MLB mailbag: Gerrit Cole's Cy Young chances, teams that need to worry early

By Jake Mintz
Published

Welcome to the first edition of Jake's MLB Mailbag.

This is not complicated.

You, the passionate reader, will ask questions about baseball. I, a large child who makes a living writing and talking about this dumb sport, will answer said questions, while trying to both inform and entertain you in the process. 

Make sense? Let's dive in.

Please tweet all future questions to me at either @CespedesBBQ or @Jake_Mintz.

Will the story of the scrappy underdog pitcher finding his rhythm to earn his first career Cy Young be one of the most heartfelt moments of the year? I'm of course referring to the underrated and under-appreciated Gerrit Cole. — David

Sift through the sarcasm and you will discover the truth.

Cole has been sublime so far this year, allowing just three runs total across four starts, including a 10-strikeout complete-game shutout masterpiece against the Twins on Sunday. Most importantly, he's yet to allow a single home run after leading the American League last season with 33. A gazillion things could go wrong between now and the end of the season, but the 32-year-old Yankee ace is already looking like a Cy Young favorite. 

That's notable because Cole, hands-down one of this generation's most dominant hurlers, has a Cy Young-sized gap in his trophy case. He got asked about it in his first spring training press conference this year and predictably redirected the attention towards winning a World Series, but you had better believe that Cole cares at least a little bit about his own legacy. 

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I want to look back at Cole's Baseball-Reference page in 20 years on the computer chip in my brain and see "Cy Young" next to his name. I want to sit my grandchildren down in 40 years as we're fleeing to Kansas to escape climate-change sea-level rise, point to the 2023 AL Cy Young and explain to them that Gerrit Cole was a bad mamajama. Him retiring with a Cy would be fitting, fair, appropriate, and this season might be his best, last shot.

Hey Jake. Long time, first time. What do we think about the Rangers' new city connect uniform? — Shanna

Uniform discourse — City Connect Jersey discourse in particular — confuses me and cracks me up. As someone with a mediocre eye for style, I believe that there are 15 or so great uniform options in MLB (i.e.: A's elephant Greens, Pirates full golds, Marlins City Connect, Mariners creams), five or so horrible or uninspiring ones (Ex: Giants and Dodgers City Connects, the Rockies Black Vests). The rest are ... clothing!

Beyond that, for me, the weirder the better. Give me colored pants, give me overwhelming logos, give me something distinct, something complicated and expensive.

And so, the new Rangers City Connect unis — which feature cream tops with red numbers, black pants with gold trim, a confusing, cool-looking new spur logo and a shoulder patch of a made-up mythical creature — get high marks from yours truly.

Texas is calling its new fictitious beast emblem a "Peagle" in a nod to the Fort Worth Panthers and the Dallas Eagles, two local minor-league teams who preceded the Rangers. As someone who isn't from the area, and has been there only once, I don't really care what bygone monikers the team is referencing here, but I absolutely love that they conjured up an oddball new animal in the process. Great job. 8/10.

What teams should be panicking about making the playoffs? (Please don't say Astros) — Wilson

Note: This question was submitted right after the Rangers beat the Astros on Sunday Night Baseball to win the series at Minute Maid Park and before the Astros rebounded with a 9-2 drubbing of the Blue Jays on Monday Night.

I cannot emphasize enough how much Astros fans should not be panicking. You know who isn't panicking? The Astros. You think a 7-9 start is giving Alex Bregman night sweats or making Dusty Baker rethink his career choice? No chance. José Abreu's slow start is a small cause for concern, as is the lack of production from Houston's DH spot. But Abreu has been too good for too long to be this bad and the Astros still have José Altuve and Michael Brantley on the IL. This is still one of the best teams in baseball. 

If there's a contender who I think should be a bit worried, it's the White Sox. Considering their dearth of organizational depth, Chicago desperately needs its injury-prone superstar hitters to stay healthy, which, for yet another season, isn't happening. Tim Anderson and Yoán Moncada are currently on the IL. Eloy Jiménez just got off of it. Romy González seems like a kind soul, but if he ends up with 250 plate appearances this season, the South Siders are in trouble.

Here's a toughie: Three worthwhile reasons to watch the A's in 2023? — Andrew

I wrote about this yesterday: Oakland is the worst team in baseball and I don't think it's close. Last night the Cubs pummeled them with 10 runs, 20 hits and 17 batted balls 95 miles per hour or harder. I think they have a chance to challenge the 47-win 2018 Orioles for the worst record since the 2003 Tigers. It's a tough scene.

But if a possum can thrive in a press box, then we can find reasons to watch the 2023 Oakland Un-athletics.

  1. Brent Rooker can absolutely rake. A former SEC Player of the Year at Mississippi State who spent the last few years bouncing around the Quad-A carousel, Rooker has found his stroke in Oakland. It's early, but he's got four bombs, a 212 OPS+ and a 94th-percentile barrel rate. Someone needs to represent the A's in the All-Star Game.
  2. First-year Japanese hurler Shintaro Fujinami has not been "good" at "pitching," which I understand is kinda the whole point, but this question asked about reasons to watch the A's. Here are the starting pitchers throwing harder than this 29-year-old: Hunter Greene, Jacob deGrom, Sandy Alcántara, Dustin May, Shane McClanahan, Spencer Strider, Jesús Luzardo, Shohei Ohtani, Gerrit Cole, Grayson Rodriguez. 11.37 ERA be darned, this is a show you wanna tune in for.
  3. I like how the dugouts at the Coliseum are so bad that players just lounge outside on coolers and buckets and chairs and what not. Give the whole operation a real casual vibe.

Do you get media credentials? Do you get to sit in the press box? — Anonymous

Yes. As a (first-year) member of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) I get universal access to all MLB press boxes and clubhouses during the regular season. From the outside that seemed like a perk (and I still pinch myself that this is my job), but now I understand that access is a necessity. Getting to chat with players, coaches and team officials at the ballpark is a vital part of the gig.

If you aren't around and aren't asking questions, then you aren't learning and you aren't informed. If you aren't informed, then the things you write and say lack insight, nuance and heft. As someone who took a non-traditional path to this life (making dumb baseball jokes on Twitter until I tricked people into thinking that I knew what I was talking about) I hope that meshing my outsider origins with my new insider connections will give y'all a somewhat different perspective on this delightfully idiotic sport we all love.

Tune in next Tuesday for questions about: Jazz Chisholm's centerfield adventures, Pete Alonso's hot start, in-between mascot innings races, non-traditional ballpark foods and much, much more.

Jake Mintz, the louder half of @CespedesBBQ is a baseball writer for FOX Sports. He played college baseball, poorly at first, then very well, very briefly. Jake lives in New York City where he coaches Little League and rides his bike, sometimes at the same time. Follow him on Twitter at @Jake_Mintz.

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