Seriously, I'm asking you, what is wrong with Cole Hamels? I can't figure it out.
I have some guesses, such as a hangover from his 2008 success, or a hangover from his 2008 workload, or an injury, or some bad luck, or, a combination of all of the above.
Here's what I do know though, and you probably do too...
...In the time it takes Cole Hamels to dispose of a batter, you have enough time [at least I do] to go to the kitchen, reach for a beer, see that there is none, go outside, open the garage door, go to the backup fridge, and make two or three trips inside to restock the kitchen fridge. Then you check and see that the count is at 2-2 and that some no-name is fouling off pitch after pitch, so you go searching for a bottle opener, find one, open the beer, and see that the count is now 3-2 and the player-to-be-named-later is still fouling off pitches.
...Cole's body language is not good. To borrow a phrase from the Dog Whisperer, "he ees not BAL-anced." If he thinks he's getting squeezed by the umpire or a weak groundball miraculously finds its way between infielders, Hamels stomps around the mound like a kid denied his video games.
...In a combination of those first two points, Hamels works to batters slower than he used to do. When Hamels first came into the league, and even last year, he'd get the ball, get the sign, and go. Now, when he gets the ball back from the catcher, he heads back to the rubber like someone waiting in a long teller line, weaving back and forth.
Back in 2006, when Hamels was tearing his way through the minor leagues and before he was brought up to the majors, Pat Gillick, then the Phillies general manager, said that he would like to see Hamels struggle a bit before they brought him up. The thinking was that the organization wanted to see how he handled adversity.
But as we all know, that adversity never really came, and Hamels never really had to work through it. He continued to mow batters down, was brought up to the Phillies shortly thereafter and continued successfully right through winning the 2008 World Series Most-Valuable Player award.
So now we're finally seeing some adversity for Cole Hamels. His ERA sits at 4.78 and while win/loss records don't carry a ton of weight, he does have a losing record, 7-8. The question becomes, at this point, with 5 weeks or so left in the regular season ends and the playoffs begin, how will Cole Hamels respond?
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