Pittsburgh Pirates Morning Dew: The Dominance of Gerrit Cole

Everyone knows that Gerrit Cole was a stud down the stretch run of 2013.  But precisely how did he make it happen?  Jake at Beyond The Box Score breaks it down for Pirates fans.

Gerrit Cole is a BAM

We remember thinking that Cole was so dominant that it just wasn’t real.  I couldn’t recall a Pirates pitcher simply taking over when he toed the rubber in what I consider the most important month of a baseball season.  The entire month of September for Cole was among some of the best games we watched as a Pittsburgh Pirates fan.

A great deal of the facts are displayed in the post.  Just why Cole changed so much is unknown but damn it was fun to watch.  Cole’s humility was also a trait that is rarely seen in the game.  Shit, I need to buy a Cole jersey tonight when I get home.  Until then, be sure to check out this story by Jake.

"What isn’t speculation, however, is the ripple effect. Batters often went fishing for Cole’s curves in the dirt, causing him to use it more and ultimately go on to muster a 31.2 K% in September–no other month came close to matching that mark. And we already went over his impressive numbers outside of K%. Whatever Cole did, and I think we now have a good idea as to what that is, worked. How will an increased usage of Cole’s curveball fare over a full season? We’ll have to play the wait-and-see game to get an accurate answer, but Cole’s September dominance is, at the very least, a good sign for the Pirates."

http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2014/1/20/5324588/gerrit-cole-pirates-dominant-month-of-september