“Would have liked for him to get more reps” – Yankees pitching coach Blake shares advice for Gerrit Cole
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Gerrit Cole
The New York Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake has reckoned that the struggling Gerrit Cole “needs to commit to attacking in the [strike] zone a little bit more.” Blake, who joined the chorus of people in the organization, believes the issue with the California native Major League Baseball (MLB) is not his repertoire.
“His stuff is as good as it’s been,’’ Blake said ahead of the Yankees’ 3-0 loss to the Tigers on Thursday at Comerica Park, as quoted by the New York Post. “He’s healthy.”
Blake further highlighted that the issue with Cole is that “sometimes he tries to be a perfectionist and tries to get hitters to swing and miss around the zone and it snowballs.”
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“We would have liked for him to get more reps, but that’s how the schedule fell,’’ Blake said. “It is what it is and here we are. He’s got his feet underneath him now.’’
“Cole has to commit to the process”
The 31-year-old Cole, who made just a pair of Grapefruit League starts during the shortened spring training, needs to commit to going after the zone and not shy away from the contact.
As per the Yankees’ coach, the key for Cole is to “live with what happens when he does, go in there, and take away his strength of being aggressive with that pitch”.
He concluded: “He just has to commit to the process. He’s one of- if not the best- pitchers in the game when he commits to that. We have to remind him who he is.”
Adding to what Blake had said, New York’s manager Aaron Boone stated:
“We want to get him rolling, get him comfortable and get him impacting the game like we know he’s capable of. The sooner we can get him settled in, the better for all of us.”
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Sachin Arora
(2527 Articles Published)