The Pirates have activated righty Gerrit Cole to take the ball tonight, per a team announcement. That certainly represents the best case scenario for the staff ace, who hit the shelf about two weeks ago.
Unfortunately, the tide has turned quite a bit in the mean time. Pittsburgh sat just a half game out of Wild Card position when Cole went on the DL, but is now buried a full six games out of the postseason picture.
Even if the playoffs are no longer particularly realistic, there’s still plenty for Cole to pitch for. The righty, who turned 26 during his DL stint, is filling out a stat sheet before his first trip through arbitration this winter.
The 2016 hasn’t been as productive as the one before it, though Cole still carries a 3.55 ERA. From an arb perspective, his 114 frames to date will limit his earnings. Of greater concern from an on-field perspective is the decline in Cole’s strikeout ability (from about 10% swinging strike rate to 8.4%). Cole has received mixed reviews from ERA estimators, with a 3.16 FIP but only a 3.94 xFIP and 4.16 SIERA.
The most over rated pitcher in the game imo. The guy has been absulute junk in the playoffs the past 2 seasons.
he didn’t pitch in 2014 playoffs and he made one start in 2015. He allowed 4 earned in 5 innings. That’s hardly “junk”.
In 2013, he made two starts and allowed three runs in 11 innings. I think you’re mistaken.
To be fair, 4 ER in 5 innings, even against a good lineup, is kinda junk, but he’s making a judgment off of one game lol
4 earned runs in 5 innings is a 7.20 ERA. On what planet is that considered “good?”
I’m pretty sure Clayton Kershaw gave up 5 runs in a start earlier this year, and Mike Trout’s gone 0-4 too. I don’t disagree that there are some legitimate concerns about Cole moving forward, but one bad game means nothing in a career as a whole
Ya he’s overrated a bit but basing that off of anything less than 100 innings is just foolish
The perils of being a troll because of 1 bad start.
A very disappointing season from Cole, Cutch, Liriano, Cervelli, but mostly from the front office and what they did in the off season. They called this a bridge year to 2017, but from what we’ve seen from the young pitchers, they better bring in a veteran starter that isn’t trying to resurrect his career.