Bucs hope top pick becomes big-league ace

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

It didn’t matter to the Pittsburgh Pirates that Gerrit Cole was not the ace of his college team’s staff.

To them, the hard-throwing right-hander from UCLA will develop into a major league ace — something the franchise hasn’t consistently had for years.

Despite Cole having his worst statistical season of his three years at UCLA, Pittsburgh selected him with the first pick of the baseball draft Monday night, adding another power arm to a system that’s been infused with a much-needed jolt during the last 12 months.

“Scouting is about projection,” Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said. “It’s about looking into the future and understanding what we believe a player will be in two, four, six, eight, 10 years from now. The performance this year goes into it, but ultimately he’s a big, strong right-hander with quality stuff and quality competitiveness.

Cole was a freshman All-American at UCLA after not signing with the Yankees, who took him 28th overall out of high school in 2008. He went 6-8 with a 3.31 ERA this year, but his stuff was too good for the Pirates to pass up.

“He was the guy we believe can make the biggest impact in our organization,” Huntington said.

Former Pittsburgh general manager Dave Littlefield said after the first round of the draft in 2002 that No. 1 overall pick Bryan Bullington projected out to be “a No. 3 starter” in the major leagues.

Cole — by the numbers, at least — was the No. 3 starter for UCLA this season. Teammate Trevor Bauer had a far superior statistical season (13-2, 1.25 ERA, 203 strikeouts, .154 batting average against) and went third to Arizona. Freshman right-hander Adam Plutko also had a better ERA and batting average against than Cole.

But when you consistently throw into the upper-90s — nudging 100 and rarely dropping below 95, even in the later innings of starts — that type of potential excites teams.

“Looking at Gerrit, he has the physical size and tools,” Pirates scouting director Greg Smith said. “But not only do you need to have the weapons, you have to be able to harness that moving forward. Gerrit has the mentality, the makeup, the competitiveness, a lot of the ingredients that make up a quality starting pitcher down the road.”