The first dugout debrief of 2024 is here! This is a recurring series recapping some of the notable storylines and trends in the MLB over the past week(ish). Since it's only Spring Training, this edition will mostly focus on some key players before ending the article with some Quick Hitters.

Paul Skenes's Perfect Pirate's Debut

The first overall pick in last year's draft put on a Pirates uniform for the first time and made his spring debut this week. Skenes, a top three prospect on most prospect rankings, faced off against the consensus top prospect in baseball Jackson Holliday's Orioles en route to throwing a perfect inning.

Unfortunately for baseball fans, this game wasn't televised but the announcers continued to comment on how hard he was throwing, consistently throwing 100+ MPH. Expanding on our initial takeaways, Skenes is finding a way to push the hype even higher. Throwing a perfect inning and having this high velocity this early in camp must be reassuring for the Pirates, who passed on Dylan Crews (2nd overall) for the big righty.

After Skenes was pulled, the announcers consistently questioned and debated if he would start in AA to begin the season. This would be a blatant mistake for the Pirates. Skenes is pro-ready and the Pirates seemed to recognize this last season when they shut him down early since he "checked all the boxes."

If Skenes does start in the MLB, there will surely be some rough starts but he could give the Pirates and their fans a glimpse of the frontline starter they've been missing since trading Gerrit Cole away.

Padres' poor start(ers)

The Padres's opening day starter, Joe Musgrove, threw the first pitch of spring training this season and has struggled ever since. After not recording an out in his spring debut, Musgrove struggled against a Guardians team that did not start star player Jose Ramirez, allowing 4 runs over 1.2 IP.

On the offensive side, Fernando Tatis Jr. (who may be a certain company's MVP pick) has yet to record a hit. As with all these stats, it's still early but for a 34.1m dollar man with double-digit ABs, you'd expect him to have gotten a hit at this point. This issue is compounded when the other 300m man, Manny Machado, is hitting under .200 as well.

If the Padres want to make fans forget about last season's massive disappointment, they're off to a really rough start. Even if it is only Spring Training.

New generation of Nat's

When the Nats traded Trea Turner, Max Scherzer, and Juan Soto, they waved the white flag on their core and started a rebuild. Well, that rebuild might be coming along faster than expected. The Nats secured two very good packages of young talent, with the Trea Turner/Max Scherzer package returning their 2023 All Star Josiah Gray, and the Juan Soto trade returning almost all of the Padres' top prospects in McKenzie Gore, CJ Abrams, James Wood, and Robert Hassell III.

Well......those prospects might have arrived. Again, it's early but McKenzie Gore now has pitched twice for 5IP, 1 run, 2 hits, and 7Ks. CJ Abrams, who stole 45 bases last season, is now 4-9 with 1 homerun. Both of these strong starts are overshadowed by consensus top-25 prospect James Wood, who is 7-14 with 3 home runs, 3 walks, and only 2 strikeouts.

The 6'6 Wood will probably need a little bit more time in the minors, but he is expected to join this Nat's team sometime this season and if he keeps performing at this level for the rest of the spring, that time will come sooner rather than later.

Quick Hitters

- Juan Soto has been as advertised this spring, hitting a monster home run in his debut and a deep double in his second appearance

- Dark horse Cy Young candidate Cole Ragans struck out 5 in two innings in his spring debut and followed that up with 3ks over 3 innings in his second appearance. Finished his second appearance with a strike rate of 67.5% (27 strikes in 40 pitches), a great sign for a pitcher who struggled with walks in the past

- Mike Trout has struggled so far this spring, only having 1 hit in over 10 ABs so far

- The billion-dollar duo made their spring debuts and were as advertised, with Ohtani hitting a homerun and Yamamoto striking out 3 over two scoreless innings.