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.