Pirates' top prospect Gerrit Cole made his debut for AA Altoona tonight, and Bloggin Buccos was there to see it. Cole looked as advertised, hitting 92-95 MPH on the outfield radar gun, but apparently that gun is a little slow, and he was said to be hitting 93-98, with one of his fastballs reaching 99 MPH. Cole has a very good arsenal of pitches that he can use, including that fastball, a 2-seam fastball that usually sits in the low 90's, a great slider that can reach the low 90's, a potential plus changeup, and a good curve as well.
Cole's line for the day ended up at 5 innings pitched, five hits, zero walks, six strikeouts and two earned runs. He started the game with three perfect innings, but allowed five hits over the next two innings, which lead to the two earned runs. There was a long delay between the fourth and fifth innings because of a power outage in one of the stadium lights, and this may have messed with Cole's focus a little. He also got ahead of a batter 0-2, but then threw three straight balls and allowed an RBI hit with the next pitch. Either way, Cole showed everyone why he is the top prospect in the system.
I was very impressed with how Cole was able to use all his pitches throughout his start, and it seemed like he got a strikeout with each pitch (that probably can't be confirmed). He showed a great feel for his changeup, which was in the mid to upper-80's, and that helped to keep hitters guessing at the plate. I haven't really heard much about Cole's curveball coming into the game, but it looked very good as well, and I will try to put a video of one of his strikeouts using that curve on twitter if I can.
Cole's control was never a problem in the outing, as shown by him not allowing any walks. Out of the 20 batters that he faced in the game, he threw 15 first pitch strikes. As I said before, he was using all of his five pitches to get strikes and strikeouts.
I definitely left the game very impressed by Cole, and he proved to be the system's number one prospect. A guy who has five pitches that are above average or plus pitches can easily be a major league ace if he can control and command those pitches, and Cole showed the ability to do that in his AA debut.
Video of Cole and other game highlights can be found on the Altoona Curve's Facebook page. Here you will be able to see some of the great movement and placement he has on his pitches.
The Curve ended up winning the game 9-4, with home runs coming from Quincy Latimore and Robbie Grossman.
On a side note, I would also like to say that Altoona's field was very nice, and it was definitely a great experience to be there. The best seats in the stadium (infield box seats) were only $10, so it would be a great idea to go out and see the Curve
Any questions or comments can be sent to me on twitter @mikemaw45
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