Gerrit Cole has allowed four runs over three starts and 8 2/3 innings for the Pirates this spring. — GETTY
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
BRADENTON, Fla. — “Thank you.”
Those were the only two words spoken by Gerrit Cole to Edinson Volquez on that late September night in the visiting clubhouse at Atlanta’s Turner Field. Champagne sprayed over both. The bass of the big speakers boomed. Some players roared. Others wept. Still others chose to stand off to the side and soak it in. Literally, to be sure.
But these two had a moment all their own. Cole’s stung, squinting eyes suddenly widened as he put his hands about either side of Volquez’s face, and that expression of gratitude was offered.
I was near enough to witness, wise enough not to ask until a lot later.
“Edinson carried me when I went on the disabled list, picked up my innings, him more than anyone else,” Cole would explain back at his stall. “I’ll never forget it.”
I brought it up again this week at McKechnie Field. Asked what, if anything, that might still mean now that he’s embarking on his third season in the majors, one in which pundits and publications everywhere are predicting will bring a breakout, possibly toward greatness.
“What it means,” Cole replied pointedly, “is I don’t want anyone picking up my innings this year.”
That’s it?
“That’s it.”
The productivity
The concept of greatness in sports is flagrantly overused. Even if defining by Hall of Fame inductions, the field is confined to a handful a year among all of the planet’s participants. The truly great are so, so rare.
But that’s not the only reason we’re all guilty of being too quick to assign greatness.
Listen to Neal Huntington describe his former No. 1 overall pick and flame-throwing, 6-foot-4 right-hander, and his potential — emphasis on that term — for greatness: “He needs to continue to have the passionate desire to get better, and he needs to do more of what he’s done to get to this point. When you’re talking about great, especially in baseball, what you’re talking about is consistently really good. But if you’re talking about elite, if you’re talking Hall of Famer, it’s not because you have a two- or three-year stretch of being consistently really good. It’s because you have a 10- or 15-year stretch.”
I urged the GM to expound: “Well, that’s elite. That’s way up there. And the only way to get to that level is to challenge yourself to grow. Not change. Not overhaul. Just grow. Continue to refine the delivery. Continue to refine a pitch. Continue to study opposition weaknesses. Continue to magnify your strengths. Continue to work a little bit harder when you’re 26 than when you were 22.”
After a pause, Huntington concluded, “Do more.”
Cole is 24. He’s coming off two richly promising liftoff seasons — a combined 21-12 with a 3.45 ERA and 238 strikeouts against 68 walks — though his 2014 was limited to 138 innings because of shoulder and lat issues.
Expectations for 2015 are … well, more.
Let me go blunt here: For the Pirates to meet their goal of winning the Central Division, they need to be consistently really good, to borrow Huntington’s definition.
And for the Pirates to be consistently really good, they’ll need Cole to be consistently really good.
And for Cole to be consistently really good, to meet that vision that he and others have of a true rotation ace or horse, to carry the rotation as Volquez did down the stretch last summer, he needs to pitch a lot.
All that add up?
“Uh, I don’t know, sounds like you’re putting a heck of a lot of pressure on me,” Cole came back with a laugh after I rattled all that his way. “But no, that’s it. Really is. My goal is a full season. It isn’t anything more specific than that. It isn’t anything bigger than that. I’m fortunate to be in a rotation with three or four older guys to learn from, to rely on. But my goal on my own is to perfect the process between starts and work on a routine that puts me in the best position to take the ball every fifth day and ultimately make 30 starts. I’m all about the IP column.”
Innings pitched.
To that end, he’s working with the team’s athletic trainers, Todd Tomczyk and Ben Potenziano, on an unusual program that targets extra emphasis on a given muscle area between each start. It might be a special set of stretches for the shoulder at the first break, additional strength in the core the next, and so forth. Such exercises might be overload if performed too frequently, so the separation helps.
“This might not be for everybody, but I feel good about what it’ll do for me,” Cole said.
The most encouraging facet to this component is that Cole has an excellent health history, going back to high school and UCLA. The Pirates’ front office, to this day, praises his parents, Mark and Sharon Cole, from protecting him against some of the arm abuse that’s unfortunately all too common in the amateur and collegiate ranks. His father once mapped out spreadsheets to forecast his son’s needs. Going way back, his grandfather advised him against throwing too many curveballs as a youngster because of the damage it could wreak later.
