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.
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