Gerrit Cole impact on Yankees.

Gerrit Cole supposedly has agreed to a HUGE nine year $324 million contract to sign with the New York Yankees, who apparently really needed a big impact starting pitcher despite what their general manager Brian Cashman said after the Yankees had been eliminated by Cole's Houston Astros in the 2019 tournament: Yankee starting pitching was NOT why the Yankees lost, it was the lack of scoring.

Brian Cashman, ALWAYS add (starting) pitching. Wake the heck up! Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Cashman fired the coach. No, not the hitting coach, the pitching coach. And now Cashman does what he does best, he brought down the hammer of Steinbrenner money and signed Cole, whom Cashman described as the Yankees white whale, an allusion to the book and 1956 movie "Moby Dick", named after the mysterious whale:

The sole survivor of a lost whaling ship relates the tale of his captain's self-destructive obsession to hunt the white whale, Moby Dick...

This classic story by Herman Melville revolves around Captain Ahab and his obsession with a huge whale, Moby Dick.
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The whale kills Ahab and his entire crew except one: Ishmael, who narrates the tale.

Maybe Cashman should watch the movie again. This doesn't sound so good.

Based on his last three seasons, Cole should pitch over 200 innings and start 33 games. But his real value will be in the tournament. The 2019 World Series featured two teams with multiple big time, impact starting pitchers.

Washington:

Rk	Pos	Name	Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
1	SP	Stephen Strasburg	30	18	6	.750	3.32	33	33	0	0	0	0	209.0	161	79	77	24	56	4	251	10	0	8	841	138	3.25	1.038	6.9	1.0	2.4	10.8	4.48
2	SP	Patrick Corbin*	29	14	7	.667	3.25	33	33	0	1	1	0	202.0	169	81	73	24	70	2	238	3	0	4	835	141	3.49	1.183	7.5	1.1	3.1	10.6	3.40
3	SP	Max Scherzer	34	11	7	.611	2.92	27	27	0	0	0	0	172.1	144	59	56	18	33	2	243	7	0	0	693	157	2.45	1.027	7.5	0.9	1.7	12.7	7.36

Scherzer and Strasburg are huge.

Houston:

Rk	Pos	Name	Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
1	SP	Justin Verlander	36	21	6	.778	2.58	34	34	0	2	1	0	223.0	137	66	64	36	42	0	300	6	0	4	847	179	3.27	0.803	5.5	1.5	1.7	12.1	7.14
2	SP	Gerrit Cole	28	20	5	.800	2.50	33	33	0	0	0	0	212.1	142	66	59	29	48	0	326	3	3	4	817	185	2.64	0.895	6.0	1.2	2.0	13.8	6.7

Rk	Pos	Name	Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
12		Zack Greinke	35	8	1	.889	3.02	10	10	0	0	0	0	62.2	58	25	21	6	9	0	52	1	1	1	248	154	3.28	1.069	8.3	0.9	1.3	7.5	5.78

July 31, 2019: Traded by the Arizona Diamondbacks with cash to the Houston Astros for Seth Beer (minors), J.B. Bukauskas (minors), Corbin Martin and Josh Rojas.

Verlander, Greinke and Scherzer could retire now and be elected to the Hall of Fame. Strasburg was World Series MVP and just re-signed with Washington for seven years, $245 million.

So even without Cole, Houston will still have two big time, though aging, starting pitchers in 2020. As will Washington, although the Yankees will only face them in the World Series.

Yankees:

Rk	Pos	Name	Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
1	SP	Masahiro Tanaka	30	11	9	.550	4.45	32	31	0	1	1	0	182.0	186	95	90	28	40	0	149	2	0	7	759	100	4.27	1.242	9.2	1.4	2.0	7.4	3.73
2	SP	J.A. Happ*	36	12	8	.600	4.91	31	30	0	0	0	0	161.1	160	88	88	34	49	1	140	5	0	3	678	90	5.22	1.295	8.9	1.9	2.7	7.8	2.86
3	SP	James Paxton*	30	15	6	.714	3.82	29	29	0	0	0	0	150.2	138	71	64	23	55	0	186	2	1	7	633	116	3.86	1.281	8.2	1.4	3.3	11.1	3.38
4	SP	Domingo German	26	18	4	.818	4.03	27	24	0	0	0	0	143.0	125	69	64	30	39	0	153	5	0	5	594	110	4.72	1.147	7.9	1.9	2.5	9.6	3.92
5	SP	CC Sabathia*	38	5	8	.385	4.95	23	22	0	0	0	0	107.1	112	64	59	27	39	0	107	3	0	0	468	90	5.66	1.407	9.4	2.3	3.3	9.0	2.7

Even with Cole the Yankees still have only the one big boy. Sabathia retired and German has personal issues. Masahiro Tanaka (born 11/1/1988) has been very good in the tournament. Lefty James Paxton (born 11/6/1988) ... who knows? Both Tanaka and Paxton become free agents after the 2020 season. Luis Severino will be 26 in February 2020 and could become an ace but he threw only 12 regular season innings in 2019.

The Yankees will be paying Happ $17 million in 2019 and $30 (17/13) million to one inning lefty relief pitchers Aroldis Chapman and Zack Britton, who combined for 118 regular season innings in 2019 and Chapman lost the pennant on a walk off home run to Jose Altuve in Houston.

Boone and/or Rothschild appear to give signs when Altuve homers to win 2019 pennant. Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Finally, does the Yankees signing Cole eliminate the Boston Red Sox as serious contenders? It depends. If the Red Sox keep their best player, Mookie Betts, rather than trade him because he becomes a free agent after the 2020 season, then it's a question of whether their starting pitching is good enough.

Rk	Pos	Name	Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
1	SP	Eduardo Rodriguez*	26	19	6	.760	3.81	34	34	0	0	0	0	203.1	195	88	86	24	75	2	213	7	0	3	859	126	3.86	1.328	8.6	1.1	3.3	9.4	2.84
2	SP	Rick Porcello	30	14	12	.538	5.52	32	32	0	0	0	0	174.1	198	114	107	31	45	2	143	6	2	5	768	87	4.76	1.394	10.2	1.6	2.3	7.4	3.18
3	SP	Chris Sale*	30	6	11	.353	4.40	25	25	0	1	1	0	147.1	123	80	72	24	37	0	218	13	0	2	612	109	3.39	1.086	7.5	1.5	2.3	13.3	5.89
4	SP	David Price*	33	7	5	.583	4.28	22	22	0	0	0	0	107.1	109	57	51	15	32	0	128	3	1	3	458	113	3.62	1.314	9.1	1.3	2.7	10.7	4.00
5	SP	Nathan Eovaldi	29	2	1	.667	5.99	23	12	2	0	0	0	67.2	72	46	45	16	35	0	70	3	0	6	302	81	5.90	1.581	9.6	2.1	4.7	9.3	2.0

Porcello is a free agent and Eovaldi has physical problems. Lefties Sale and Price are the keys. Both need to return to form and it's not likely that both will but they could. And if Boston gets into the tournament, Sale and Price could make them a team that others do not want to face. Realistically though, Boston is probably in trouble.

So while Yankee fans should celebrate the Cole signing it does not ensure a trip to the World Series. And Brian Cashman had this as incentive:

Yankee decade of discontent (2010-2019): did not reach World Series. Thursday, October 31, 2019

2010-2019 is the first decade in a century in which the New York Yankees did not even play in the World Series. The common denominator: general manager Brian Cashman. The previous decade was 100 years ago, before the Red Sox sold the contract of Babe Ruth to the Yankees.
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