Between that and Cole’s long-thick frame, it’s not as if health is some overriding issue.
“Last season was the first time in Gerrit’s life that he’d dealt with soreness of any kind,” Huntington said. “But that in and of itself is a big learning experience for any pitcher at any age, so you can understand why it affected him the way it did. And why he’s treating it as a growing experience. He always was in good shape. Now he’s in the best shape of his life. This is going to benefit him and us. I really believe that.”
The person
Cole’s history also powerfully supports his oft-stated position that he’s all about team.
In the summer of 2011, when he was the consensus No. 1 prospect in the country, he cut off all media requests at UCLA entirely because he didn’t want his status to distract his teammates. I was in California that year trying to get the scoop and, like everyone else, failed. No exceptions for anyone. I did hook up with his catcher at the time, who told me, “That’s just Gerrit. You’d never know from being around him that anything is happening other than our season.”
Which is striking against the backdrop that Cole is generally excellent with the media, both in terms of cooperation, thoughtfulness and, above all, candor. The kid has told it like it is from Day 1 of his arrival, whether panning some of the nonsense he’d seen in the Pirates’ minor leagues or pushing his teammates in Pittsburgh to play with more of an edge against rivals, against opponents he flatly can’t stand.
You’ve seen that edge on occasion, I’m guessing.
“Yeah, I know. It’s there,” Cole said. “Emotions can be good and they can get in your way. It’s something that’s part of me. That’s a process like anything else. I just need to minimize the situations that can affect you negatively. But I also think emotions come with things becoming more familiar, more routine. You kind of get more comfortable and have a better sense of the bigger picture. You don’t live on every pitch in April the way you do in September. That just comes with more experience.”
And that experience, from the sound of it, has him in a familiar place.
“Now that I’m here, now that I’ve been around the majors a bit, I think my goals are team-oriented. We’re looking to win the division. We’re looking to get deep into the postseason. We’re looking to win the World Series. Even looking at my own production, I don’t think me personally having a good season is going to have much of an effect. It’s more about how we contribute collectively and do some of the things we did really well last year and in 2013, a lot of the next-man-up thing. We had a lot of that last year and won some big games and scratched and clawed our way back into the playoffs.”
I asked Cole more about big games, emotion, and the rotation as a whole. Here’s that on video:
The Pirates have another emotional pitcher, of course, and he doesn’t exactly hide it, either.
“Don’t ever worry about Gerrit and his emotions,” A.J. Burnett said. “Right now, what you’re seeing is the young Gerrit passing on through to the older Gerrit. You’re going to see it more. He has fun doing what he’s doing, and that matters so much. I’ve always been a guy who’s fed off my emotions. I feel like it’s what brings out the best in me. Gerrit’s a lot like that, and that’s good. It’ll be even better when he learns to channel the good emotions and remove the bad.”
And that happens how?
“It’s all pitching. Ultimately, that’s what we’re all about out there.”
The pitcher
Cole throws the ball really hard, sitting at 98 mph, occasionally venturing into triple-digits.
And for now, that comprises pretty much the thrust of the National League’s scouting report on him. Oh, there are other offerings, as many or more, actually, than most power arms. But there can’t be any question that the next level for Cole will come partially strengthening his body and mind, but also through expanding his repertoire.
“What I’m looking for is the consistency of the breaking ball,” pitching coach Ray Searage replied when I asked for a pegged shortcoming. “The curveball and slider have a tendency to lose their shape because of overthrowing or trying to make them better than what they are.”
Emotions?
“Maybe. We’re making progress right now. Gerrit’s got a good feel for what he needs to do there, and now we’ve just got to keep on doing it. The velocity of the fastball is always there. He knows that. He can use that anytime he wants. But there’s got to be more, both in setting up the hitter and in having other out pitches. When he wants to bury that slider on the back foot to the left-handed hitter, when he wants to throw a first-pitch curve for a strike and then the heater … that becomes a total package. Now we’re talking about something else.”
Sounds almost scary.
“That’s the goal.”
That heat and the potential for more raise expectations in and of themselves. Now, toss in that Cole has visibly gotten stronger through each of his first two seasons, and the roof is raised further. Last season, his ERA dropped from a first-half 3.78 to a second-half 3.44. More impressive, his strikeout-to-walk ratio soared from 2.83-to-1 to 5.8-to-1.
