Cropp'd, found woetry via this Hofmann piece:

A SELLER IS only a seller

After something has been sold.

So calling general manager Ruben Amaro Jr.

A seller

At this point

Would be incorrect.

It isn't just that the sport is replete

With recent teams that have played like stink

For long stretches of the season,

Only to get hot at the end

And make a run in the postseason.

Baseball purists will deny this

And decry this

But the wild card

— and, now, wild cards —

Have turned baseball

Into hockey

And basketball

And football.

So to surrender here

In the first week of July

Would be just that:

Surrender.

And stupid.

Because there is going to be

A 2013 season, too

Without Hamels, though,

The thing starts to look

Pretty thin

After next year.

To lose him would be

To lose something besides

The strikeouts and the wins, too.

Because there is an

Aura

That has surrounded this team

Which has nothing to do with what happens on the field

The attraction of a full and energetic ballpark

The professionalism of the clubhouse

The notion that the team is all about winning.

What happens

To all of that

If Hamels leaves?

It is why they would be

Crazy

To sell him

And

Especially now