4 Paul Skenes wannabes who can make the leap from rookie to MLB All-Star next season

Baseball's first half is in the books, and as always, there is no shortage of storylines for fans to follow. From the surprising success of the Guardians to the excellence of the MLB-best Phillies, from the Triple Crown chases of Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani to the Grimace-inspired rise of the Mets, the first 90+ games of the season have taken us on a wild ride. There's been no better story in baseball, though, than Pirates rookie Paul Skenes.

Skenes was the No. 1 draft pick last year out of LSU after helping lead the Tigers to a College World Series championship. Pirates fans were thrilled to land him, and rightly so. Skenes' fastball routinely exceeds 100 mph, and because hitters need to start so early to catch up, his slider is completely devastating. Just those two pitches would be enough to make Skenes a future star, but his invention of what he calls the "splinker," an unhittable combination of a split-finger fastball and a sinker that drops off the table at around 95 mph, has rocketed him into another stratosphere.

Skenes' splinker helped fast-track him through the Pirates minor league system, and baseball fans everywhere eagerly anticipated his Major League debut on May 11. Somehow, Skenes has been even better than advertised, posting a 1.90 ERA and 89 strikeouts in 11 starts. His most recent start was a seven-inning, 11-strikeout masterpiece at Milwaukee in which he was pulled with a no-hitter still intact, and that start was his closing statement on a first half that culminated with him starting for the National League in Tuesday's All-Star Game.

To no one's surprise, Skenes held the potent American League lineup scoreless in his one inning of work, and he'll now hope to build on that in the stretch run as he makes a run at the Cy Young while trying to get the Pirates to the playoffs for the first time since 2015.

The MLB Draft recently concluded, and teams around the league are hoping to find a Paul Skenes of their own, or at least the next best thing. Skenes is a once-in-a-generation talent, but there are players in this draft that have a chance to also make a big-league difference right away. Could any of these players reach the majors in their first pro seasons? Could any follow in Skenes' footsteps and reach the All-Star Game in year one? It's a tall order, but if anybody has a chance to do it, it's the four players outlined below.

Christian Moore, No. 8 overall pick, Los Angeles Angels

Just as the Pirates, with their near-decade of ineptitude, were in dire need of a franchise savior, so too are the four teams selected here. Let's start with the Angels, who are still reeling in the wake of Shohei Ohtani's departure for the crosstown Dodgers this past offseason. You want to talk about Skenes being a once-in-a-generation superstar, how about Ohtani being a once-in-forever talent? The Angels missed the opportunity to trade Ohtani for a bundle of future assets at last year's deadline, opting instead for an ill-conceived Wild Card push that was dead on arrival.

As heartbreaking as it was for Arte Moreno's team to lose the Japanese superstar, the sad truth is that even with Ohtani, the Angels were never contenders anyway. The silver lining of Ohtani leaving is that now at least the Angels are forced to plan for the future, and GM Perry Minasian got off to a great start when he selected Tennessee Volunteer second baseman and College World Series hero Christian Moore with the eighth-overall pick.

Moore was one of the most fearsome hitters in college baseball this year. He did more than set the table at the top of a loaded Tennessee lineup — with a .375 average and a mouthwatering 1.248 OPS, he ate, too. Moore has terrific balance at the plate, and he saved his best performances for the biggest moments. His 5-6 effort to help bring the Vols back from a five-run deficit in an elimination game against Florida State was legendary, and he led off the deciding game of the CWS against Texas A&M with a homer.

Moore has everything you'd want in a hitter, and he has the swagger and personality that you'd love to build a team around. The Angels have some quality young players on the major league roster already in Logan O'Hoppe, Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel, and Jose Soriano. Moore could be the prospect that officially kicks the rebuild into high gear.

Hagen Smith, No. 5 overall pick, Chicago White Sox

If we really want someone that could mirror the instant success of Paul Skenes, we should probably look to a pitcher. How about a guy that struck out 17.3 batters per nine innings this past year? Yeah, I think he'll do.

