Re: Phillies Pitching report

After stumbling upon this report about the Phillies, I found it quite interesting that Cole Hamels pitched "with anger at himself" last season. They've begun to question "Who is Cole Hamels?" Cole Hamels is the young phenom who had an unfortunate turn of events last season...not a lost puppy people feel he is. I'm not going to let him off the hook that the curveball hasn't been working and he basically quit on the Phils in the post-season. You can easily get down on yourself after going from 14-10; 3.09ERA to 10-11; 4.32ERA. What about the fact he slipped from a 15-5;3.39ERA to that same 2008 14-10; 3.09ERA. Players vary from year and sometimes having a lower ERA is better than the record despite the fact 9 times out of 10 it determines how much you win(When you give up a load of runs it's a lot harder to win). Hamels hasn't faced adversity like he did last season. He was a dominant minor league pitcher and quickly rose to stardom and all-star status. Everyone is bound to take a fall sooner or later (Ask any Yankee or any other ML'er about that). Hamels just has to get back to his roots and develop his curveball. We have yet to see if he's mentally and physically here yet seeing as no major stake games have been played yet.

Hamels made a huge mistake by saying, "I can't wait for the season to be over." It was blown out of context, but the media does that for reader and viewership. Hamels never wanted the season to end the way it did. Hamels loves pitching for the Phils and wanted to deliver a WS as quickly as possible. Cole should keep his mouth shut during spring training and focus on being that all-star he was. No doing press tours, commercials, appearances, etc that burned him out after the World Seris season. Instead, Cole should be saying to the media, "I'm born again, feeling great and am ready to part of the best 1-2 punch in the N.L. and deliver the great people of Philadelphia another October to remember."