re: I don’t care how good former LSU pitchers were, none of them can compete with Skenes

Ben McDonald was pretty damn good.

Skenes is the best I have seen since Ben. I would still take Ben in a championship game.

Kevin Gausmen was a stud too. He deserves some space at the table here

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Skenes is better. The SEC he’s facing is much stronger and how much better he is than his peers is unreal. I love Ben. Legendary Tiger and one of my favorites. Skenes looks like an MLB ace mowing kids down.

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Ben was throwing 96-97 with those old arse guns that didn’t measure the all from the hand like trackman. Add 2-3 mph EASY with that. Now go watch Ben’s command of his off speed pitches. NOW go get the innings he was forced to pitch by Skip. You’re going to K less per inning the more hitters see you and the more pitches you’re forced to throw. I seem to recall Ben having to throw 120-150 pitches at times more often than not.
Ben started 21 games his Jr year and threw 8 CG with 3 Shut outs and had 4 saves in 152+ innings -200Ks to 40 walks.
Skip pitched him like Nolan Ryan was being pitched.

Skenes is not throwing NEARLY the pitches he was asked to throw. Ben pitched in 2 games on the same day and was the starter for one and closer for another against MLB talented players including Chuck Knoblauch.

“McDonald has often been considered the poster boy for overuse as an amateur. He once threw 221 pitches in a high school game at age 16. Five times at LSU, under legendary coach Skip Bertman, McDonald pitched a complete game and then closed out the next day’s contest. Adding in his sophomore and junior years at LSU and the 1988 Olympic team, he threw a combined 352 innings in an 18-month period.

“I’ve been asked this a million times, ‘Did you throw too many pitches at LSU? Did you throw too many pitches in high school?’ The answer is probably yeah; we didn’t know then what we know now and how to take care of an arm. And so I was a product of my time,” he said. “I was a competitor. I was just one of those kids that if the coach says, ‘Can ya?’ I’d say, ‘Yessir. You give me a chance and I will.’”
McDonald did his part. As a junior, he was 14-4 with a 3.49 ERA and set the SEC record with 202 strikeouts in 152 innings. He pitched in 26 games, made 21 starts, threw eight complete games and three shutouts and picked up four saves in five relief outings. His fastball topped out at 101 mph, his curveball was a hammer, and he threw two other above-average pitches for strikes.

Skenes is likely supplanting Lloyd Peever for the best year ever at LSU. To do that he has a lot more games to pitch in and needs to toss some CGs.

Peever threw 3 CG and was 14-0 with a 1.98 ERA and missed time after getting drilled by a ball in the head that could have ended him.

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People think he was amazing for 3 years. Check the stats.

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Like 18 CG? Or fricking playing in 32 basketball games HIS FRESHMAN SEASON THAT PEOPLE POINT to stats for a team that went to the elite 8. Or how about leading Team USA to the 1988 Gold Medal between his So and Jr season?

Before you shitty “stat” queens come here I’ll end that shite right now:
Ben McDonald pitched 352 innings in 18 months between college and Team USA… stop looking at only numbers without the context. NO LSU PITCHER was ever asked to do what he was asked to carry teams like he did. None. That was with 5 MLB arms on the same team in:
Byrd
Ogea
Leskanic
Springer
O'Donoghue

I love Ben, but his lifetime record in Omaha was 0-4.

Great guy, but I WOULD NOT take him in a championship game. Just sayin’

His stats weren’t “amazing” his freshman year because he didn’t join the team until the last week of March. He was on the basketball team that played in the Elite 8 against Indiana. He missed half the season and when he came back he still wasn’t ready to pitch right away. His arm didn’t breakdown in the CWS. He developed a blister on his throwing hand and he couldn’t get his normal grip on the ball.

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Like 18 CG?

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You could have stopped there. Big Ben was a hoss. Skenes is also a hoss.

To the OP's subject, fertilizer.

There's a lot of baseball to be played in '23 before a statement like that becomes less than irresponsible.

Ben in '89, Peever in '92, Nola in '14, and even Lange's freshman season all have their merits. The most we will get to talk about with Paul is '23. A one season career.

As a refresher on Ben . . .

Ben McDonald LSU Bio

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“Ben was hitting 96 (mph) and 97 on the gun,” Bush recalled. “He struck out 14 . . .

That start to the 1989 season started a string of 44.2 consecutive scoreless innings, a Southeastern Conference record that stood for more than 15 seasons. Following a 144-strikeouts sophomore season, McDonald chalked up a SEC record 202 strikeouts in his 152.1 innings in 1989, nearly 12 strikeouts per nine innings.

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