The Pittsburgh Pirates selected UCLA pitcher Gerrit Cole with the first overall pick of the 2011 MLB Draft on Monday and following the selection, Bucs general manager Neal Huntington talked to the MLB Network about the selection.
He said Cole has been on the Pirates radar for a long time, and that given Cole's power and "stuff" it was hard to walk away from selecting him.
The GM then talked more broadly about the challenges or rebuilding the Pirates and what he and his management team are doing to pull the franchise from the depths of 18 consecutive losing seasons.
After that, though, it was back to Cole.
'You see the size, you see the strength, you see the competitor," Huntington said. "You see the 100 mph fastball, the slider, the changeup that all can develop. We've got some work to do but we're excited to get him into the system adding to the group that we've already got."