Is Hamels Back?
We all know that the Hamels we saw last season wasn’t the Hamels we’ve all grown to know and love. He had the highest era of his pro career with 4.32 and he ended the season with a losing record for the first time ever. On top of that, he pitched about 30 innings less than he did the year before and had almost 30 less strike outs.
Down the stretch and into the playoffs we could tell something was up when he was saying and doing questionable things. Especially when he was so frustrated with himself that he said he wanted the season to be over…right in the middle of their playoff run. If Hamels can put last year behind him and fix his problems, this rotation will be DANGEROUS.
So far the word from spring training is that Hamels looks great. Manuel, Dubee and Hamels have all made it public that they feel great about his progress so far and that they are excited for him to get out there. There are a few differences between this offseason and last offseason that have had an impact on Cole.
Last off-season, Hamels took a long (and much deserved) break. He had just won World Series MVP and decided not to throw too much during the Winter which turned out to be a bad idea. He came into spring training last season with a rusty arm and a curveball that wouldn’t cooperate. The Phillies attribute much of his strugling to his offseason break.
This year was different. He threw a lot and even took his baseball glove on the family vacation to throw there too. So far it looks like it’s paid off. Rich Dubee said Hamels is “far beyond where he’s ever been in spring training”. That is pretty exciting for Phillies fans to hear.
Many Phillies fans wanted them to keep both Halladay and Cliff Lee for this season to have the most dangerous 1-2 punch in baseball but it didn’t happen. Going into last season though, all of us would have said Hamels and Halladay was the best 1-2 punch in the league but Cole ended ‘09 as arguably the 3rd of 4th most reliable pitcher on the staff. If he can come back as the Hamels of before- which seems very possible- this rotation will prove to be one of the best in baseball and carry the Phillies deep into the playoffs.
i sure to god hope that Hamels is back… if he was his regular self during the world series we deffinately would have repeated… which makes it really suck that Hamels is always the deciding factor in our squad, that’s y everyone wants him gone! he’s still young and if he doesnt do well this year then i want him traded
I just hope he does good. We could have a great 1-2 punch wit a lefty n right. which is pretty damn good in the NL. Especially bc after those two we have 3 above average starters.