If you were worried about Gerrit Cole’s transition to Double-A, his debut in Altoona last night should’ve gone quite a ways towards quieting those doubts. In his Altoona debut last night, Cole struck out six New Britain Rock Cats in his five innings of work. He didn’t walk any hitters, but he did give up two runs on five hits. Four of those five hits came in the fourth and fifth innings, in which he allowed both of his runs, but on the whole it was a nice introduction to Double-A for the Pirates’ top prospect.
Quite a few people from Pittsburgh were there and watching Cole pitch last night, so you can turn to them for a first hand recap. James Santelli was there for Pittsburgh Sports Report, and I’m sure Tim’s recap at Pirates Prospects is forthcoming. The general consensus is that Cole was sitting at 93-96 and touching 99 with his fastball, mixing it with a changeup that was borderline unfair to Double-A hitters, and throwing strikes consistently. Hard to argue with that.
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