OnlyBucs

As we all know, in order to win you need both strong pitching and defense in order to win. The key to the Pirates season, to me, is going to be this. I liked the continued improvement of Kuhl and Williams. The trade with the Astros can help if Joe Musgrave and Colin Moran are successful. We have to realize that G. Cole did not set the baseball world on fire the past two years. Let's see how he does in a much smaller ball park, a stronger division, and to me a much stronger league.

Cole's performance moving forward is irrelevant now.



The problem with rooting for guys to fail is that it doesn't make the guys we got back better. Never stops people from doing it, though. Guess it makes people feel better

True, it doesn't do much good to root for Cole to fail, but I think the original point is valid.



It's not like we traded away Cy Young or Pedro Martinez. Cole frustrated most of us constantly over the last two seasons.



And although I wasn't excited about trading him away either ... it is true that I made many posts last season about how disappointed I was with Cole. His talent was unquestionable, but his results were that of a mediocre, average MLB starting pitcher.

5072617C7F7A7D72516670707C130 wrote: True, it doesn't do much good to root for Cole to fail, but I think the original point is valid.



It's not like we traded away Cy Young or Pedro Martinez. Cole frustrated most of us constantly over the last two seasons.



And although I wasn't excited about trading him away either ... it is true that I made many posts last season about how disappointed I was with Cole. His talent was unquestionable, but his results were that of a mediocre, average MLB starting pitcher.
I agree. Lat year Cole was about the same as Nova, Taillon, Williams and Kuhl. If the Bucs had traded Kuhl for those same 4 players the trade would probably be hailed as a shrewd move. Cole has a pedigree but it certainly has not been apparent the last 2 years.

If you read my original quote, I never once said that I wished Cold to fail. Before commenting, please read before responding. Thank you

I meant Cole.

I agree with the rest of the original quote - it takes strong pitching and defense. The two, I think, are intertwined. The better your defense, the better your pitching. I like to consider how well a person plays a position, as well as how he hits. A good play on defense can shut down an inning; a bad one can open the door for multiple runs -- and it takes a lot of hits to overcome those runs.

I like the potential of the Pirates pitching, but defensively they're average or maybe below. The only plus defenders on the roster that I see are Marte, Harrison, Mercer, Freese and SRod; and only Marte is GG level. I'm afraid the young pitching staff isn't likely to get bailed out by the defense very often.