OT: The Baseball Off-Season Thread: Miguel Sano and the Torturer's Stone

[OnMyOwn]

It'll be so nice to get him too. As long as this staff holds up and doesn't bomb, burnett, wandy, liriano, mcdonald,cole, is a very nice rotation.

And if Morton rebounds, even better.

 

[DJ Spinoza]

Yeah, I think a lot depends on the MLB staff. One factor for the earliest possible call-up might be a successful and clicking 4-man rotation (presumably Burnett, Wandy, J-Mac, and Liriano, with Morton still injured), which could allow Cole to be eased in. He's struggled initially when he moves up, so it will be nice if he doesn't have to step in to a situation where there will be a lot of pressure right away.

In short, though, I think the big factor is how well Cole is pitching vs. when there is availability/need in Pittsburgh. Smart money is on mid-season. I think if he has a solid first two months in AAA, he will be here at the very first opportunity.

 

[td_ice]

Thanks Big, and DJ for the thoughts on an ETA for Cole.

 

[Illinest]

I think you should have every reason to be excited about Cole. He's really something else. Not Strasburg good - not quite like that - but he's got so much pure stuff that he can come up here with no other objective but to stay down in the zone and that ought to be enough.

I will say that he's shown a propensity for over-excitement. In the Futures game he got knocked around and he's generally been a little bit weak in the first game or two at each new level (unless my memory fails me that is)
I think that he gets amped up, overthrows, elevates and flattens his pitches and that gets him in trouble.

I'm saying don't freak out if he has a bad debut, or if his first 2 or 3 starts even have some bad results. I'm pretty confident that once he settles down he'll start to show why he was drafted #1.


We can only pray that we'll still be in contention by that point.

 

[td_ice]

I think you should have every reason to be excited about Cole. He's really something else. Not Strasburg good - not quite like that - but he's got so much pure stuff that he can come up here with no other objective but to stay down in the zone and that ought to be enough.

I will say that he's shown a propensity for over-excitement. In the Futures game he got knocked around and he's generally been a little bit weak in the first game or two at each new level (unless my memory fails me that is)
I think that he gets amped up, overthrows, elevates and flattens his pitches and that gets him in trouble.

I'm saying don't freak out if he has a bad debut, or if his first 2 or 3 starts even have some bad results. I'm pretty confident that once he settles down he'll start to show why he was drafted #1.


We can only pray that we'll still be in contention by that point.

That sounds great.

Maybe his appearance will get me excited to go to the park again. As I don't plan on attending many games this season, if any. I know the Pirates being in first place won't do much for me. As it will be like the boy crying wolf. Been there done that, saw both collapses. They are going to have finish to get me to believe in them. And that doesn't necessarily mean win the division, but not collapse and play meaningful games very late in the season. But having a new stud like Cole would get me excited to show up at the park again.

The offseason moves seem pretty blah to me. Nothing to really get excited about. Glad we have a few prized prospects in the offing.

 

[OnMyOwn]

I dunno, getting Martin and liriano was pretty exciting to me. Both the highest paid players in the nutting era.

Martin was arguably the best catcher on the market. He, liriano, and grilli were all in the top 50 free agents, with Martin in the top 25