I have decided to come out of my mini siesta to discuss an issue which has been bothering me in all this NL East race chatter. I am sitting there reading all of these who's gonna come out on top of the NL east talk and the topic of position by position breakdown always seems to be somebody's proof that a so-so team will win out. Now in almost every article I have read, it states that Cole Hamels is as as good as, Shea's own, two time cy young winner Johan Santana. Now the argument for Hamels seems evident. He is first in the NL in IP(150.2) and 2nd in the NL in Complete Games (2), Strikeouts (133), and Whip (1.01). While Johan is 9th,8th,and 10th, with no complete games in those categories this season. So clearly he is having a better year statistically then Johan. While it is noteworthy to point out however, that Santana's ERA is slightly lower then Hamels with a 3.10 compared to a 3.15.
With that being said, Hamels is clearly the Philth's ace, no doubt about it. So it seems quite obvious that you put your ace out there against the your division rivals. Yet, the Phillthies seem to keep Hamels away from any big pressure game, especially against the Mets. The Philths could have easily arranged the pitching rotation coming out the all star break to have Hamels, their supposed ace, to face the Mets in a showdown for the NL East but instead chose to throw out guys with ERA's of 4.96, 5.84, and 3.90. I guess nobody told told Charlie Manuel, that you generally want to put your ace out there when it counts.
Hamels will have faced the Mets one time out of the first thirteen games that the Mets and the philths have faced off this season. In that one game, way back on April 18, Hammels went 7 inning gave up 5 runs, 4 of those earned, had 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts, good enough for his second loss of the season. The Mets of course had Johan on the mound that day (big games mean big pitchers) who gave up just three runs in a Mets 6-4 win. After that early spring game Hamels has been MIA from facing the Mets this season.
Let's take this a step further. IN 2007, Hammels faced the Mets 3 times out of 18 games. The latest of those being in June. In those three games he managed to pick up two losses and a no-desicion. He allowed 5 home runs in those three starts while walking 9 guys. He struckout 17 Mets while allowing 8 Earned Runs. Hardly numbers to gloat about for an ace against his teams rival. You have to go all the way back to his rookie season, to find a game that Hamels beat the Mets.
Overall, Cole is 1-3 in 5 games started vs the Mets in his Career. He's faced the Braves 8 times and the Marlins 7 times over that same time while neither team has really competed for the top of the NL East. So do I think its a coincidence that Hamels is not pitching against the Mets this series. NO way. THe PHillies are scared. There so called ace is nothing but another young lefty against the Mets, and they know it. So it just happens to be that he started the game before the series. Maybe Hamels should win one big game in his life (he lost his only playoff start) before sport writers scratch him off heck put him even in the same league as Johan Santana. But I would say a nice place to start would be having him, I dont know, pitch against the Mets?
