After throwing a pre-game bullpen this afternoon, Paul Skenes roamed the outfield at Angel Stadium during batting practice. Every hit was followed by a "Paul! Paul!, over here." 

The 22-year-old right hander obliged on a few occasions and at one point ran over to a group in the left field corner by the bullpens and did it with a smile on his face. It wasn't too long ago that he was one of those kids in this very stadium.

"I'd like to think I was the reason the Angels won the World Series, because I was born that year. This was my team," Skenes said. "Obviously grew up watching (Mike) Trout, (Shohei) Ohtani more recently, Erick Aybar, John Lackey, go through them. It's cool to be back."

Here's Skenes full media availability from today: 

While speaking for about six minutes, Skenes shared memories about attending Ohtani's first game at Angel Stadium, how he got to walk the warning track as a kid during Little League day at the stadium and a few of the favorite things he does when he returns home to California.

On this day, Skenes got to meet Trout for the first time as the former MVP was getting some pre-game work done in the outfield. Skenes said he introduced himself, which was a "pretty cool" moment for him. 

Having been a face of Major League Baseball before, I asked Skenes if he garnered any advice from Trout and while he said he wished he could've hit like him in high school.

"I feel like everybody tried to hit like him when we were growing up, but nobody could," Skenes said. "That was the only thing that maybe he could have given me some tips on. But no, I didn't pick his brain on anything. Just kind of, 'Hey, how you doing. Nice to meet you.' That kind of thing."

More to come...