On the Pirates and On Gerrit Cole

So, last night as the Cardinals were popping champagne and getting ready to leave for LA, and the Pirates were showering to head back home, I made the following post on Facebook and on Pirate Chat:

Tonight, no complaining, no second guessing, no finger pointing, no recriminations. Just a heartfelt THANK YOU to the 2013 Pirates. You gave us a season to always remember.

Not much more to add to that, and there will be plenty of time for Hot Stove analysis, but this morning I want to comment on just one development from this magical season for the Pirates, and it just may be the one development that will cast the longest shadow into the Pirates future.  

I am speaking, of course of the arrival of Gerrit Cole.

When the decision was made at the end of Spring training to send Cole to Indianapolis after he was, arguably, the team's best pitcher in Spring Training, no single topic, before or since, stirred such controversy or generated more comments in Facebook's Pirate Chat forum.  "Is Huntington nuts/cheap, demented" went one school of thought.  "He needs more time in the minors to develop" went the other.  I was in the camp of the former, thinking that the team's decision was solely a financial one, at the expense of what was best for the team on the field.  I have since come around to the NHR's way of thinking on this one.

It was only series of injuries - James McDonald, Wandy Rodriguez - and the slower than expected return of Charlie Morton, that forced Huntington's hand, and on June 11, Cole made a stunning debut by defeating the defending World Series champs, the San Francisco Giants at PNC Park.  It prompted me to gush the following in The Grandstander:  "I have seen the Pirates future, and he wears number 45."

A bit of hyperbole, perhaps, but maybe not.

Here is how Cole's season then went, month-by-month:

	W	L	ERA	IP	K	BB	WHIP
June	4	0	3.7	24.1	11	4	1.23
July	1	4	3.45	31.1	26	8	1.05
August	1	3	4.25	29.2	24	6	1.35
September	4	0	1.69	32	39	10	1.06
Total	10	7	3.22	117.1	100	28	1.17
LDS	1	1	2.45	11	10	2	0.64

During the bumpy 2-7 stretch in July and August, I can recall Len Martin, Dan Bonk, Jim Haller and I having the conversation that went something like "yeah, it is obvious that he has talent, but it is also obvious that he hasn't quite harnessed it yet, and maybe the Pirates were right for not wanting to rush him to the big leagues until (as the old cliche goes) he learns how to pitch."  Well, sometime around Labor Day, it became obvious that a light bulb went off somewhere, and Cole did indeed "learn how to pitch".

And think of some of those games that he did pitch.  A 1-0 win over Yu Darvish and the Rangers in September that stopped a four game losing streak when the season appeared to have a chance to slip away from the team, and then Game 2 of the LDS against the Cardinals when the Pirates absolutely HAD to win that game and even the series.  And while Cole and the Pirates fell short in Game 5 last night, the fact that Cole was given the ball in a winner-take-all game spoke volumes as to just how far Cole has come in 2013 and where he sits on the Pirates pecking order.  And I didn't read a single opinion anywhere stating that Clint Hurdle should NOT have chosen Cole to pitch that deciding game.

Along about the seventh inning last night, Mrs. Grandstander looks at a shot of Adam Wainwright on the TV screen and made this comment that summarized the game and the series: "That guy is  just a beast, isn't he?"  Indeed, he, Wainwright, is, but in Gerrit Cole, the Pirates have a guy, I believe, who can be just as big a "beast" for the Pirates for years to come.  (And try this on for size, Bucco fans.  A highly placed Pirate front office guy indicated to me earlier in the season that the feeling among the Bucco Brass is that Jameson Taillon will probably be an even better pitcher than Cole.  Think about THAT!) 

For now, though, the Pirates Future does indeed wear #45.

