Jun 8, 2015 4 min read

Pay the man and do it soon.

That’s what the Pirates should be seriously considering with Geritt Cole.

No pitcher in the National League has been better than Cole this season. In fact, you could make the argument that he’s been the best pitcher in either league.

His nine wins and 1.73 ERA lead the National League and he’s got the inside track on being the first Pirates pitcher to start the all-star game since – here’s some bar trivia for you – Jerry Reuss in 1975.

In his last 34 starts – about a season’s worth – Cole is 20-7 with a 3.25 ERA and 224 strikeouts in a span of 216 innings. And he’s only getting better.

The Pirates have themselves a legitimate ace, which is what they expected when they selected Cole with the first pick in the 2011 draft.

The Pirates also have contract control over Cole through 2020 but he is arbitration eligible starting in 2017. Given the way he’s currently pitching, Cole’s demands in an arbitration hearing could be more than $20 million.

After all, journeyman Mat Latos, who went 5-5 with a 3.25 ERA in 16 starts in 2014, got $9.4 million in salary arbitration prior to this season. And that was in a case that his team, the Miami Marlins won. Latos had been asking for $10.4 million.

The Pirates should make a move to lock up Cole for at least a couple of seasons beyond 2020 now. Offer him seven years at $15 million or even a little more per season. That will keep him in Pittsburgh through 2022.

He’s making just $531,000 this season. Even though his agent is the ultra-prickly Scott Boras, getting that kind of contract now might buy the Pirates two additional seasons of having a legitimate ace. And Cole will still be just 31 at the end of that contract, ready to cash in on the free agent market.

• The NCAA has made some changes to the way it will play basketball in the upcoming season. Interestingly enough, they made changes to the men’s and women’s games that won’t be universal.

For the men, the shot clock will go from 35 seconds, where it has been since the 1993-94 season, down to 30 seconds.

Teams also will have one fewer second-half timeout. If either team calls a timeout within 30 seconds of a media timeout, it would count as the scheduled break.

For the women, a proposal was approved to go to four 10-minute quarters instead of two 20-minute halves.

The move to a 30-second clock is being done in an attempt to add more scoring to the game. But teams that struggle putting the ball in the basket in 35 seconds also will do so in 30 seconds. If you can’t shoot, you can’t shoot.

And fewer timeouts will be applauded by everyone.

But playing the game in 10-minute quarters? That seems to be making a change for the sake of making a change.

• NFL.com broke down the top quarterback-running back-wide receiver combinations in the NFL heading into this season and, not surprisingly, Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown were ranked No. 1, just ahead of Green Bay’s trio of Aaron Rodgers, Eddie Lacy and Jordy Nelson.

For the Steelers to take the next step and be true Super Bowl contenders this season, they’ll need Martavis Bryant to make that a power foursome.

Bryant has put on 10 pounds of muscle to allow him to better deal with the rigors of an NFL season. And he also has spent a lot of time working on running different routes this season in an effort to become a more complete receiver.

If that happens, the Steelers will have the NFL’s top offense in 2015.

F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.