The Pinstriped Baseball Lane

Championship No. 28 Would’ve, Should’ve, Could’ve Been

When Gerrit Cole joined the Yankees on the richest contract for a pitcher in history this offseason, he fulfilled a destiny Yankees fans dreamed of long before the Pirates made him the first overall selection in the 2011 MLB Draft. Now even through this pandemically infected season, baseball experts and Yankee fans both projected that 2020 would have been the season that the Bronx Bombers would have raised the world series trophy for the 28th time.

Now, all Yankee fans know that there is another fantasy universe that projects an even earlier signing of the Cole Train. Yes, that is right, I am talking about 2008. The Yankees originally picked him 28th overall in the 2008 Draft, hoping to lure the high school starter to go pro. At the time, Yankees GM Brian Cashman thought the team had a good chance of signing the pitcher. For Cole though, he changed his mind and decided to honor his commitment to UCLA.

Now, the flame-throwing right-hander could of gotten his start in pinstripes over a decade ago, but we now know that UCLA was the right route for Cole. With Cole’s cyber-metrics knowledge, I am glad he went down the educational route back then. After all, he still ended up in the Bronx.

Just for a moment though, what would the Yankees pitching arsenal look like if the Cole Train had come to a 2008 Yankee pitching staff. Forget about money, lets just talk pitching. Imagine if the Yankees had Cole along side pitching artists like an A.J. Burnett, an Andy Pettitte, a Marino Rivera, or an eventual signing of CC Sabathia in the following season.

Now, now, I am not saying that I am not happy with how thing turned out, I am just think that we could of had an elite set of power arms to capture a couple more title than we have now. If you think about it, Cole would have come into the majors and develop alongside some of baseball’s greatest pitching craftsmen. An injection of Cole in his youth, along an eventually 2009 Sabathia signing could have gotten us a back-to-back title shots.

Ok, Ok, we don’t know that to be true, but 2009 and on would have been dominating seasons for us. Right now, he is viewed as, “The World’s Greatest Pitcher” because he is a product of the Yankee farm system and after so many years he found his way back home to the organization that he was meant for. It is fun to think about though, if he took Cashman up on an offer to come up to the bigs with the Yankees, he would have played alongside some Yankee greats. Gerrit Cole would have played with the Core Four and played alongside many other young studs on the offensive and the dominating defensive front.

Yes, Yes!, I know it is all in a matter of what could have been. A matter where all The Emerging Greats of that time period would be developing alongside The G.O.A.Ts.

I don’t know about you, but wouldn’t that be something?

Also, all the milestones that he compiled with the Pirates and the irritating Astros would have worked out in our favor. We could of use the help to avoid all those years that we got the short end of the stick. Those strikeout milestones would have sent batters back to the dug out with their heads down. I don’t know about you, but I would have enjoyed knowing a stud like Cole and a primed Sabathia were the guys leading the rotation in any given series.

It would have been pretty cool seeing a Sabathia-Cole-Severino trio to head the pitching staff. For me, I see that Cole will be bringing veteran leadership to the ball-club and he will be gaining some expert advise from other leaders in the club.

With Cole’s work ethic, I see him sliding in CC’s veteran role quite smoothly. With that being said, I already know that there will be a chemistry match that will be seen on the field and will extend off the diamond.