Paul Skenes: Not Just Arm Talent—This Is What Point B Looks Like

Paul Skenes is organizing joint function, absolute strength, speed strength, and reactive strength in real time to synthesize high performance from the mound.

Skenes pitching against the Chicago Cubs Thursday May 1 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Source

The Time to Assess is Now

At Absolute, we spend most of our time writing about athletes not being at Point B. That’s because we’re living in a Reactive Strength Paradigm—and in this paradigm, it’s injuries and stagnation that sadly dominate the headlines.

We’ve shown what happens when even one of the four fundamental elements of Point B—joint function, absolute strength, speed-strength, or reactive strength—is missing or underdeveloped. The result is predictable: injury, stagnation, or both.

But this time, we’re not writing about any of that depressing shit. We’re writing about high performance. We’re writing about an athlete who is there. Paul Skenes is at Point B.

And credit where it's due: the Pittsburgh Pirates have played a pivotal role in getting Skenes into this physical state. While their skill (pitching) coaches are rightly being praised for developing his on-mound arsenal, it is important to note: they’re working with an athlete who arrived on that mound at Point B—thanks in part to the work of the strength and clinical staff behind the scenes. The Pirates have built an environment where Skenes’s nervous system can output at full spectrum. That kind of development doesn’t happen by accident—and it’s worth assessing just as much as the athlete himself.

Back to Skenes: he’s not just dominating on the mound—he’s doing it consistently, with an arsenal of pitches, against the best hitters, at the highest level of competition. This is what Point B looks like in real time. And if we’re serious about advancing high-performance Training Science, we should not miss this moment.

Now is the time to assess. Now is the time to collect internal data on the elements—and sub-elements—of Skenes’s Point B. Not after stagnation sets in—because it will. Definitely not post-injury. As programmers of Point B, we need the data now—while his nervous system is outputting at 102 mph performances.

102mph: Point B at Level of Competition

Let’s begin with what we can all see: the outputs at the level of competition. Skenes’s four-seam fastball averages 98–100 mph and regularly touches 101+.¹ Earlier this season, he fired a 102 mph precision-guided missile—on his 98th pitch of the game. That’s not just performance. That’s retained output under fatigue (neurological durability)—a clear signal that all four elements of Point B are functioning in sync.

Pitch Diversity

Baseball analytics are light years ahead of most sports, and the data on Paul Skenes—sourced from Baseball Savant—makes it clear: he’s not just the king of velocity—he has a complete arsenal. Skenes throws six to eight distinct pitches, each with its own unique velocity (mph) and spin profile (rpm):

• 4-seam: 98–101+ mph, ~2,500 rpm

• Splinker: ~95 mph, ~1,700–1,800 rpm

• Sweeper: ~84–85 mph, ~2,300 rpm

• Sinker: ~96–97 mph, ~2,300–2,400 rpm

• Slider: ~85 mph, ~2,400–2,500 rpm

• Changeup: ~88 mph, ~1,900–2,100 rpm

• Curveball: ~82-84 mph, ~2,600+ rpm

The 100 circles on this chart are a representative sample of 100 of Skenes seasonal pitches, proportional to usage as of 6/13/25. Source

Neurological Variability

We’re not pitching coaches—but looking at this data through a performance lens reveals one thing clearly: neurological variability.

Skenes’s nervous system can organize and reorganize the biology it has access to in order to generate consistent velocity output at 100+ mph, then immediately downshift to deliver an 82 mph curveball—a ~20 mph velocity gap. That demands a complete reorganization of the biological elements of Point B: accessing different joint ranges of motion, and generating and transmitting force through entirely different tissues.

Just as impressive is his ability to control spin. He transitions from a high-spin fastball at ~2,500 rpm to a low-spin splinker at ~1,700 rpm. This shows his nervous system doesn’t just control velocity—it dictates how the ball rotates and behaves at it travels through space.

Not Just Arm Talent. Point B is Live—Capture it Before the Window Closes

What we’re seeing here isn’t just a phenom with arm talent—it’s a nervous system in total control of its biology. It’s a neurological network of absolute strength organizing joint function in real time, in conjugation with reactive strength—turning Skenes’s arm into a flamethrower one pitch, then seamlessly outputting a splinker the next.

We already have the data on what he’s doing on the mound. What we need is the data from inside the system—from inside Point B. Not after degradation. Not after stagnation. Now. He’s not just throwing 102. He’s showing us what Point B looks like. Capture it now—or lose the chance to learn from it.

The Hidden Potential Inside Point B—Inside Skenes

At Absolute, we believe Paul Skenes still has untapped, hidden potential—because most of the field is still working with outdated or incomplete definitions of special strengths. In many cases, they don’t even know what special strengths are. Most clinical staffs, sadly, have never been trained to identify—let alone treat—and cultivates elements of special strengths.

These legacy definitions—passed down through textbooks—weren’t built to help us program, treat, or train in real time. They were designed to pass certification exams. And because they were never updated for the complexity of modern sport, they now create blind spots. Blind spots that amplify into real problems—just look at the NBA and their Reactive Strength Problem from their load management strategy.

That’s why we believe Skenes has even more capacity than we’re currently seeing. Not because he’s underperforming—but because the prevailing models and their expired definitions don’t allow performance staffs to fully see or actualize his absolute Point B. There are constraints on these staffs—and it our aim to take the constraints off, remove the governors, that is the only roadmap in getting to absolute Point B…

Programming Point B

The opportunity is clear: