After a pessimistic article last week, I'm going to try to look at the glass half-full this time around. Gerrit Cole was far from his regular self on Sunday against the Reds, going 5 2/3 giving up 4 runs, but surprisingly enough, the Reds have had Cole's number throughout his career. He has a 5.44 ERA against the Reds, yet he nearly halves that against the rest of the league (2.88 ERA). If I were a betting man, I would bet that Gerrit Cole is just having a slightly off year and that he will bounce back in 2017. That doesn't mean I'm throwing in the towel for this season, but the outlook is rather bleak.
On Tuesday, Pirates nation got to see Chad Kuhl in action once again. The rookie right-hander struggled through a long first inning that had me thinking, "Here we go again!", but he settled in shortly thereafter. With the help of three ground ball induced double plays, he added a quality start to his relatively short big league resume. His success in the minors and hopefully in bigs has been based on ground balls. This reminds me a lot of Charlie Morton, who was unfortunately streaky going stretches where fly balls were more rare than the Cubs winning the World Series, but then there were times where he would surrender home runs more often than the employees at Costco hand out free samples. I am a little more optimistic about the rookie, however. I don't know whether it's his demeanor or solid control, but I think we will be seeing his name a lot more in the coming years.
On Thursday, Kuhl's fellow rookie and formerly highly-touted prospect, Jameson Taillon, one-upped Kuhl, going 8 strong, scoreless innings en route to dropping his ERA down to 2.85. I remember watching a postgame interview with teammate and veteran, David Freese, who marveled at Taillon's performance and attributed his success to his level demeanor and drive to compete and win. Although Freese didn't put it quite as succinctly, I trust his insight, and I think his teammates see shades of Gerrit Cole in Jameson. That hunger to win yet a desire to learn at this early stage of his career is a dangerous combination for someone with four great pitches in his arsenal, a mid-90s four seam fastball he can blow by hitters, a mid-90s sinker that generates tons of groudn balls, an upper-80s change that keeps hitters extremely off-balanced, and a sharp, biting curveball that I can only describe as wicked. As he matures as a pitcher these coming months/years, I can see a future ace in the making. Gerrit Cole won't be in Pittsburgh much longer considering he will demand more than the Pirates will be willing to pay in the 2019 offseason when he is no longer arbitration-eligible. Barring a front office surprise, expect Taillon to become synonymous with 'ace' in Pittxbrugh sooner rather than later.
