Cole vs. Strasburg

The Pirates head to Washington DC this weekend for a three game set with the first place Nationals.  Circumstances are such that we will not be seeing a pitching match-up between two former overall Number One Draft Selections Stephen Strasburg and Gerrit Cole.  We all remember the hype that greeted Strasburg when he made his debut in 2010 against the destined-to-lose-100-games Pirates, and completely overwhelmed them.  It was that crummy season that gave the Bucs the number one draft choice the following year, which they used to select Cole.

Too bad we won't see such a pitcher's duel this weekend, but it gave me the idea to look it up to see how these two guys are doing, career-wise, and here you go:

	Stephen Strasburg	Gerrit Cole
Seasons	6	3
Games	119	54
Wins	46	31
Losses	35	14
ERA	3.25	3.02
WHIP	1.13	1.16
BB	180	87
K	791	331
K/9IP	10.2	8.8

Strasburg's body of work is about double that of Cole's, so it is probably not a good idea to draw any conclusions.  However, Strasburg has had Tommy John surgery in his past, and there is evidence to suggest that he may never achieve the levels that were expected of him after that 14 strike out first game in 2010.  He is currently on the DL, and is 3-5 with a 6.55 ERA for 2015.

Cole is now 10-2 with a 1.71 ERA for 2015, and he seems to be on the ascent.

As I said, way too early to draw any conclusions about either guy, much less which of them will prove to have been the better #1 Draft Pick, but it's interesting, nonetheless.