That’s a text message from Gerrit Cole to Brian “Bubba” Hawkins trying to procure some spin-inducing substance. That text message is being used in a court filing against the MLB, as Bubba claims he’s being used as a scapegoat. There’s only so many institutions that could be under fire from someone named Bubba. In the last ten years, the name Bubba only shows up three times in the U.S. court system: Bubba vs. Lowe’s for faulty outdoor furniture; Bubba vs. Pfizer as a manufacturer and distributor of trucker speed; Bubba vs. Bubblicious gum for not being at all Bubba-approved. That last case got thrown out. Okay, I kid, about the latter of this nonsense, but that really is a text from Gerrit Cole and he’s named in Bubba Hawkins’s court filing. Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and just about every Angels’ pitcher of the last decade-plus are also named. It’s not just a Gerrit Cole issue. It’s a league issue.
“State your full name for the jury.”
“Brian Hawkins, but you can call me Bubba. Big Bad Bubba if you’re nasty.”
“Does Gerrit Cole rely on spin more than others?”
“How do you define ‘more’ and ‘others?'”
You try to trip up Bubba and Bubba persists. Okay, we had some s’s and g’s but this isn’t a non-issue for Gerrit Cole. Suppose he can’t get his Bubba-patented sticky substance, does that affect him? What if it already has started affecting him? So, what can we expect from Gerrit Cole for 2021 fantasy baseball and what makes him overrated?
Spin is down; Whiff% is down, PutAway% is down, xSLG is up, xBA is up on fastball, exit velocity is–Well, you can see for yourself, if you have very good eyesight. Small samples be damned, but Gerrit Cole was not the pitcher last year he was in 2019. Diving deeper, his vertical movement on his curve was down, his fastball was flat, he didn’t even throw his sinker. Did he not throw it because he couldn’t figure out how due to no longer having Bubba’s Love Juice? Don’t know. Ya know what I’d like to have when drafting a starter in the 1st overall round? Knowing. Ya know, knowing! Is that asking too much? Here’s a random unrelated sample of an apple and an orange: If Freddie Freeman and Gerrit Cole are both healthy, do you know what you’re getting from Freddie Freeman? Yes? Cool. How about Cole? Oh, you think you do know? Okay.
Gerrit Cole with a huge four-seam backspin has a much wider margin of error, because of the ability to throw it past, and above the bat barrel, even if the hitter knows what’s up, literally. A flatter, lower-spin fastball will drop into the bat path. Here’s one former Razzball writer (hey, Lance!), spotting something:
Gerrit Cole’s fingers literally stick to his hat here… Bro… ? pic.twitter.com/eYzAkHbtaF
— Lance Brozdowski (@LanceBroz) August 8, 2020
After he was spotted — and that tweet was seen by almost 3 million people, and had 30K likes, so it went around — Cole followed that start with two disasters where he was rocked for nine runs in ten innings. He came back around and finished strong, but could people have been like, “Yo, chill on the Bubba Stick ‘Ems for a second while the heat dies down?” I don’t know. But I am asking you once again, you know Freddie Freeman, do you know Gerrit Cole? I don’t know if anything will come of Bubba vs. Baseball. But I’ve seen enough to at least chill with drafting Gerrit Cole as one of the first two pitchers off the board, and this doesn’t even take into consideration I wouldn’t draft a starter that early ever. Stamp Gerrit Cole schmohawk and let someone else deal with the headache.