Halfway Through a Sports Weekend

The weekend in Pittsburgh sports started badly when the Pirates let one get away on Friday night against the Cubs, however, they talked us off the ledge last night with another fantastic pitching performance by Gerrit Cole.  They are now poised to take three of four from the Cubs today behind Francisco Liriano.  That would give them a record of 6-1 since that disastrous weekend in St. Louis last week should they take care of business this afternoon.
Tied for first place in the NL Central, and a magic number of 7 to clinch a playoff spot.

Also, we will be in attendance on Monday night when AJ Burnett takes the mound against the Padres. This will probably be our last game of the season, although I do have a tentative date with a friend to take in the Bucs first home game in the Division Series should that come to pass.

At Heinz Field yesterday, the Pitt Panthers opened up a big can of whoopass on the New Mexico Lobos, 49-27, and , trust me, the game wasn't all that close.  Not sure what this means, as NM appears to be to Bad Teams what Florida State was and is to Good Teams. Perhaps we will shall get a better indication as to where the Panthers sit on the Bad-To-Good Scale next week when they visit Duke in Durham.

One takeaway from yesterday's game of which we can be pretty sure - Freshman Tyler Boyd is one tremendous looking football player.  The Real Deal for sure.

(Elsewhere in college football, I regret that personal circumstances prevented me from seeing any of the 49-42 Alabama win over Texas A&M.  Sounds like that game was one for the ages. Tell me, did Nick Saban smile or show any sign of joy at all over his team's big victory?)

(Elsewhere in college football, part 2.  I kept switching to the Penn State game between innings of the Pirates last night.  In other days, this would have been considered a big upset and a bad loss for Penn State, but is it really?  I ask that sincerely since I am not well informed on the fortunes of UCF, but under the leadership of George "Mr. Resume" O'Leary, perhaps they are making strides on the national scene.)

Part Three of the Weekend Trifecta takes place tomorrow night in Cincinnati when the Steelers play the Bengals.  Not a lot of hope after the mess the Steelers showed us last week, but there is always hope because (a) Ben Roethlisberger is better than Andy Dalton, if it comes down to a battle between the quarterbacks, and (b) there is always hope that the Bengals will continue to be, well, the Bengals, which they were last week when a stupid personal foul penalty ended up costing them the game.

Speaking of which, are you getting tired of the "Hey, Marvin Lewis is a Western PA Guy" stories whenever these two teams play?  In case you missed it, the Post-Gazette pulled out that old chestnut today.

Let's Go Bucs!!! 

Here We Go, Steelers!!!!

It's Over!

Yeah, you know what I'm talking about - the streak, or, rather, The Streak, the twenty year Longest-Losing-Streak-in-the-History-of-Professional-Sports-in-North-America, is now, finally, officially over. With the Pirates' 1-0 victory over the Texas Rangers last night, The Streak has now been relegated to ignominious history.

  

And how about that game. The pitching match-up between Texas' Yu Darvish and the Bucs' Gerrit Cole was one for the ages (or it would be if this game had taken place in, say, the World Series, or a Sunday Night ESPN Yankees-Red Sox game).  Darvish was almost unhittable, allowing only one hit in the first six innings, but Cole matched him....

....and gave Pirates fans a glimpse as to why he was selected #1 overall in the 2011 Draft. He was magnificent in his start last night, and what you saw makes you almost giddy with excitement as to what he might have in store for the Pirates and their fans in the years ahead.

And how about that other #1 pick, Pedro Alvarez going to the opposite field for a double that drove in the Pirates only run and won the game against Darvish and the Rangers.

More importantly, the win ended a four game losing streak and brought the Pirates within one game of the first place Cardinals, and put them a game ahead of the third place Reds.

In the post game interview on TV, Andrew McCutchen said all the right things about understanding what the 82nd win means to the fans, but that there are bigger goals to be reached, and on and on, but look at his face and the faces of his fellow outfielders at the top if this post.  You can't tell me that this game was just another win for the team.

Now, let's win 12 or 13 (or even 10 or 11) of the nineteen games left and have a deep run into October!

