to put up an ERA of less than 2.00 through the first 22 appearances of his career.

The 22-year-old right-hander is tops among MLB pitchers since his debut May 11 in strikeout percentage (32.9%). If the LSU product had enough innings to qualify, he’d be tied atop MLB with Chris Sale in strikeouts per nine innings (11.4) and tied for third (with San Diego’s Dylan Cease) in batting average against (.200).

Merrill’s case is still a strong one anyway. As of the start of play Thursday, the 21-year-old outfielder was leading all N.L. rookies with at least 350 at-bats in OPS (.826) batting average (.292), home runs (24) and RBIs (89). That .292 batting average was good for sixth among all players in the N.L. The .826 OPS ranked 13th among all N.L. batters as well.

I’d give the edge to Skenes. As of now, the oddsmakers agree. Friday’s R.O.Y. gambling lines at DraftKings have Skenes as a minus-270 favorite. Merrill is the only other candidate listed at plus-200.

As recently as Sept. 18, Merrill was the favorite, and had been since mid-August. Part of the reason why is Merrill’s ridiculous RBI pace. It’s one of the best ever in N.L. history for a rookie.

Strangely, though, a lot of baseball stat nerds in recent years have tended to downplay RBIs because they are dependent on other players being on base. I disagree with that because I think there is something to be said for the “clutch” element of driving in runs. Merrill has certainly proven to be just that many times over in his rookie season.

Unfortunately, “clutch” is often a dirty word in the analytic community. Another Carlin-esque four-letter word for the baseball number geeks is “wins.” That’s a stat Grandpa Simpson types like me are told to stop referencing because it shouldn’t be an individual number. Wins are too reliant on other factors surrounding the whole team.

OK. I get it. But Skenes pitches for the lousy Pirates. Yet he is 11-3. Skenes has 22 starts. The Pirates have scored two or fewer runs eight times in those outings. The club has also endured five losses when Skenes has exited a start while yielding two or fewer runs.

If the Pirates bullpen and lineup had been good enough to win all five of those games he’d have 16 victories. That’d be tied for second in the National League. He’d be 16-1 overall in that hypothetical scenario, seeing as how in two of those games he was tagged with the loss.

Would the wins stat matter then? Would his record? Optically it sure would. I’d say a 16-1 record would be kinda hard to ignore even if his era was above 2.00.

I just don’t like the fact that Merrill seems to be getting so much run for his RBI total and Skenes’ 11 wins (on a junky team) don’t seem to carry as much weight.

Again. It’s the Pirates. They are bad. The Padres are good. If you are a starter in Pittsburgh, a win should count twice. Theoretically, I see Skenes as having 22 wins already.

So there you have it. Sorry, Jackson. It’s just bad luck you came into the league the same year as Roger Clemens with a mustache.

Give Paul Skenes the Rookie of the Year award with his 22-3 record. Uh, 24-3 if he wins Saturday in New York.

You know what? It’s the Yankees. That counts three times. Make it 25-3. That’s a pretty good rookie season I’d say.