The Pittsburgh Pirates are one of six teams who have shown preliminary interest in right handed pitcher Aaron Cook, according to Bill Brink. Cook has a career 4.53 ERA in over 1300 innings pitched in the majors. He’s never been a guy who can strike out batters, with a career 3.8 K/9 ratio, including a 4.5 K/9 ratio in 2011. Cook missed 60 games in 2011 with a broken finger. Cook’s xFIP over the last three years hasn’t been that much worse than Paul Maholm’s. Personally, I’d have a lot of players on my wish list before I got down to Cook.
Tim started Pirates Prospects in 2009 from his home in Virginia, which was 40 minutes from where Pedro Alvarez made his pro debut in Lynchburg. That year, the Lynchburg Hillcats won the Carolina League championship, and Pirates Prospects was born from Tim's reporting along the way. The site has grown over the years to include many more writers, and Tim has gone on to become a credentialed MLB reporter, producing Pirates Prospects each year, and will publish his 11th Prospect Guide this offseason. He has also served as the Pittsburgh Pirates correspondent for Baseball America since 2019. Behind the scenes, Tim is an avid music lover, and most of the money he gets paid to run this site goes to vinyl records.
That is just plain sad news, bringing me back to the days of Bonifay & Littlefield during the winter getting excited about signing pitching garbage of whom they’ve convinced themselves could be good moves but who in reality eventually suck all year until they get enough nads to release them only after months of fans screaming for them to hurry up and get rid of the guy.
what is Omar Olivares doing now?
Due diligence to take a look. I mean this team needs some starting pitching. Cook is far from the top of my list and would be a bad signing IF he was the only arm brought in.
Just taking a look at the agents there are 15 starting pitchers I would take over him. Six of them (Wilson, Jackson, Buehrle, Oswalt, Vazquez and Kuroda) are probably highly unlikely targets but that still leaves 9 players.
In alphabetical order those players are Bedard, Capuano, Francis, Harang, Harden, Hernandez, Maholm, Marquis, Pineiro.
Plus there are players like Millwood and Penny who I value about the same.
This franchise is such a joke. Let’s recreate the 2007 Rockies. Idiots
Would be good if they could get him for minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training to see if he can make the team.
Aaron Cook is about a 1 yr – 2 mil offer guy he has decreased the last 3 years in innings like maholm and he’s been god awful
If the Pirates can get him at that price, he’ll be who they want.
John Danks is at the top of my list, after we would take jordan danks with the rule 5 pick.