LSU is becoming a pitching factory. Kade Anderson, fresh off a national championship for the Tigers, is slated to become the next pitcher out of Baton Rouge to be selected early in the MLB Draft. He collected a lot of awards this past season, including first team All-American, Baseball America National Pitcher of the Year, College World Series most outstanding player, Corbett Award winner, given to the most outstanding male athlete in Louisiana, and first team All-SEC.
The next accolade he’s going to collect is the first pick in the MLB Draft, which is held by the Washington Nationals. And with it will come lofty expectations in living up to his predecessor, Paul Skenes. Skenes was on a fast track to MLB, debuting in 2024, and has been one of the best pitchers since.
Anderson, unlike Skenes, is a south paw but has just as much upside. With it means he’ll have to get to MLB just as quickly and make just as much of an immediate impact.
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Is Kade Anderson similar to Paul Skenes?
Like Skenes, Anderson is a strikeout machine. He led Division I in total strikeouts, finishing his final season with 180. In Skenes’ final season at LSU, he finished with 209. Anderson averaged about 9.5 strikeouts per game. He also had a 3.18 ERA this year with a 12-1 record and two complete games.
One of those complete games was in the final game of his college career, where he tossed 130 pitches to shutout Coastal Carolina in the College World Series final, as the third pitcher to ever toss a shutout in the finals since the best-of-three format was adopted in 2003.
Anderson had a shortened high school career after having Tommy John Surgery after his junior season. Despite it, he’s been dominant throughout his college career and earning the status as the top pitcher in college baseball. The good thing is already having that surgery means it should be an issue for him through the majors, though it is possible he could need a second one down the line.
Paul Skenes and Kade Anderson are completely different pitchers
All of his pitches have received high-end grades, per the MLB pipeline scale, which grades from 20 to 80. All of Anderson’s pitches are either given a 60 or 55.
Anderson and Skenes are two very different pitchers. But if Skenes rise up MLB ranks proves anything, it’s that Anderson’s trajectory is right in line with his. Skenes has been dominant on the mound and it didn’t take him long to get there. Anderson could very well be on the fast track as well.
But if he isn’t, that doesn’t mean he’s a bust. He has all the potential to be an elite arm in MLB. That said, being the No. 1 pick as a pitcher from LSU now means the excuses are few and far between.