As Andrew McCutchen sat at his locker stall at Pirate City on Friday afternoon, with teammates moving in and out for the team's migration to LECOM Park and the start of Grapefruit League games this weekend, I asked him to describe Paul Skenes' pitching arsenal in one word.

"Unicorn" was the first word that came out of his mouth.

He followed with: "It’s something you don’t see every day. You can’t really compare it to much of anything. It’s unique in itself. It’s the 1 percent of the 1 percent. "

Over the last 10 days, Skenes has thrown two live batting practices here at Pirate City and both of them were heavily observed by fans in attendance, other media on site and teammates watching from the tower between the four practice fields. Everyone wanted to get a good look at what the reigning National League Rookie of the Year and third-place finisher in the Cy Young race brings to the table.

They weren't disappointed.

However, no one had a better look than the hitters in the batter's box. McCutchen was one of them, along with Nick Gonzales, Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds and Adam Frazier. Here's a quick look at Skenes striking out McCutchen: 

That pitch was followed by a few reactions from fans in attendance, with the main consensus being: "Ohhhh." 

Frazier had been at Pirate City for less than two hours when he stepped into the batter's box on Honus Wagner Field with Skenes staring him down from the mound. Frazier described the first pitch he saw as a two-seamer down and away from him toward the right-handed batter's box.

"No one is going to do anything with that," Frazier said. "If you hit it, you're hitting it straight in the ground. So it's like, 'All right, strap it on and get ready.'"

Frazier described Skenes' stuff as "electric" and while he had only been around for a few hours, he wanted to face Skenes and see what the young right-hander was all about. The Pirates only had one series against the Royals last season and Frazier didn't get to face Skenes.

Gonzales' reaction to facing Skenes was similar. He got a look at him this time last year, and was just as impressed the second time around.

"It’s every bit of what you think it would be," Gonzales said. "It’s tough to barrel him up, regardless. You can kinda have an idea of what pitch he’s going to throw and it’s still tough to put the barrel on it."

There are plenty of things that make Skenes one of the best pitchers in the game. If one would look at his Baseball Savant page, he's ranked in the 70th percentile or above in nearly every category and is 89th or higher in most. There's the velocity, which sat at around 96.8 mph last year but often reached triple digits consistently and then there's his release point.

However, what makes Skenes even better, according to McCutchen, is how he uses his arsenal and changes his pitches.

"He doesn’t throw the same pitch twice, it doesn’t look the same," McCutchen said. "He can throw two sliders, but they are going to be two different types of sliders. He’s going to throw two different cutters, he’s gonna throw a splinker one way, then he’s going to throw it another way. So it doesn’t look the same every time. That’s what makes him so difficult to hit, on top of the release point, on top of the velo."

At this point in the year, hitters are still ramping up and are getting used to tracking live pitching again. Now, imagine stepping in a batter's box and seeing Skenes on the mound. Despite the challenge, it only can help at this point in the year.

"It's facing one of the premier arms in the game, that's what you want, not just in practice, but in games," Frazier said. "He's going to bring the best out of everyone. If you can figure out how to hit that, then I feel like it makes the rest of it a little bit easier."

"It definitely prepares you," McCutchen added. "If you want to face the best of the best, that’s the person you want to face."