Former Arkansas Razorback ace Hagen Smith has all the tools to become an ace at the next level, though he looks a bit different than Skenes on the mound. For one thing, he's a lefty, and for another, his funky delivery has drawn comparisons to Chris Sale. He does have a mustache, though!

Smith has an upper-90s fastball and a slider that is simply unfair. His 2.04 ERA would turn heads no matter where he pitched, but to do it in the SEC, which sent 11 offensively-loaded teams to the NCAA Tournament, is unbelievable. He also had the single most impressive performance of the season, a six-inning, 17-strikeout tour de force against seventh-ranked Oregon State. Yes, that means that 17 of the 18 outs he recorded against a top-10 team were via strikeout, and he struck out No. 1 overall pick Travis Bazzana all three times he faced him. White Sox Director of Amateur Scouting Mike Shirley called it "the best college performance I've ever seen," and he wasn't being hyperbolic. If you're a White Sox fan and this doesn't get you excited, nothing will.

The White Sox have an exciting lefty ace already, but the MLB rumor mill believes Garrett Crochet could get dealt if a contender is willing to meet Chicago's undoubtedly exorbitant trade deadline asking price. Regardless, Smith could join Crochet to form one of the most potent pairs of lefty starters in recent MLB history, or he could inherent Crochet's mantle as the ace and become the franchise's best reason to believe that it can get back to relevance following this season's embarrassing showing.

Charlie Condon, No. 3 overall pick, Colorado Rockies

Think of a perfect pairing between player and stadium. Juan Soto sizing up the short right field porch in Yankee Stadium comes to mind. Go back a bit and you can picture a young Carlos Beltran covering ground in the expansive outfield of Kauffman Stadium, or Manny Ramirez hitting frozen ropes off the Green Monster.

When it comes to this draft, I can't think of a better pairing than former Georgia third baseman Charlie Condon and Coors Field. Condon won the Golden Spikes Award as the top amateur baseball player in the country, and he did it by absolutely crushing the baseball all season.

Condon's numbers look like something achievable only by playing your uncoordinated 7-year-old nephew in MLB: The Show. He set the record for home runs in the BBCOR bat era this year with 37. He batted .433 and got on base more than 55% of the time, and his OPS of 1.565 beats the 1.422 that Barry Bonds set the all-time MLB record with in 2004.

Condon is a stud, and now he gets to go to the Rockies and hit in the thin air of Coors Field? It hardly seems fair for the rest of the NL West and the poor pitchers that will have to face him.

Chase Burns, No. 2 overall pick, Cincinnati Reds

Let's move back to the mound to find our final draftee that could make a Skenes-like impact. Wake Forest righty Chase Burns is actually a former teammate of Christian Moore's, as he spent two years in Knoxville before transferring to Winston Salem for his final collegiate season. The Demon Deacons ace struck out nearly half the batters he faced all year, and he led the nation with 191 strikeouts, 30 more than the next closest pitcher.

Burns lives up to his name twice over. His slider is elite, forcing hitters to swing and miss at it over 60 percent of the time. Like Skenes, he also throws heat, with a triple-digit fastball that doesn't dip in velocity even late in games. His 2.70 ERA while pitching against fearsome ACC lineups every time out is extremely impressive, and if he can follow Skenes' lead and develop one more pitch on the way to the big leagues, he too could be unstoppable. He's also a fiery competitor that seems destined to become a fan favorite sooner rather than later.

Burns is the perfect pick for the Reds, who got hot before the All-Star break to insert themselves into the National League Wild Card discussion. Cincinnati is built around youth and speed, both on the bases with the electric Elly De La Cruz and on the mound with one of the hardest throwers in the majors, recent first-time All-Star Hunter Greene. Burns is only 21, but his dynamite stuff is major league ready.

Next year could be Burns' and the Reds' coming out party as a force to be reckoned with in the NL Central, but the big winners are fans of the Reds, Pirates, and great pitching in general, all of whom will get to enjoy the next decade of battles between two of the best pitching prospects in quite some time.