Take 10 Minutes Today to Watch Paul Skenes, the Most Electrifying Rookie of the Decade

Photographs: Getty Images; Collage: Gabe Conte

The baseball gods have blessed us once again. Every ten years or so, a generational arm climbs a major league mound for the first time and wows everyone with their triple-digit velocity. Fireballers of yesteryear like Stephen Strasburg, Jacob deGrom, and Matt Harvey come to mind. But none of them arrived on the scene with the supreme facial hair, singular secondary pitch, or famous girlfriend boasted by Paul Skenes, the mustachioed Pittsburgh Pirates rookie who made his MLB debut last weekend, and who is currently melting our brains with his supercharged arm.

Skenes is making his second start on Friday afternoon in Chicago. This is notable for many reasons, one of them being that he was drafted less than a year ago. While most players chisel away in the minor leagues for at least two years, Skenes pitched in a mere 12 games on Pittsburgh’s farm before they called him up last weekend, and even then the consensus was that the Pirates waited too long.

With Skenes showing time and time again that he was simply far too overpowering for minor-league hitters—and the Pirates in desperate need of some excitement—the team had no choice but to shuffle him up to the big leagues to see how he’d handle some of the best hitters in the world. Lo and behold, Skenes struck out seven of the 20 guys he faced, and even before that, put the turnstiles at his new home stadium to work. The Pirates drew more than 34,000 fans for the first edition of Paul Skenes day. That was on a very dreary Western Pennsylvania afternoon, too, which gave way to sunshine at seemingly the exact moment that Skenes emerged from the dugout. Those attendance numbers will presumably trend upward as the season progresses, the weather warms up, and Skenes gets even more comfortable mowing down MLB lineups.

But, at the end of the day, all of the excitement stems from the absolute filth he throws. In that first taste of The Show, each of the first nine fastballs that left Skenes’ thermonuclear right hand were clocked at at least 100 miles per hour. It’s no surprise, then, that he struck out the first two hitters he saw. While the first victim went down on the heater, in his second ever showdown with a major leaguer, Skenes dropped a venomous slider for strike three.

The craziest thing about Skenes, though—the thing that takes him from just another mouthwatering prospect to an undeniable generational talent—is a pitch they’re calling The Splinker. A hybrid of the traditional splitter and sinker, Skenes’ version has the same downward movement of both of those pitches, except he throws it at a truly absurd 95 miles per hour. It is one of the most dastardly things baseball has ever seen. Imagine trying to hit a balloon that’s flying 95 miles per hour, falling out of the air as it rapidly deflates. That’s Paul Skenes’ splinker.

Don’t just take it from me. Baseball lifers are equally spellbound by this pitch. “You don’t see anybody throw it at 95, 96,” Pirates’ manager Derek Shelton told MLB.com. General manager Ben Cherington weighed in as well, saying, “These things he's trying to do are not easy. His pitches are different.”

While throwing baseballs hella fast is sure to win over the sports fans, the crossover appeal of Skenes comes from his significant other. Skenes is dating Livvy Dunne, a collegiate gymnast with over five million Instagram followers. (Though you may remember her for rizzing up Baby Gronk.) The two met at Louisiana State University, where each won a national championship. (By the way, Skenes started his college career at the Air Force Academy, until he learned that he was too tall to be a fighter pilot—and also that he was too good to be pitching at a service academy.) Dunne was in attendance for her beau’s debut last weekend, and shared a charming story about how they were taking a nap when Skenes got the call that he was heading to the big leagues.

When Skenes and the Pirates take this show on the road on Friday, not only will the kid get his first look at the sanctified grounds of Wrigley Field, he’ll also match up with a pitcher who could not have a more disparate style. While every pitch that Skenes throws is borderline volcanic, Cubs’ hurler Kyle Hendricks has the slowest average fastball velocity in the entire league. Tune in if you want a beautiful demonstration of the different ways to be an effective pitcher—but make sure to reattach your jaw after seeing Skenes drop the splinker on some unsuspecting fools.

Originally Appeared on GQ