How Pirates' Paul Skenes is using his pitches to dominate MLB - ESPN

A year ago at this time, Paul Skenes was days away from being selected by the Pittsburgh Pirates with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 MLB draft after taking the SEC by storm at LSU. Going into the draft, I dubbed him the best pitching prospect since Gerrit Cole in 2011.

It's not that surprising that a pitcher with that level of talent could sail through the minors and immediately find success in the big leagues, and Skenes has done that. But improbably, after turning pro, Skenes learned one of the best pitches in baseball and has taken a big leap forward from even the ace-in-the-making who had everyone buzzing going into the draft.

I attended his most recent MLB start against the Atlanta Braves and spoke with him afterward to learn more about how he has been so successful so quickly.

Here is a pitch-by-pitch look at how Pittsburgh's 22-year-old phenom is dominating and an early answer to where he ranks among the best pitchers in the sport two months into his major league career.

Pitch Comp: Seattle Mariners closer Andres Munoz, but with a tick more velo, a tick higher release, and a tick better command, doing it for 100 pitches at a time

As you'd guess, Skenes' fastball is his most-used pitch and in keeping with current pitching trends, he throws it less than 50% of the time. The modern way to look at a fastball is by seeing if there's an approach-angle advantage and working backward from there. The prominent idea in the game is that there is some obvious stuff we can see about why a fastball would be good (velocity, command, etc.), but a deeper evaluation can tell if there are any tough-to-see traits that make the pitch play up in game situations.

Surprisingly, Skenes doesn't have a big plane advantage for a pitcher who is