We need not refer to The Streak ever again, except as we might talk about some ne'er-do-well member of the family tree who is now deceased.  And with that in mind, a word about Sid Bream and Barry Bonds....

It is one of those unimportant things in life that has bothered me, like a stone in your shoe, that people, especially this summer as it became fairly clear that the team would have a winning season, to refer to "The Curse of Sid Bream" or "The Curse of Barry Bonds" because of Game Seven of the 1992 NLCS.  Can we please stop with that?  Sid Bream was a solid if unspectacular ball player, whose career included six fairly solid seasons with the Pirates, I might add, who was just doing his job that night.  Bonds was the Pirates best player and the NL MVP in 1992, whose throw to the plate was not quite perfect.  It happens.

There are lots of reasons not to like Barry Bonds, but that throw to the plate that didn't quite get Bream isn't one of them.  And there are lots of reason to like Bream, who has chosen to live in the Pittsburgh area long after his playing career has ended.  Neither Bream nor Bonds "caused" the twenty year losing streak.  Twenty years of lousy players, and lousier management decisions, caused The Streak.  Non-existent "curses" did not.

17 Over

With last night's victory over Seattle, the Pirates are now 47-30, one game behind the Cardinals in the NL Central, a whopping eight and one-half games ahead in the wild card race, have the second best record in ALL OF MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, and have now exceeded last season;s high water mark of sixteen over .500.  Lots to be happy about, although the doom spreaders are still out there (and not without reason given the Pirates recent history), but what the hell, let's ignore the doom spreaders for a moment, and speculate on what the record might be when the All-Star break arrives in two weeks.  Let's just say that 20 games over .500 would be a nice round number.  Can they do it?

Let's assume the worst and figure that the Bucs current five game winning streak will end today at the hands of King Felix in Seattle.  Not unreasonable, and perfectly forgivable.  That would put them at 16 over .500 with 15 games to play before the break.  Those 15 games come against teams - Brewers, Phillies, Cubs, Athletics, and Mets - with a combined record of 175-205 (.460).  Only one of those teams, the A's has a winning record.  To hit that +20 mark, the Bucs would have to go 10-5 in these 15 games.  Even against poor competition, that is asking a lot.  However, should they go 9-7 in that stretch, the exact pace on which they are playing for the season, that would put them at 56-37, or nineteen games over.  I'll take it.

Also, while 10-5 may be asking a lot, a break even of 8-7 is not asking too much and would make them 55-38, seventeen over and one over last season's high water mark.  I'll take that, too.

In any event, it is a fun little interim race-within-a-race that we can watch.

******

Since we're talking about the Pirates here, let me address a topic that has been raging since Sunday, when GM Neal floated the possibility on his weekly radio show that Gerrit Cole might be returned to Indianapolis when Wandy Rodriguez and/or A.J. Burnett return from the disabled list.  Yes, this is the Gerrit Cole who is 3-0 with a 3.44 ERA and an 8:1 K:BB ratio, and who looked like a right handed Steve Carlton in his start against the Angels last Friday.  Let's assume that Huntington has more baseball acumen than any of us and that Cole does indeed need to "work on a few things" in the minors.  That may rile me up, but I guess I can live with it.  Here's the real part of Huntington's comments that really fries my eggs.  He stated that such a demotion would have "nothing to do with" Cole's service time and attainment of Super 2 status, which would make him arbitration eligible a year earlier than the team would like.

Aside from this being yet another "business over baseball" decision by the Pirates, it is another example of NH insulting the intelligence of the Pirates fan base.  How dumb does he really think we are?  Strap on a pair and tell us the truth for once, Neal.  We might not agree with you, but we can take it.

