Tag: Gerrit Cole

2020 American League Cy Young odds, picks and best bets

Previewing the American League Cy Young Award odds, with MLB betting odds, picks and best bets

Ordinarily, I avoid taking the low-return picks when you’re taking one player against the field, but the race for the 2020 American League Cy Young Award got interesting in a hurry with preseason injuries.

As a result, the options for picking the Cy Young winner have slimmed down with three weeks to go until the season’s first pitch.

As of 5 p.m. ET Sunday, March 8, BetMGM has 12 other pitchers with odds of less than +3000:

  • Gerrit Cole (+265)
  • Justin Verlander (+600)
  • Chris Sale (+650)
  • Mike Clevinger (+1000)
  • Blake Snell; Charlie Morton (+1100)
  • Shane Bieber (+1600)
  • Tyler Glasnow; Carlos Carrasco (+2000)
  • Lucas Giolito; Zach Grienke; Corey Kluber (+2500)

American League Cy Young: Breaking down the field

The field is going to shift like a pendulum with spring training injuries to Sale and Snell. Both are expected to miss significant time, which will likely take them out of the running.

And Sunday afternoon, the Astros pulled Verlander after two innings of a scheduled four-inning start due to triceps soreness. There is no word on whether Verlander could miss any time, but it’s yet another injury to keep an eye on.

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One thing that is crystal clear is that BetMGM has a lot of faith in the Tampa Bay starting rotation. Three of the top eight plays are Rays (Snell, Morton and Glasnow). I don’t share that opinion because they’re reaching on expectation for both Snell (injured) and Glasnow (unproven). The club is formidable, but that prevents the Rays from relying on one or two guys and occasionally pushing them up in the rotation when scheduled off days or rainouts bring an ace’s start time back up.

Clevinger and Bieber are another tandem that are intriguing, but the Indians may not provide the consistent run support needed to post the numbers that make a player stand out in the Cy Young race.

Astros ace Justin Verlander is off to a shaky start this spring. (Photo Credit: Troy Taormina – USA TODAY Sports)

Verlander remains a dominant pitcher and is coming off a 21-win, 300-strikeout year and was a whopping 7.8 games above replacement. But, at age 37, the wall for starting pitchers with his mileage numbers is getting closer (as evidenced by Sunday’s news).

But, if you’re betting on this race, you have to go with Cole, despite the small return on investment. He was a good in Pittsburgh but became elite when he went to Houston before the 2018 season. In two seasons with the Astros, Cole made 65 starts and posted a record of 35-10 with 602 strikeouts in 412 2/3 innings, a 0.962 WHIP and a 2.68 ERA. He now goes to the Yankees where he can expect a lot of run support every start and get the wins to match or surpass what he did with the Astros. New York has eyes on the Yankees 24/7 and he has the chance to be the big man in the Big Apple.

THE BET: Take Cole and don’t look back. If you’re looking for a long shot to drop a few bucks on, consider Minnesota’s Jose Berrios (+4000). He is the staff ace of a team capable of winning 100 games again this year. When he is on his game, he can be dominant. Consistency is all that’s missing and he will be playing from ahead. Don’t break the bank on him, but, at +4000, you don’t have to.

Want to get some action on MLB futures betting? Do you have what it takes to pick this season’s winners before the season even starts? Place legal sports bets online at BetMGM.

For more sports betting tips across all sports? Visit SportsbookWire.com.

Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services.  Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.

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Gerrit Cole impresses in first appearance and Yankee fans couldn’t be happier

What I’m Hearing: USA TODAY Sports’ Gabe Lacques tells us what he’s hearing from Yankees spring training following a strong first outing for Gerrit Cole.

What I’m Hearing: USA TODAY Sports’ Gabe Lacques tells us what he’s hearing from Yankees spring training following a strong first outing for Gerrit Cole.

Gerrit Cole should have forced the Yankees to get rid of their silly rules

Let the facial hair grow!

This is the online version of our morning newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.

Gerrit Cole is a grown adult. He is going to get paid $324 million bucks over the next nears years while playing the beautiful game of baseball. And he could be the key to bringing home multiple World Series titles during his stay in the Bronx.

But during that time he will not be allowed to grow a beard. Or grow his hair too long.

For real.

