I?m going to throw this out there for discussion?s sake, not to throw cold water on everyone?s optimism.

Cole needs about 3 more mph on his fastball so that when he isn?t sharp he is able to get away with pitches out over the plate a little bit. Cole is a damn good pitcher when everything is working (location, fastball, curveball). I would like to see someone put some gun powder in his food to give him some natural attitude. When things are going well, he can find a little manufactured cockiness but if things get sketchy he looks like he is praying a foxhole will magically appear. He just needs some natural meanness.

White is basically a one pitch pitcher. If he is sharp with it and at 95, he can probably do it. Good SEC hitters can hit 95 out over the plate if that is all they have to look for.

My dark horse for closer, if god forbid Cole can?t get it done is Liebelt. He has so much movement on his pitches that he can get away with not being totally dialed in. He also looks like he has the ability to make slight changes to each of his pitches. What I mean by that is, one fastball runs like crazy and the next one has less run. He has more weaopons at his disposal than the other two, therefore, an ability to keep good hitters off balance which is what you have to do against a good hitter.

Maybe some of the baseball guys can shed some light on this.