Let's be honest, the Pirates are where they are today in large part because of acquisitions and signings of players that Neal brought here.  A.J. Burnett, Wandy Rodriguez, Francisco Liriano, Charlie Morton, Mark Melancon, Jeff Locke, Jason Grilli, Russell Martin, Jordy Mercer, Pedro Alvarez, Justin Wilson, and, yes, GERRIT COLE, and I've probably left out a few.  So just when you start getting some warm and fuzzy thoughts about Neal, he shovels another load of NHB on us about why Cole might be sent down. 

Drives you crazy.

The Future Is Here

I have seen the Pirates future, and he wears Number 45!

In his highly anticipated debut with the Pirates last night, Gerrit Cole did NOT....(a) pitch a no-hitter (b) pitch a shut out (c) go nine innings or (d) strike out umpteen batters.  Still, could you have imagined anything better than what he DID do?  Go six and 1/3, give up two runs, strike out the first batter he faced on three pitches, including a 99 MPH fast ball, retire thirteen in a row at one point, get a win, and, oh yeah, hit a two RBI single in his first major league AB, and have his catcher Russell Martin, who has been around the block a time or two, say that his fastball was the best he'd ever seen.

I think that the only word for this performance is "spectacular".

One thing that I did today was drive down to PNC Park and buy two tickets to Sunday's game which will be a match-up between Cole and Clayton Kershaw.  I missed the debut last night, but I'm not going to miss the next outing.

Late yesterday afternoon, Greg Brown was being interviewed on Starkey, Miller, and Mueller on 93.7 The Fan, and he had me screaming at the radio.  Brown was hoping that Cole would "do just okay" in this outing.  He feared that if Cole had an outstanding game (think Steven Strasburg against the Pirates in 2010), it would "set the bar too high" for Cole going forward, and make the expectations way too much for him.  I was waiting for Brown to say that he hoped the Giants scored seven runs and knocked him out in the first inning.  Call me Oliver Stone, but I smelled Neal Huntington's fingerprints (how's that for a mixed metaphor?) all over this statement.  In fact, the one guy associated with the Pirates that has NOT been heard from today has been the GM, who in all of his statements prior to last night made it clear that he did not want to have Cole up with the team at this time.  Too soon, according to the NH timetable.  I have even read some things today that says the Cole's staying with the club is still not a sure thing.  Not sure how credible some of those sources are, so I won't go completely nuts over it, but if one thing was proven last night, it was the Gerrit Cole should never have to ride another bus in the bushes again.

Gerrit Cole Arrives, and Other Pirates Thoughts

Gerrit Cole, the young man who was the subject of so much sturm und drang  on Facebook's Pirate Chat and other social media when he was sent to the minors at the close of Spring Training, will make his debut as a Pirates this coming Tuesday when he starts against the San Francisco Giants.   This start will come just a little over two years after Cole was selected by the Pirates with the overall Number One selection in the major league entry draft.  Despite all the criticism - much of it coming from this particular Grandstand, I admit - of the Pirates and the NHR for keeping guys in the minor leagues too long, Cole's ascension to a starting pitching assignment, against the defending World Series Champs, no less, has been remarkably swift.  In the grand scheme of things, Cole's "long-awaited" debut, will not have taken all that long after all.

I had promised myself that when Cole did make his first start, I would be at PNC Park to see it.  Turns out that Tuesdays happen to be our Caring Place night, so, alas and alack,  I will not be there to usher in the Gerrit Cole Era.  Perhaps this is a good thing, because I recall being at Three Rivers Stadium for the debuts of both Doug Frobel and Chad Hermansen, so Cole doesn't need that particular mojo going for him.  The DVR will be cranked up and I will rush home to see what I hope will be the first of Cole's 200 wins, give or take a few, that he will register for the Pirates over the course of his career.

******

It was a tough week for the Bucs who after taking 3 of 4 from the Tigers, were swept by the Braves and lost 2 of 3 to the Reds.  At the beginning of that stretch, I had wished for a 5-5 record, but I'll take 4-6.  They will have to do better against the Reds in future match-ups, but the important thing is that there WILL be more games against the Reds this season, and remember, the Pirates are 4-3 against them so far in '13.  And, of course, there are still a lot of games to be played against the Cardinals, who don't seem to ever lose a game. 

