This is Gerrit Cole’s traditional box score in eleven starts spread out over two Septembers:
71 1/3 IP, 60 H, 23 R, 22 ER, 16 BB, 84 K, 3 HR
Those numbers represent the ideal Gerrit Cole, the snarling bastard that can throw four pitches that look the same out of his hand, but can break in either direction and hit the mitt anywhere between 85 and 100 mph. This Gerrit Cole has started some of the most memorable and important Pirate games of the last two seasons. He started win #81 in 2013 and then, after the Bucs lost four in a row, out-dueled Yu Darvish to beat the Rangers 1-0 for win #82. In 2014, he ended the seven-game losing streak by returning from the disabled list and officially kicked off the drive to the Wild Card. After the Pirates were blasted out of the water in Game 1 of the 2013 NLDS, he turned in a solid start in Game 2 to keep them in the series. He also started Game 5 of the 2013 NLDS, in which he pitched well but made one bad pitch to David Freese, and he made the ill-advised Game 162 start in 2014, in which he dominated the Reds but came up short against Johnny Cueto.
This Gerrit Cole, who I informally call “Fuck You Gerrit Cole” (please note the absence of a comma) for lack of a better term, is what the Pirates are currently missing. I could spend lots of time analyzing Cole’s good starts vs. his uneven ones to try and determine what makes the difference, but reality is much simpler. Gerrit Cole might be the most talented starting pitcher that anyone alive has ever seen on the Pirates. Now it’s time for him to put it together.
This is not a slam dunk. Gerrit Cole missed time last year with a shoulder injury. While he eventually came back and looked fine in the season’s last month, there is no better predictor of future shoulder injuries than past shoulder injuries. Gerrit Cole strained his lat last year, which is an injury that has plagued Johnny Cueto in more than one season. The Pirates did not make it clear how or if the injuries were inter-related, which is of course their prerogative, though I sort of imagine that they were linked. They seemed to be awfully proactive with putting him on the disabled and hopefully they prevented any long-term problems, but who knows? Beyond health issues, there’s the simple fact that sometimes super-talented pitchers become good pitchers or really good pitchers, but not great pitchers. The Pirates have two examples of that in their rotation already in AJ Burnett and Francisco Liriano.
Cole is 24 now. We know what he’s capable of in small doses from what we’ve seen in parts of two big league seasons. It’s time to figure out if Cole is capable of making those small doses into extended stretches. If the 2015 Pirates are going to be better than the 2014 Bucs, this is where they’re going to start.
<500 is an ongoing series previewing the 2015 for each key Pirate in fewer than 500 words.
Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images
