The most important Starting Pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates is starting to heat up.
Gerrit Cole has risen to fame as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ biggest fan during their run in the Stanley Cup playoffs, but when the third-year pitcher has been away from Consol Energy Center and on the rubber, he has been the ace of the Pirates’ pitching staff in the month of May. Just like the Penguins, Cole got off to a slow start on the season, but in May, the right-handed pitcher has been nothing but ace-quality for the Pirates.
Cole got off to a so-so start in the month of April going 2-2, but has turned his season around in May going 3-1 in his last four starts. It all started in a game at PNC Park against the Cubs May 2nd, but first let’s take a look at how he got there.
The Flop: Where it went wrong.
The 2016 season got off to a late start for Cole as he began spring training on the shelf with a rib injury forcing his spring work load to be pushed back while he healed. As a result, Cole didn’t get his first start for the Pirates until April 9th against the Reds in Cincinnati.
In his first action of the season, Cole failed to get out of the fifth inning going 4 and two-thirds innings giving up three earned runs on five hits and three walks. Against Detroit in Cole’s first home start, he went six innings allowing only two runs, four hits, five strike outs, and one walk.
Cole kept the Pirates in the game in his start against Detroit, however, the bullpen did not hold up their end of the bargain and he was handed his second loss of the season.
In his next two outings, he showed flashes of promise in beating San Diego shutting them out for six innings and following it up against Colorado giving up only two runs yet allowing four.
The Turn: Where it turned around
After a month of mediocre starts for the Pirates’ young ace, Cole looked to rebound at home against the surging Cubs. Things did not go as planned as Cole was shelled for six runs, five earned on six hits, four walks and six strikeouts.
Since lasting four and two-thirds against the Cubs May 2nd, Cole has been nearly lights out. In his first five starts, Cole gave up 12 runs while in his three since May 2nd, he has given up only three runs total in three games.
What is impressive for Cole is he’s going deep into games and winning by any means necessary whether it be striking out seven or striking out none, Cole continues to get the job done as of late.
Cole has gone six plus innings in each of those three games while scattering a total of 19 hits compared to the 27 he gave up in his first five games. A majority of those hits (10) came in his most recent start against Colorado where Cole went seven strong and gave up one walk, one run, while striking out none for the first time in his career.
Aside from Colorado, Cole shut down a strong St. Louis Cardinals lineup before dismantling a powerful Cubs lineup shutting them out and going eight strong innings while holding them to only three hits.
Since Cole’s dominance of the Cubs, the Pirates have won seven of their last night leading into Cole’s start against the Arizona Diamondbacks Thursday afternoon.
The Burn: The Difference Makers
The biggest difference makers when it comes to Cole’s bounce back May can be attributed to wear he is throwing each pitch as well as BABIP (Batting Average for Balls In Play). It is in these two statistical areas where the most quality change has occurred.
Pitch location is an integral part of any pitcher’s game plan from little league to the Majors and Cole is no different. His fast ball has averaged 94.95 MPH according to MLB.com’s Statcast. At that velocity, missing a spot by an inch could be the difference between a double or a strikeout.
Cole pitch location – First Five Starts
Heatmap courtesy of FanGraphs
The heat map above shows Cole’s pitch location for his first five games. Notice many of Cole’s pitches were over the heart of the plate or in hot hitting zones for right and left handed batters. Putting the ball in those spots only asks for danger to happen.
Cole Pitch Location – Last Three Starts
Now, this heat map reflects Cole’s last three starts where he has been most effective and you can see Cole favors throwing to his arm-side of the zone. This side of the zone just happens to be in on the hands for righties and away enough where lefties are barely able to barrel the ball up.
A focus for the Pirates in recent years has been controlling the inner half of the plate and when Cole is able to do just that, he has been dominant.
As for BABIP, this sabermetric statistic allows us to measure how often a ball in play goes for a hit. For Cole, this is an incredibly important statistic as it shows what effect luck and defense play in his outings.
In Cole’s first five outings, opposing hitters’ BABIP was around .330 or above league average for most hitters and offenses. Since being beat around the park by the Cubs, where they alone had a BABIP average of .429 for that single game, opposing teams averaged a BABIP of .269 in those three games.
A lot of factors can play a role in determining the BABIP for a pitcher, however, recently Cole’s BABIP number shows he is getting more outs and having pitches hit to the right place at the right time.
Where does the river for Cole flow from here?
To continue Cole’s flow downhill, the young veteran needs to keep pounding the inner half of the zone hard and on the hands. Should he continue this, good things will happen to not only Cole but the Pirates defense as well seeing as not many professional hitters are able to get around on 95 mph in on the hands. If he misses middle and away, things can go awry real quick as seen in his first five starts of the season.
As Gerrit Cole and the weather begin to heat up, so, too, will the Pittsburgh Pirates’ young flame thrower.
Continuing to command the zone and keep balls in play and playable for the defense should allow Cole to keep getting stronger as the year progresses and be the ace the PIttsburgh Pirates need him to be.
Featured Image Credit – Daniel Decker Photography
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
