The Rangers will miss out on reigning Rookie of the Year in Pittsburgh this weekend

The Texas Rangers will be heading northeast to the Steel City this weekend to play a three game series against the cellar dwelling Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pirates don't have a lot going well for them this year and they are more than a dozen games out of first in the NL East.

The one particular hot commodity that the team does enjoy is the reigning National League Rookie of the Year in flamethrowing right-hander Paul Skenes.

The Rangers will dodge the Cy Young candidate Paul Skenes this time through

Skenes started in the second game of a double-header on Thursday against the Detroit Tigers and will not be available during the Rangers' visit. While guys like Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, and Wyatt Langford probably will tell you that getting in and out of Pittsburgh without having to face the electric stuff of Skenes is a good thing, fans of great pitching were hoping to get a look at how the Rangers' lineup would have fared against the early Cy Young candidate.

Skenes is only 4-6 because he plays for a team that struggles to score for him, but his ERA of 1.85 and WHIP of .088 are among the best in all of baseball. He has also struck out a mind-boggling 106 hitters in his 102 innings of work so far this season. That is the type of overwhelming stuff that will keep you in the race for the Cy Young even with a losing record on a bad team.

Paul Skenes has lived up to the hype surrounding him coming out of college

Routinely hitting over 100 mph with a riding fastball that he can also pinpoint within the zone while tossing up some nasty breaking pitches, Skenes' stuff is something to behold. He is the modern version of former greats like Bob Gibson and the Rangers' own Nolan Ryan.

Just 23 years old, there was a lot of attention given to the LSU product after he dominated his senior year going 13-2 with an otherworldly 209 Ks in just 122.2 innings pitched. That is an insane K/IP ratio at any level of organized baseball.

The Pirates jumped at the opportunity to draft the hurler with the number one overall pick in the draft and quickly moved him up to the major league roster where he proceeded to mow down the best hitters in the game, going 11-3 with a 2.10 ERA as just a 22-year-old rookie easily earning him the NL ROY Award.

So, if you are more interested in the Rangers possibly getting three wins in Pittsburgh than seeing one of the National League's most talented pitchers, the fact that they won't face him is a good thing. Ranger fans of great pitching will have to wait until next year to hopefully get an up-close and personal look at the hard-throwing prodigy.