“I guess the more reps the better my timing becomes, the more comfortable I get,” Cole said. “I think it’s just the hard work paying off at the right time, and that’s fortunately when the games mean the most. You get to a certain point where it’s easier to get into a groove..
Call that an ace, a horse, whatever you wish. It’ll be welcome.
“People always talk about having that guy, that No. 1, and it’s easy to see why when you look at what Madison Bumgarner did to everyone last fall, us included,” Searage said. “Well, we feel like we’ve got one of those. We aren’t there yet, but it’s heading in the right direction.”
DK, as always, great perspective. I watched him pitch when I was down there last week. I may be reading too much into it, but there seems to be a bit more poise on the mound than in the previous two years. That said anything less than 15 wins, has to be a disappointment
DK loved this column. I appreciate the effort this took to put together. I am hoping Cole can win 18-20 games this year with a sub 3 ERA. The sky is the limit for this kid.
I read about the Kentucky pastor who put life size cutouts of Coach K (in the back row, along with Christian Laettner) and Rick Pitino (in the front row) in his sanctuary to fill up his pews. It was a Baptist, but he did not have your name.
Doggone, I was hoping it was you!!!
But Duke needs to go in the front!!!
LuckyNKentucky
3-18-2015, 10:39 pm
Wasn't me. Not far from here, though. I hope KY loses every game. I'd put a cutout of Ezekiel Elliott from OSU in the pew if I had one.
Groat2Maz2Strangeglove
3-18-2015, 9:15 pm
Very nice read!
I'm constantly amazed at the "togetherness" reflected in that clubhouse.
Your videos and writings have reflected it well: NO ONE is talking about settling for anything less than winning the division, then going on from there.
Bucs NEED this kid to be a horse . . . . . . but not an ACE yet.
Cole: "I don’t think me personally having a good season is going to have much of an effect."
Say what???
Is that modesty or does he really believe that nonsense?
I think he means that just him having s good season doesn't necessarily mean that the Bucs will. Like Steve Carlton with the Phils in 1972. He was great, but the Phils sucked.
DK -- This is a fantastic column. Great insight into a young man who represents the Pirates' present and future. This column goes above and beyond statistics. It goes into the thought process and philosophy of a professional athlete who wants to be elite. I don't comment much, but when I read something that makes me say, "wow," I feel the need to say it. Wow.
So well said, Casper. You really need to comment more. :)
The Black Cloud
3-18-2015, 11:03 pm
I've loved this kid since Day One. Seems to speak honestly yet never sounds cocky or obnoxious. I love the just-the-right-amount of edge he plays with. Or heck, even sits in the dugout with. Easy to appreciate Cole after the dark decades.
It's been fun to watch this kid grow. His interview with Rob King the other day was remarkable for the increased comfort level in front of the camera and overall maturity. It seems odd to say it about a top draft pick, but it's amazing how often teams (including the Bucs) don't get it right. This time they surely did!
I second that. He's got me passionate about sports again because of his writing and insights.
Jake
3-19-2015, 9:59 am
Will his 138 innings last year lead to an inning limit this year? I know the organization doesn't like the inning count going up too high from year to year. Even factoring in innings in the minors, I wonder if they'll let him get up to 200?
Just this morning sent to AAA, where he will be brought along slowly. Should be pitching in AAA games by May 1 but his innings will be babied this year if BMTIB follows their previous patterns.
Possible mid/late season help for Pirates, but more likely 2016 season.
maccreate
3-19-2015, 12:57 pm
DK this is 21st century journalism at its best. Please remind me of how we can best spread the word through social media about this story and the awesome site.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC, born and bred Pittsburgher and professional sports writer since 1990, was named one of the nation's top four columnists by the Associated Press Sports Editors (2011) and National Headliners (2013).
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March 18, 2015
Column: This train will be fueled by Cole
by Dejan Kovacevic • Columns • Tags: Pirates
Gerrit Cole has allowed four runs over three starts and 8 2/3 innings for the Pirates this spring. — GETTY
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
BRADENTON, Fla. — “Thank you.”
Those were the only two words spoken by Gerrit Cole to Edinson Volquez on that late September night in the visiting clubhouse at Atlanta’s Turner Field. Champagne sprayed over both. The bass of the big speakers boomed. Some players roared. Others wept. Still others chose to stand off to the side and soak it in. Literally, to be sure.
