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Pittsburgh Pirates Caffeine: Gerrit Cole in Arizona
By Tom Smith
This morning in Mesa, Arizona
Pittsburgh Pirates number one pick Gerrit Cole is probably really pumped. He has arrived. Sometime this week, Cole will make his first start as a professional baseball player.
The Pirates are hoping Cole can get a few starts and start building his innings count. As a Pirates fan, we trust he can combine getting as many innings as possible with being effective.
Cole will attempt to live up to the words of his agent Scott Boras. Those words mean nothing to me until I can see the right hander start punching out some opposing hitters.
We’re pretty pumped to see how he applies what the coaching staff worked with him on in Bradenton. Damn, we trust he can keep the ball down when he pitches in the AFL. The league is very hitter friendly, so don’t lose your mind if Cole gives up a few runs. One advantage for Cole is his arm has to be fresh and everything we hear is that his velocity is strong.
Unfortunately, he isn’t listed as the starter today for Mesa.
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After one week in the AFL, here are the Pirates updates:
Hitters:
Robbie Grossman is definently the highlight thus far with a solid line of .318/.375/.636 with two bombs and five runs driven in for the Mesa Solar Sox. Jarek Cunningham doesn’t have a nice line as of yet with a .133/.188/.333 a homer and has driven in three runs.
Pitchers:
Nathan Baker pitched 2.1 innings and gave up a run on four hits. Baker struckout three. Filthy Phil Irwin gave up two runs in 2.1 innings on three hits. Irwin issued no walks and had zero strikeouts. Michael Colla allowed a run on one hit, and a walk in 1.2 innings and also struck out two.
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Cool Don Kelly story…
Tony Plush is legendary…forever…and ever.
The Solar Sox play at 6:35MST tonight
Cole struggles are sort of predicted here (subscriber): Frankie says he isn’t positive the AFL will light him up, but he doesn’t expect pure domination. He also trusts that Cole will “establish his outstanding secondary offerings early in counts.”