I'll be at the game today, so if anybody wants to say hello or share an adult beverage with me before the game, feel free tweet me @JonPGH so we can make that happen.
For now I'm at work until 2am helping the world's largest paint companies employees with their computer problems, so I figured I'd use some of the night shift's free time to post some of my thoughts for the upcoming 2014 season. Every year there are a few things that I'm most interested in seeing from the team. Here's what I've come up with so far.
For the immediate future, I'm interested to see Barry Bonds at PNC Park and see the reception he gets from the fans. I'm sure there are going to be a good amount of boo's for Bonds, and it's hard to say that he definitely doesn't deserve it. The guy pretty obviously took steroids at some point in his career, which deserves criticism, but for what he did in Pittsburgh I'm not so sure we shouldn't all just get over it. So he was a dick to everybody, didn't seem to care about the fans, and didn't throw out Sid Bream - none of those are unforgivable offenses. Me saying all this might not matter as much since I was a toddler when Bonds was playing in the Steel City. Anyways, it'll be fun to see him there and to hear all the unwarranted and inhumane comments from the fans.
In terms of baseball, here are a few things I'm really looking for.
- Gerrit Cole's pitch selection. We all saw shades of what Gerrit Cole can bring to the table last year, but we have yet to see the pitcher that Cole will be for the long run. He threw mainly fastballs last year, and leaned heavily on the pitch for success. The pitch is good enough where that's perfectly fine for him to get by with, but Cole won't become a true ace until he integrates the rest of his pitches fully. He has an excellent changeup and a solid slider that I'm very intersted to see. The selection percentage is what I'm most interested in, but I'm super excited to see the ugly swings he gets this year when batters gear up for the 98 mile per hour fastball and get an 85 mile an hour changeup. That'll be fun. I'm not expecting Cole to be a Cy Young candidate quite yet, but it'll be very entertaining to see his progression.
- Starling Marte's progression. It's always interesting to see how players perform after getting a contract extension. Obviously Marte isn't at the point of his career where he'd be playing for a contract yet, he's still unproven and needs to establish himself as a legitimate big league outfielder. I do think that Marte will relax a bit more this year, which good be a good thing or good be a bad thing. The guy has a crazy amount of talent, and I'm interested to see how quickly he can realize it. The power numbers will be the most interesting part to see, because he has 20+ home run potential. He probably isn't going to get there this year, but it'll be fun to see him try. The fantastic defense and high stolen base numbers will come, which adds a ton of value already, so any power numbers he can provide are just gravy.
- The mid-season callups. This is an obvious thing that all baseball fans look forward to seeing from their team. In the last several years, this was probably the most exciting part of the Pirates season. We would have to hold out hope that our minor leaguers would come up and turn into stars so we could actually make a run at the playoffs. That's not the case this year, the big league team is good enough to be a contender as is, so anything guys like Gregory Polanco and Jameson Taillon can add will be added bonuses. It'll be nice to not have to put pressure on the young guys to feel like they have to help the team win. The team should be winning without them, so they can be a little more patient and comfortable when they do make their debuts. Polanco and Taillon are two special talents, and I can't wait to see them in Pirates uniforms, but it's refreshing to know that they aren't necessarily needed this year.
- The fans reaction to everything. This is a different year for fans of the Pirates. They've seen their team have a winning season and win a playoff game, and now they want to see that happen all the time. There's never been a reason for high expectations in the pre-season and now there is. Will the fans be able to handle some early struggles? How quickly will they start to lose hope in the team? This is all new for the younger generation of fans, so it'll be interesting to see how they react. Chances are that no matter what happens the fans will piss me off in some way, but I promise to try to be reasonable and calm.
Happy Opening Day everyone!