Cole was officially introduced as a Yankee on Wednesday and he looked very different, as his beard was gone and his bushy hair was trimmed a bit. That, of course, was because of the Yankees’ archaic rules that don’t allow beards or hair that goes over the collar.

Seriously, they still have these rules in 2019, which is absurd and should be forgotten about once and for all.

This whole thing started way back in 1973(!) when the late George Steinbrenner made the rules after watching a bunch of hairy players wear the pinstripes on Opening Day. Mustaches are OK, long hair and beards are a no go!

Here’s the official rule, which makes it seem even more silly:

“All players, coaches and male executives are forbidden to display any facial hair other than mustaches (except for religious reasons), and scalp hair may not be grown below the collar. Long sideburns and ‘mutton chops’ are not specifically banned.”

I mean, who even says ‘mutton chops’ these days? Well, besides hipsters in Brooklyn.

Don Mattingly and Lou Pinella challenged these rules during their time with the team but nobody lately has raised a stink over it. I guess it’s hard to speak up when you’re cashing monster checks every two weeks, but still.

Cole, who grew up a Yankees fan, had a chance on Wednesday to take a stand for all the players on the team who are dying to rock a beard during the season. Imagine if he showed up looking like he did last season with the Astros and was like “This is my team now. Beards for everyone.” What would the Yankees do to their $324 million dollar man?

Nothing.

(Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

Beards, if you’ve ever walked down any street on planet Earth, are very popular these days. They are also a lot different than those worn in the early 1970s. Now most beards are trimmed nicely and put together with a sharp attention to the small details. Even the ones that aren’t trimmed short still look fine and add some character to those who let it grow.

It’s also silly that baseball players can’t have beards considering how they spend most of their time – in glorified sweatsuits (with belts) while either chewing tobacco, spitting seeds, or chomping on some Double Bubble bubble gum.

But no beards?

Come on!

A team full of grown adults playing for one of the most prestigious franchises in all of sports shouldn’t have to follow these rules made from such a different time. There weren’t even HD televisions back then. That’s a long time ago!.

But here we are.

Cole had his chance to be a hero.

Instead, he shaved his face.

Which is so lame.

Wednesday’s biggest winners: Emmitt and E.J. Smith.

E.J. Smith is a very good running back, too, and on Wednesday he picked Stanford over Florida, where his dad once starred. Was Emmitt bummed out about that? Nope, not all. Instead, he was a proud dad who had the best reaction to his son’s decision to forge his own path. His message about his son was too good. You should watch it.

Quick hits: Wild NBA stories… Herman’s double birds… USC’s recruiting disaster… And more!

Richard Mackson-USA TODAY Sports

– Mike Sykes breaks down the top 10 wildest moments from the NBA over the past decade that you might have forgotten about, like Bryan Colangelo’s burner Twitter account.

– Texas football coach Tom Herman celebrated National Signing Day by flipping double birds at the Longhorn Network cameras.

– USC did not have a good Signing Day and college football fans let them have it.

– Kevin Garnett thinks the Celtics ‘broke’ LeBron James back in 2010.

– PGA Tour golfer Max Homa had a lot of fun roasting the golf swings of a lot of his Twitter followers.

(Follow me on Twitter at @anezbitt. It might change your life. Just don’t tell me about your fantasy team.)

Did Gerrit Cole REALLY keep the same sign he had as a Yankees fan in 2001?

HMMMMMM.

I don’t mean to burst anyone’s bubble here, but I’m not the only one curious about something that happened during Gerrit Cole’s introductory press conference with the New York Yankees.

Let’s go back to 2001 for a second: Cole was 11 years old, and despite growing up in California, he was a Yankees fan. While attending the World Series in Phoenix, he brought a sign that read, “Yankee fan today tomorrow forever” and was snapped by Newark Star-Ledger photographer William Perlman holding it up before Game 6.

It’s a snap that went viral once again after Cole signed with the franchise he rooted for.

And on Wednesday, he brought the sign with him and presented it to owner Hal Steinbrenner:

But here’s the question I have: the sign in the original photo has blue lettering. This one has yellow lettering.

Is that really the original sign? Is this The Dress all over again?

Look, maybe after 18 years, the lettering faded a little. Or … maybe it’s not the same sign.

I’m not the only one asking about this:

Here is the side-by-side for comparison:

 

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Gerrit Cole shaved his beard after joining the Yankees and looks completely different

RIP to his facial hair.

