Hamels controversy?

by taco pal on Sep 18, 2007 3:21 PM EDT

Did anyone know there was a tempest in a teapot recently regarding comments Cole Hamels made to the media? Apparently, Hamels said to some reporter at some point that if the Phillies were no longer in the race when he recovered from his elbow soreness, he wanted to just shut it down and come back next spring. (This is all moot today, of course.)

Now, since I get all my Phillies news from this website and philly.com, I didn't even know that Hamels had made these comments. But I was talking to a WIP-listening friend over the weekend, and he was totally incensed about it. I also heard Mitch Williams bring it up last night on the Comcast postgame show.

It seems that the WIP folk may have been beating the drums about this comment for several days, and how it showed a lack of heart, lack of loyalty, lack of guts, and so on and so forth. To me, the comment sounds perfectly reasonable, but hey, it's not like "reason" is really all that relevant here. Philly has a long history of turning on its stars. Hopefully, this isn't the beginning of history repeating itself.

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Re: Hamels controversy?

I had thought about blogging about this, but somehow it got lost. My angle would have been that this is the first time I've agreed with John Marzano about something. Mitch Williams, who I generally like as a commentator, made a big deal about Hamels' statement and argued that it showed no heart and was not the right thing to say. Marzano defended Hamels, arguing that his arm was a huge part of the Phillies' future and that it needed to be protected and used only if absolutely necessary. I rarely agree with Marzano, but did this time.

by David S. Cohen on Sep 18, 2007 3:31 PM EDT reply actions

Re: Hamels controversy?

It's funny, but I actually think Mitch is a much better analyst of issues related to hitting than pitching. He understands the basic power/patience duality and its relevance to run scoring, but he's absolutely wedded to this idea that pitchers "in his day" threw more and got tougher so they COULD throw more. Kind of poetic coming from the guy who was absolutely burned out by Game 6 of the World Series many seasons ago.

by WholeCamels on Sep 18, 2007 4:15 PM EDT up reply actions

Re: Hamels controversy?

Nobody - not Ryan Howard, nor Chase Utley, nor Jimmy Rollins - is as important to the long-term future of the franchise as Cole Hamels. Why anyone would want him to pitch in meaningless games, putting his health at risk, just for the sake of manliness and belly-fire and loyalty and blah blah blah is incomprehensible to me. He has a substantial injury history already, and is just coming off a DL stint for elbow soreness. His workload the past two seasons is far more than anything he's done before, and he's 23 years old. If the Phils fall out of it, shutting him down is the no-brainer of the year. Not shutting him down would be cause for Manuel's immediate dismissal. God, only in Philadelphia could this ever become a controversy.

by Seth @ The Good Phight on Sep 18, 2007 7:37 PM EDT reply actions

Re: Hamels controversy?

I honestly can't see how anyone would have any problem with it... In fact, I'd be angry if they were risking Hamels in meaningless late season games if the team was out of it.

Bleeding Green Nation Philadelphia Eagles Blog

by JasonB on Sep 18, 2007 10:35 PM EDT reply actions