But these two had a moment all their own. Cole’s stung, squinting eyes suddenly widened as he put his hands about either side of Volquez’s face, and that expression of gratitude was offered.
I was near enough to witness, wise enough not to ask until a lot later.
“Edinson carried me when I went on the disabled list, picked up my innings, him more than anyone else,” Cole would explain back at his stall. “I’ll never forget it.”
I brought it up again this week at McKechnie Field. Asked what, if anything, that might still mean now that he’s embarking on his third season in the majors, one in which pundits and publications everywhere are predicting will bring a breakout, possibly toward greatness.
“What it means,” Cole replied pointedly, “is I don’t want anyone picking up my innings this year.”
That’s it?
“That’s it.”
The productivity
The concept of greatness in sports is flagrantly overused. Even if defining by Hall of Fame inductions, the field is confined to a handful a year among all of the planet’s participants. The truly great are so, so rare.
But that’s not the only reason we’re all guilty of being too quick to assign greatness.
Listen to Neal Huntington describe his former No. 1 overall pick and flame-throwing, 6-foot-4 right-hander, and his potential — emphasis on that term — for greatness: “He needs to continue to have the passionate desire to get better, and he needs to do more of what he’s done to get to this point. When you’re talking about great, especially in baseball, what you’re talking about is consistently really good. But if you’re talking about elite, if you’re talking Hall of Famer, it’s not because you have a two- or three-year stretch of being consistently really good. It’s because you have a 10- or 15-year stretch.”
I urged the GM to expound: “Well, that’s elite. That’s way up there. And the only way to get to that level is to challenge yourself to grow. Not change. Not overhaul. Just grow. Continue to refine the delivery. Continue to refine a pitch. Continue to study opposition weaknesses. Continue to magnify your strengths. Continue to work a little bit harder when you’re 26 than when you were 22.”
After a pause, Huntington concluded, “Do more.”
Cole is 24. He’s coming off two richly promising liftoff seasons — a combined 21-12 with a 3.45 ERA and 238 strikeouts against 68 walks — though his 2014 was limited to 138 innings because of shoulder and lat issues.
Expectations for 2015 are … well, more.
Let me go blunt here: For the Pirates to meet their goal of winning the Central Division, they need to be consistently really good, to borrow Huntington’s definition.
And for the Pirates to be consistently really good, they’ll need Cole to be consistently really good.
And for Cole to be consistently really good, to meet that vision that he and others have of a true rotation ace or horse, to carry the rotation as Volquez did down the stretch last summer, he needs to pitch a lot.
All that add up?
“Uh, I don’t know, sounds like you’re putting a heck of a lot of pressure on me,” Cole came back with a laugh after I rattled all that his way. “But no, that’s it. Really is. My goal is a full season. It isn’t anything more specific than that. It isn’t anything bigger than that. I’m fortunate to be in a rotation with three or four older guys to learn from, to rely on. But my goal on my own is to perfect the process between starts and work on a routine that puts me in the best position to take the ball every fifth day and ultimately make 30 starts. I’m all about the IP column.”
Innings pitched.
To that end, he’s working with the team’s athletic trainers, Todd Tomczyk and Ben Potenziano, on an unusual program that targets extra emphasis on a given muscle area between each start. It might be a special set of stretches for the shoulder at the first break, additional strength in the core the next, and so forth. Such exercises might be overload if performed too frequently, so the separation helps.
“This might not be for everybody, but I feel good about what it’ll do for me,” Cole said.
The most encouraging facet to this component is that Cole has an excellent health history, going back to high school and UCLA. The Pirates’ front office, to this day, praises his parents, Mark and Sharon Cole, from protecting him against some of the arm abuse that’s unfortunately all too common in the amateur and collegiate ranks. His father once mapped out spreadsheets to forecast his son’s needs. Going way back, his grandfather advised him against throwing too many curveballs as a youngster because of the damage it could wreak later.
Between that and Cole’s long-thick frame, it’s not as if health is some overriding issue.
“Last season was the first time in Gerrit’s life that he’d dealt with soreness of any kind,” Huntington said. “But that in and of itself is a big learning experience for any pitcher at any age, so you can understand why it affected him the way it did. And why he’s treating it as a growing experience. He always was in good shape. Now he’s in the best shape of his life. This is going to benefit him and us. I really believe that.”
The person
Cole’s history also powerfully supports his oft-stated position that he’s all about team.
