Fastball

Pittsburgh Pirates Farmhand Paul Skenes Dazzles in Single-A Debut on Tuesday

The No. 1 overall pick in the draft looked the part on Tuesday night, throwing a scoreless inning for the Pittsburgh Pirates Single-A affiliate in Bradenton.

Brady Farkas

Pittsburgh Pirates Farmhand Paul Skenes Dazzles in Single-A Debut on Tuesday
Pittsburgh Pirates Farmhand Paul Skenes Dazzles in Single-A Debut on Tuesday /
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Pittsburgh Pirates farmhand and No. 1 overall draft pick Paul Skenes dazzled on Tuesday night in his Single-A debut in Bradenton. 

The following update on his scoreless inning comes from this MLB.com article:

Skenes struck out two batters in a 16-pitch scoreless inning for the Pirates affiliate, throwing 10 pitches for strikes...

The No. 3 prospect in baseball's outing began with the first baserunner he has allowed as a pro, as he allowed a clean single up the middle from Seth Stephenson on a 98 mph sinker.

Skenes was untouchable after that.

He froze Cristian Santana, the Tigers’ No. 17 prospect, on a 100 mph sinker -- his fastest pitch of the night -- as Stephenson stole second and then advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Geovanny Planchart.

The 6-foot-6 right-hander was not affected by the runner in scoring position. He buckled down and got Jim Jarvis to strike out swinging on an 84 mph slider that dived toward the shortstop’s back foot. Skenes got out of the inning after Stephenson got into a rundown along the third-base line before he was tagged out by shortstop Yordany De Los Santos (PIT No. 21).

Skenes hit triple-digits on the radar gun in the performance, something he was regularly able to do this past season at LSU, when he helped the Tigers win the National Championship.

He went 12-2 this year with 209 strikeouts in 122.2 innings.

He had an ERA of 1.69 and is the single-season strikeout leader for the SEC.

You can see his two strikeouts below:

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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