Column: Is Paul Skenes the best pitcher in the country? Here’s how he compares to other top pitchers

There’s no question that Paul Skenes is having a special season. But is he the best pitcher in the country?

The LSU ace is now up to second place in single season strikeouts in school history. No one else in the top 10 has less than 117 innings pitched, but Skenes is second with only 86.2 IP. He only needs 38 more strikeouts to overtake Ben McDonald’s record.

He also leads the nation in total strikeouts with 33 more than the next closest pitcher.

As Skenes prepares to make his SEC Tournament debut in what is expected to be a pitcher’s duel with Arkansas’ Hagen Smith, I decided to see how he stacks up against the other top pitchers in the nation.

To find the best pitchers in the country, I looked at the shortlist for the Golden Spikes award. The award goes to the top amateur baseball player in the country, regardless of position. Of the 25 players nominated, only six players are purely pitchers (there are a few two-way players).

Those six players are Tanner Hall, Josh Hartle, Rhett Lowder, Quinn Matthews, Hagen Smith and Skenes. To trim that list down, let’s only pick the top three pitchers in ERA from the list. That leaves us with Lowder, Skenes and Hartle.

What are some of the most important statistics for pitchers? I have chosen ERA, WHIP, K/9 and K/BB to evaluate the pitchers with. I will not be looking at wins as this is a heavily team-based statistic, and I want to isolate the pitcher’s performances.

ERA is the generally thought to be the most important statistic for a pitcher. How many runs a pitcher gives up on average is incredibly important. However, ERA can be influenced by a poor defense and the seemingly impossible to peg down definition of an error. While not perfect, it’s a great stat to measure a pitcher’s performances with.

Skenes comes into the SEC Tournament with a season-long ERA of 1.77, good for fourth in the nation. The only pitcher from a Power 5 conference with a better ERA is Lowder with an ERA of 1.73. Hartle has an ERA of 2.32, which is good, but not nearly as good as Skenes and Lowder’s.

Skenes and Lowder have both only given up 17 runs this season on 14 starts. The slight difference in their ERA’s is because Lowder (88.2 IP) has pitched two more innings than Skenes (86.2 IP).

Another important factor to consider is the conferences the three pitchers are pitching in. Lowder and Hartle both are in the ACC while Skenes pitches in the SEC. The SEC’s total ERA is 5.13 while the ACC’s total ERA is 4.95. Not a large difference, but something worth noting.

WHIP is the next stat we’ll look at. WHIP essentially measurers how many baserunners a pitcher allows to reach base on average. If there’s no one on base, no one can score (except of course on a solo home run).

Skenes leads the nation by a wide margin in WHIP. His .75 WHIP is .13 lower than the next closest pitcher. If you only count pitchers that have thrown at least 80 innings, his WHIP is .16 higher than the next closest. Lowder’s WHIP, while phenomenal, is .97. Hartle has a WHIP of 1.05.

K/9 is another incredibly important statistic. If batters can’t put your pitches in play, there is no chance for them to get on base without being walked. This also means your defense can’t hurt you. It’s a lot less likely that your defense can mess something up if the ball is never put into play.

Skenes leads the country with 17.03 K/9. The next closest player is Wake Forest’s Sean Sullivan with 14.54 K/9. If you look at only pitchers that have thrown at least 80 innings, the next closest is Canisius’ Matt Duffy with 13.28 K/9. Hartle has a K/9 of 11.7 while Lowder’s is 11.

K/BB is up next. The number of strikeouts compared to number of walks is a great indicator of a pitcher’s control. It’s not as important as other stats and can influenced by other things (such as an umpire that has an ever-changing strike zone), but accompanied with other stats, it’s a decent way to evaluate a pitcher.

In K/BB, Skenes is second in the country with 10.93 strikeouts for every walk. Lowder 6.35. Hartle has a K/BB of 7.07 while Lowder’s has a K/BB of 6.35.

Skenes beats Hartle and Lowder in three out of the four categories. The only category Skenes is not first in is ERA, but the difference in ERA between Skenes and Lowder is incredibly small.

So to answer the question: Yes, Skenes is the best pitcher in the country. At least according to the numbers.