It also looked like the best cure for such a stretch was a three game series against the Cubs, as the Pirates go for a sweep today.

******

Speaking of the Major League Entry draft,  the Pirates selected 41 players this week, many of whom will be selling insurance or coaching high school baseball five or so years from now (as will most guys drafted by the other 29 MLB teams), but it will be fun to see which guy drafted after the 30th round will catch fire and become the Next Big Thing in the Pirates system and, we hope, at PNC Park someday.  Wasn't Dave Parker drafted after the 30th round?  And, of course, all eyes will be on the two first round choices, OF Austin Meadows and C Reese McGuire.  As high schoolers, they are a long way from Pittsburgh and PNC Park, but the potential of big things lie ahead for both of them, and, as I said, it will be fun following them along the way.

******

I am ready for the following headline when young Mr. Meadows becomes a Pirate and has his first multi-home run game:

AUSTIN POWERS BUCS TO BIG WIN

Of course, by the time Meadows finally does arrive in Pittsburgh, the pop cultural reference to "Austin Powers" will be completely lost to everyone reading the newspaper, if, indeed, there still are newspapers then.

******

Sticking with the theme of Pirates draft choices,  one of the more intriguing story lines over the past two seasons has been that of Stetson Allie.  You all know the story, a high school pitcher who could throw at close to 100 mph, Allie was drafted in the second round in 2010, right behind Jameson Taillon, given first round bonus money ($2 Million) to sign, but then bombed as a pitcher to the point where the Pirates decided to make him  a first baseman.  In 2012, Allie didn't do much of anything, and he was starting to look like another very expensive bust of a draft pick, but in 2013 playing in Low Class A West Virginia, Allie has become Babe Ruth:

AB - 224

BA - .326

HR - 16

RBI - 55

OPS - 1.016

But here is the curious thing.  If you go to the Pirates website, you can link into the the Pirates "Top 20" minor league prospects to follow how they are doing, and Allie does not appear in the Top Twenty.  I am not sure what this means.  It could be that he is #21 on the list and will crack it once Cole get promoted, or it could mean that he is the next Brad Eldred. Whichever it is, it will be fun to watch the Stetson Allie Story play out over the next couple of seasons.

******

One of Allie's teammates in West Virgina, OF Josh Bell, is on that Top 20 list, and is ranked at Number Six.  His numbers in 231 AB's are as follows...BA of .277 with 8 HR, 45 RBI, and an .815 OPS.  Good, but not as good at the numbers Allie has posted.  Again, I don't know what it all means.

More B.S. from GM Neal

The decision of the Pirates to send Gerrit Cole to the minors today was expected, and it is causing all sorts of chatter in the social media world.  I won't get into the debate as to the wisdom of not keeping one of your 10 best pitchers in order to push back his "arbitration/free agency" clock.  That's been beaten to death.  

Instead, I would rather focus on this quote from the GM Neal:

"Everybody's going to speculate why he's being sent out, and they're wrong. He's being sent out because, in our minds, he's not ready to compete and be successful at the major league level."

What frosts me about this particular bit of b.s. from Neal is that it is a complete and bold faced lie, and, as such, is yet another insult to the intelligence of the Pirates' fans.  I guess this is just another example of how smart baseball people agree with what the NHR does, if the dumb-shit Pirates fans just don't get it.

Be honest with us, Neal.  Just tell us the REAL reason Cole is going to start the season in Indianapolis.

A Pirate Chat member mentioned today that no one - politician, corporate leader, sports GM - is ever totally honest with the people, and he cited Bill Belichick as an example.  When Neal Huntington achieves the same level of success as has Bill Belichick, I will start to drink his Kool-Aid, but until then, I think I'll just remain insulted.