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Pirates Draft Prospect Watch: Paul Skenes and Wyatt Langford Close Out Regular Season Strong

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The Pittsburgh Pirates have the first overall pick in the July 2023 MLB draft. Our draft preview looked at the top prospects for the pick.

Every Monday, we’ll recap notable performances from around the prep and college ranks, with video to give you an early look at who could be available to the Pirates. This is our 11th weekly recap of the weekend action for the top college draft prospects. It’s also the final weekend of the regular season, but there will be plenty more coverage.

If you missed it from this week, we had a look at a new mock draft. We also took a look at the remaining schedule for the top college players. As a reminder, the Pirates have the highest draft bonus pool this year.

Dylan Crews was our first draft prospect profile. The LSU outfielder has struggled over the last three weeks. He went 1-for-5 with a single against McNeese in a mid-week game. He went 2-for-7 against Georgia on Thursday, with a homer and a single, as well as three strikeouts. He went 1-for-4 with a single, RBI and HBP on Friday. Crews went 1-for-5 on Saturday to finish the season, striking out three times again.

He finished up with a .423/.573/.716 slash line in 272 plate appearances, with 13 doubles, 14 homers and 56 walks.

Here’s his Thursday homer:

LSU right-handed pitcher Paul Skenes is a top five draft prospect, with almost all sources now ranking him second. He was our fourth prospect profile. He went seven innings on Thursday against Georgia, with two runs on four hits, one walk and 12 strikeouts.

He is now 10-1, 1.77 in 86.2 innings, with a .161 BAA and a 164:15 SO/BB ratio.

Here’s a video that goes out on a limb by saying he is a potential top five pick

Florida outfielder Wyatt Langford has a chance to go #1. He was our sixth draft prospect profile. He has been rated near the top all year, with some giving him the tools advantage over Crews. Langford went 3-for-5 on Thursday against Kentucky, with two doubles, three runs and two RBIs. He then homered twice on Friday. He finished up quietly on Saturday, going 0-for-4.

He finished the regular season hitting .399/.527/.827 in 48 games, with 20 doubles, 16 homers and 44 walks. He was trailing Crews in OPS for most of the season, but he ended up finishing 65 points higher.

Here’s a defensive highlight from Langford, and it’s a beauty:

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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