Heading into the week, Milwaukee Brewers rookie starter Tobias Myers has been on an incredible run over his past 12 starts — numbers that have stacked up against just about anyone in Major League Baseball.

In fact, among qualified pitchers — any pitcher with 60 innings or more — he has the best ERA in baseball, 1.86, since June 1.

Could Myers really have thrown his hat into the rookie of the year conversation, even if only for a smattering of second- or third-place votes?

It seems preposterous to compare Myers to Pittsburgh phenom Paul Skenes, the No. 1 overall pick in last year's draft who has been every bit the sensation Pittsburgh expected him to be when they brought him to the big leagues.

Yet, since June 1, both pitchers have had 12 starts. Skenes has only slightly more innings (76) to Myers (72⅔) and has far more strikeouts (91 to 58), but Myers has the better ERA (1.86 to 2.25), fewer walks (15 to 19) and fewer homers allowed (six to eight).

Are there caveats? Perhaps.

Myers is playing in front of a much better defense, and fielding-independent pitching — a stat that aims to give pitchers an ERA-similar figure, based on elements truly within their control — likes Skenes (3.06) over Myers (3.44) in that same window of time.

But the since-June 1 timeframe isn't a tiny sample, and it's reflective of how valuable Myers has been to the Brewers during the heart of the 2024 season. His emergence, in fact, is one of the season's best stories.

Myers has worked eight complete shutout innings twice this year and worked into the eighth in a third start, also allowing no runs. With the note of context that Pittsburgh obviously wants to be careful with its prized arm, Skenes has only worked beyond the seventh once, though that start went into the ninth and he was taken out of a no-hitter through seven innings against Milwaukee.

If we're going back to the window starting June 1, Myers is 17th among qualified starters in FIP, still very good but indicative of how his defense has helped him out to have the top ERA in baseball during that stretch.

Also, there are the May starts to consider if we're talking a full body of work. Skenes for the season is 7-2 with a 2.30 ERA and 121 strikeouts in 98 innings this year. Myers didn't find the immediate footing that Skenes did, although he still has a strong 2.81 ERA and 6-5 record, with 85 strikeouts in 99⅓ innings of big-league baseball.

A bigger question might be what Pittsburgh does with Skenes now that the Pirates have fallen to last place in the National League Central and seemingly out of the playoff chase.

The team could logically opt to preserve his long-term health by capping his innings. He's already close to his workload from all of last year between the majors and minors.

The Athletic also pointed out that, if Skenes finishes top-two in the rookie of the year voting, he'd get a full year of service time (not just a partial year), meaning he'd hit free agency a year sooner than he would otherwise.

Pittsburgh said it's not considering any sort of shutdown, and Skenes could still finish in the top two of the rookie of the year voting even if he didn't throw another pitch this year.

But his odds have dipped in recent days, with Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio among those on his tail, although San Diego's Jackson Merrill is, at the moment, the next logical choice. For Myers to get top-three votes, he'd have to hurdle both Jacksons and Skenes, and that's a tall order.

There's also Chicago Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga, a 30-year-old veteran of Japanese baseball who nonetheless counts as a rookie this year. He's 9-3 with a 3.11 ERA in 23 starts, with 137 strikeouts in 133 innings and a FIP of 3.58.

The Los Angeles Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto, a 26-year-old who's also a rookie with a professional history in Japan, is 6-2 with a 2.92 ERA in 74 innings, plus a 2.68 FIP, but he hasn't pitched since June 15 with an injury.

Entering Monday, Skenes had the clear edge in overall WHIP at 0.969, ahead of Yamamoto at 1.068 WHIP, Imanaga at 1.073 and Myers at 1.107.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers starter Tobias Myers has best ERA in baseball since June 1