VIDEO: Insane Edit of All Gerrit Cole's Nasty Pitches Overlapped Will Give You Nightmares
By Michael Luciano
Houston Astros starter Gerrit Cole, who is either going to win the AL Cy Young award or come in second place to teammate Justin Verlander, announced his arrival as arguably the most dominant pitcher we have in the game today with a legendary performance against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday. He gave up just four hits in 7.2 innings while striking out 15 batters in Game 2, making the Rays look utterly hapless, and upping his 2020 salary by a few million. When you look at this edit that shows how difficult his pitches are to pick up, you can understand why the Rays looked lost at the plate.
A close-up, slow-motion look at a four-seam fastball, knuckle curve, and slider from #Astros Gerrit Cole. #ALDS
— Michael Augustine (@AugustineMLB) October 6, 2019
-METRICS-
FF- 100 MPH, 2522 RPM, 1:15 spin tilt
KC- 87 MPH, 3012 RPM, 7:15 spin tilt
SL- 90.7 MPH, 2755 RPM, 10:15 spin tilt pic.twitter.com/SbmvjqZQKJ
Cole can crank it up to 100, and can follow that up with a high 80s spike curveball that can break a hitter's back with how it drops and a low 90s slider that is unhittable when he's on.
If Cole can keep the ball in the ballpark and keep controlling his breaking balls, both the Rays and whomever takes the Yankees-Twins series will be in for a nightmare on any given day.
Gerrit Cole's 33 Swinging Strikes in 71 Seconds. pic.twitter.com/Qm8QXAywfm
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) October 6, 2019
Astros pitching coach Brent Strom is a borderline miracle worker, as he has taken Cole from merely an above-average starter to an unstoppable ace who is powering arguably the best team in baseball to a championship.