Drew Aller

No, this guy's different.

He's a horse.

I mean, he is a, he's, Paul Skeens, if there's any, I don't think, you know, and I've talked to some people in the Pirates about this.

There's always concern that Paul Skeens could get hurt, whether it's a grapefruit loop game, whether it's a live batting practice at Pirate City, or whether it's a regular season game or the WBC.

There's always a concern that you're going to lose a guy to an arm injury, especially one who throws as hard as he does.

But if there's ever anybody who prepares himself for every moment and does the proper...

The proper workouts between starts.

Paul Skeen is almost automatic.

The Pirates are kind of hands-off.

It's cruise control for them.

They know Paul Skeen is going to make sure he's ready.

And he's also...

aware enough, as much as he wants to win a gold medal, I don't think Paul Skeens would ever do anything that's going to complicate matters for him to try to be a guy who can be a repeat winner for the Cy Young, but even more important for his personal goals are not individual.

He wants to win a World Series.

And the Pirates finally built a team around him after two years of surrounding him with guys who couldn't hit.

And now that he's got some guys around him, I think this is, you know, Paul Skeens has not only taken

You know, the lead on the Pirates is their best player, but he's also taking a leadership role as a guy who is kind of like, hey, follow my lead, but also pulling teammates aside and talking to them.

And I think everyone on the Pirates knows that this is Paul Skeen's team.

So I can't see him doing anything that would jeopardize that other than, you know, if you're in the game, you know, the gold medal game, and it comes down to the ninth inning,

and Paul Skeens isn't the starter in that game, I could very much see him saying, give me the ball, let me go finish this one off.