Keep in mind that this article was written on July 19th, not August 5th.
I know I might seem a little biased, but Cole has what it takes to get to that illustrious group of great pitchers.
If I have one word to describe Cole as a pitcher, it would be electric. He has a fastball that can light up the radar gun at 95-99 mph and can even touch triple digits. Additionally, he has filthy breaking pitches, including a 89-91 mph slider and an 82-84 mph curveball. Oh, and by the way, he has a changeup and a sinker just to put the cherry on top.
Now that you know that his pitch repertoire is electric, let’s take a look at his stats. His first five years in Pittsburgh were actually rocky. He was 59-42 with a 3.50 ERA (earned run average) and averaged about the same hits per 9 innings as strikeouts per 9 innings, which was around 6. But then, when he got to Houston, he really picked up the pace. In 2 seasons with the (cheaters!) Astros, he was 35-10 with a 2.68 ERA and a mind-blowing 602 strikeouts. Lastly, fresh off a 9 year/$324 million contract with the Yankees, he hasn’t missed a beat. His last two intrasquad games before Opening Day were masterful, as he pitched 5 ⅔ innings and had 9 strikeouts in one outing and 5 ⅔ innings and had 7 strikeouts in the other. And this is against one of the best lineups in baseball.
Finally, let’s compare his stats and production to one of the greatest starters from the last three decades, Pedro Martinez. He played for multiple teams but was most notable with the Boston Red Sox. If you look at how long they got to their career high for strikeouts in a single season, it was around the same. However, it took Cole one less year than Martinez to get to that point. It took Cole 6 years, while it took Martinez 7 years. Another milestone for starters is to get 20 wins in a season. Surprisingly, it took both pitchers the same amount of time. Getting a win might seem easy on paper, but there are a lot of components to a win. You have to pitch well for 5 or more innings, while also banking on the offense to give you some type of run support. So, if you do this 20 times, you’re pretty good at what you do out on the mound.
Big league hitters should be scared to face Cole because of the filthy pitch repertoire that he brings to the table, his rising stats, and he’s on pace to stack up against some of the icons of his position. Look for Cole to bounce back (after getting robbed of the Cy Young last year by his former teammate, Justin Verlander) and have Cy Young-winning season this year and a few years down the line.
Sources: baseball-reference.com, youtube.com