You knew it was going to happen from the moment the news broke that Gerrit Cole was signing with the New York Yankees: the facial hair would have to go.

After all, that’s the policy the Pinstripes have had forever, and Cole — a Yankees fan when he was younger, growing up in California — wasn’t about to be the guy who breaks it.

Which means the ace now looks like a completely different person after he grew out his hair and put together an impressive beard while making a postseason run with the Houston Astros.

Here’s the before photo of what he looked like:

(Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

And after:

And some reaction:

RIP that glorious beard.

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Here’s young Gerrit Cole rooting on the Yankees with an awesome sign during the 2001 World Series

It was fate!

You have to love when the stars align and a player who grew up rooting for a team ends up with that franchise.

That appears to be the case for Gerrit Cole.

Despite the fact that he was born and raised in California, where he’d eventually pitch for UCLA, Cole was a Yankees die-hard growing up. He was initially drafted by the franchise in the first round of the 2008 MLB draft before he turned them down to go to college and was eventually drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2011.

Now, after agreeing to a record-breaking contract, Cole is a New York Yankee.

Back when he was 11 years old, Cole was in attendance at Games 6 and 7 of the 2001 World Series, which you may recall that the Yankees lost. Cole was snapped holding a sign showing his Pinstripes fandom, a photo that’s being shared everywhere now that he’s a member of the Yanks:

More on that moment from The Athletic:

Cole, then 11, hailed from Orange County, not far from Angel Stadium in Anaheim. Yet his parents had familia roots in upstate New York, and his father Mark had shared his affection for the Yankees. It didn’t hurt, of course, that Cole came of age during the dynastic period in the late 1990s, or that he revered closer Mariano Rivera. With the team back in the World Series and facing the Diamondbacks in 2001, the Coles traveled to Phoenix for Games 6 and 7.

The Yankees lost both games, coming apart in heartbreaking fashion in Game 7, but the image of a devoted young fan with an artistic sign was enough to intrigue William Perlman, a photographer at the Newark Star-Ledger. He snapped the photo in the moments before Game 6. It appeared soon after. Seven years later, it surfaced once more when the Yankees selected the same kid in the first round of the 2008 draft.

This is just the best.

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The Yankees overpaid for Gerrit Cole. That’s exactly what they needed to do.

It had to happen.

Start spreading the news: the New York Yankees backed up about 10 Brinks trucks for Gerrit Cole, giving him a reported $324 million contract over nine years. As my colleague Andy Nesbitt wrote, it’s good to be an MLB starting pitcher these days.

If you’re looking at that deal and thinking that’s way too much money for a pitcher who will be 38 years old by the time that contract expires (there’s a opt-out after five years, but would you opt out of that deal? Didn’t think so), that’s because it is.

But that doesn’t matter. The Yankees needed to make this move and it required giving out that kind of money and years.

In the past three years, the Yankees have won 91, 100 and 103 games, falling short of the World Series despite a lineup filled with sluggers — Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Gleyber Torres, Didi Gregorius, Miguel Andujar, to name a few. But it was always starting pitching that fell short in the postseason — Masahiro Tanaka had a string of good playoff starts until Game 4 of the ALCS this year and Luis Severino has had his share of struggles.

The Yankees already had so much money invested in Stanton (who will hopefully rebound from an injury-plagued 2019), Tanaka, Severino, closer Aroldis Chapman, bullpen arm Zack Britton, back-end starter J.A. Happ … the list goes on. And there are arbitration-eligible raises coming for some of their young studs.

And that’s where we get to the player and the contract. Cole went from former first-overall pick by the Pirates in 2011 to finally putting it all together for the Houston Astros in the past two seasons. He’s an ace in his prime, one who’s thrown over 200 innings four times in his career and who struck out a league-leading 326 batters.

If you want a pitcher of Cole’s caliber, one that strikes fear in playoff lineups and one that can throw perhaps three times in a seven-game series, you have to give him those extra years and money to entice him. The Yankees know Cole might not be worth that kind of money in, say, Year 6 of this deal.

But they’re not paying that for his 35-and-over performance. They’re paying that and a luxury tax bill to win a World Series NOW.

On paper, it looks like they have the team do it now that they have Cole in pinstripes.

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