For the most part, Gerrit Cole's major-league debut Tuesday against the Giants was a successful one. Some will quibble over the lack of strikeouts, especially since he underwhelmed with only 6.2 per nine innings in his 12 starts at Triple-A Indianapolis, but I liked his response to the naysayers:
"When you have a lead, it allows you to be aggressive," Cole said. "If there's no one on base, I'm going to just challenge guys."
I think most Fantasy owners, myself included, would like to see the young Pirates hurler get more strikeouts, and it's not like he's saying he won't. But when he has a sizeable lead and isn't at risk of giving up a two- or three-run homer, why not keep the pitch count low? He threw just 81 pitches over 6 1/3 innings Tuesday, which is phenominal for a major-league debut.
Cole hit 99 mph with his fastball a couple times in that game, so he clearly has the stuff to get strikeouts when he needs them. And he'll probably need them more often in the majors than the minors. He just didn't need them Tuesday, to his credit.