Paul Skenes is as good as advertised. What's next for him and the Pirates?

It only took until his second MLB start for Paul Skenes to live up to the hype.

Less than a year after the Pittsburgh Pirates made him the first overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft out of LSU, Skenes shut down the Chicago Cubs — and any lingering doubts about his big league readiness — in his second career start. The right-hander tossed six no-hit innings Friday while striking out 11 Cubs hitters, including the first seven he faced. 

Skenes flashed the strengths that have made him arguably the most hyped pitching prospect to reach the majors since Stephen Strasburg in 2010. He recorded 22 swings and misses and threw his fastball 41 times for an average of 99.3 mph, with 12 of those heaters registering 100 mph or above on the radar gun. 

All three of Skenes' strikeouts in the first inning Friday came on those trademark triple-digit speed fastballs.

It's that same velocity that has many observers concerned that Skenes is destined to join many of his young, hard-throwing peers in undergoing Tommy John surgery sooner or later. FOX Sports lead MLB analyst and Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz has been an outspoken critic of how the emphasis on velocity and spin rate is hurting the durability of this generation of pitchers. But Smoltz sees Skenes as a unique talent that the Pirates must trust to extend later into games in order to build up that durability, as he explained to me on our latest "Saturdays with Smoltz" segment on "Flippin' Bats."

"There's not one easy answer," Smoltz said. "But if he's breezing and he looks good — and he's repeating his mechanics — I don't think you can set a limit on him. As the year goes on, if they're not competing at the end of the year, it's a different story. But I'm a big believer that you