Torey Lovullo on Paul Skenes

Arizona Diamondbacks manager talks All-Star game with Jim Rome.

Transcript

00:00One last thought. I love that point that you made that, hey, I think there's a good chance you're

00:03going to bat leadoff. I know the guy was the manager. I got an in. You also knew who was

00:07going to start the game, Ian Paul Skeens, and he's amazing, obviously, obviously. He's made

00:1211 Major League starts at that point, dominant as they were, and still you gave him the ball,

00:17and you saw him yesterday. Being that close and seeing it up close, how nasty, man. How

00:22filthy is this guy? And what was your short time with him like that weekend?

00:26Yeah, I had a little bit of fun with him, and our lives are intertwined forever now

00:31because of that experience. And naming him the NL starter was an honor for me,

00:36and I know it was definitely an honor for him. He does it with such a humbleness

00:39and an eagerness as well. There's a very, very competitive spirit inside of there that just

00:43wants to go out and be great. He's learning day by day. So I got a chance to watch from the opposite

00:47dugout yesterday, and it was impressive. It's fire coming out of his right arm. That's all I

00:51could say. It's sitting at the upper 90s, sometimes touching 100, but it's the secondary

00:56stuff that he commands. It's the sinker, the splinker that he calls it that is getting a lot

01:00of easy early contact, and then he commands secondary stuff such as a potential change

01:05up every once in a while, slider curveball. He's a complete package, and he does it right.

01:10He works at it. He believes that he's going to grow every single day, and yesterday was an honor

01:14for me to watch him. I watched him almost like a proud dad right after we had this time together

01:19at the all-star game, but once you get between the white lines, there's a competitive spirit,

01:23the burden within both of us. I'm just glad we won the game.