In the summer of 2011, when he was the consensus No. 1 prospect in the country, he cut off all media requests at UCLA entirely because he didn’t want his status to distract his teammates. I was in California that year trying to get the scoop and, like everyone else, failed. No exceptions for anyone. I did hook up with his catcher at the time, who told me, “That’s just Gerrit. You’d never know from being around him that anything is happening other than our season.”
Which is striking against the backdrop that Cole is generally excellent with the media, both in terms of cooperation, thoughtfulness and, above all, candor. The kid has told it like it is from Day 1 of his arrival, whether panning some of the nonsense he’d seen in the Pirates’ minor leagues or pushing his teammates in Pittsburgh to play with more of an edge against rivals, against opponents he flatly can’t stand.
You’ve seen that edge on occasion, I’m guessing.
“Yeah, I know. It’s there,” Cole said. “Emotions can be good and they can get in your way. It’s something that’s part of me. That’s a process like anything else. I just need to minimize the situations that can affect you negatively. But I also think emotions come with things becoming more familiar, more routine. You kind of get more comfortable and have a better sense of the bigger picture. You don’t live on every pitch in April the way you do in September. That just comes with more experience.”
And that experience, from the sound of it, has him in a familiar place.
“Now that I’m here, now that I’ve been around the majors a bit, I think my goals are team-oriented. We’re looking to win the division. We’re looking to get deep into the postseason. We’re looking to win the World Series. Even looking at my own production, I don’t think me personally having a good season is going to have much of an effect. It’s more about how we contribute collectively and do some of the things we did really well last year and in 2013, a lot of the next-man-up thing. We had a lot of that last year and won some big games and scratched and clawed our way back into the playoffs.”
I asked Cole more about big games, emotion, and the rotation as a whole. Here’s that on video:
The Pirates have another emotional pitcher, of course, and he doesn’t exactly hide it, either.
“Don’t ever worry about Gerrit and his emotions,” A.J. Burnett said. “Right now, what you’re seeing is the young Gerrit passing on through to the older Gerrit. You’re going to see it more. He has fun doing what he’s doing, and that matters so much. I’ve always been a guy who’s fed off my emotions. I feel like it’s what brings out the best in me. Gerrit’s a lot like that, and that’s good. It’ll be even better when he learns to channel the good emotions and remove the bad.”
And that happens how?
“It’s all pitching. Ultimately, that’s what we’re all about out there.”
The pitcher
Cole throws the ball really hard, sitting at 98 mph, occasionally venturing into triple-digits.
And for now, that comprises pretty much the thrust of the National League’s scouting report on him. Oh, there are other offerings, as many or more, actually, than most power arms. But there can’t be any question that the next level for Cole will come partially strengthening his body and mind, but also through expanding his repertoire.
“What I’m looking for is the consistency of the breaking ball,” pitching coach Ray Searage replied when I asked for a pegged shortcoming. “The curveball and slider have a tendency to lose their shape because of overthrowing or trying to make them better than what they are.”
Emotions?
“Maybe. We’re making progress right now. Gerrit’s got a good feel for what he needs to do there, and now we’ve just got to keep on doing it. The velocity of the fastball is always there. He knows that. He can use that anytime he wants. But there’s got to be more, both in setting up the hitter and in having other out pitches. When he wants to bury that slider on the back foot to the left-handed hitter, when he wants to throw a first-pitch curve for a strike and then the heater … that becomes a total package. Now we’re talking about something else.”
Sounds almost scary.
“That’s the goal.”
That heat and the potential for more raise expectations in and of themselves. Now, toss in that Cole has visibly gotten stronger through each of his first two seasons, and the roof is raised further. Last season, his ERA dropped from a first-half 3.78 to a second-half 3.44. More impressive, his strikeout-to-walk ratio soared from 2.83-to-1 to 5.8-to-1.
“I guess the more reps the better my timing becomes, the more comfortable I get,” Cole said. “I think it’s just the hard work paying off at the right time, and that’s fortunately when the games mean the most. You get to a certain point where it’s easier to get into a groove..
Call that an ace, a horse, whatever you wish. It’ll be welcome.
“People always talk about having that guy, that No. 1, and it’s easy to see why when you look at what Madison Bumgarner did to everyone last fall, us included,” Searage said. “Well, we feel like we’ve got one of those. We aren’t there yet, but it’s heading in the right direction.”
One column at a time.
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