The Colbert Report

Walter Iooss Jr./SI

If there’s one thing that has been growing more and more evident this year, it’s that judging a pitcher by his W-L record is the epitome of baseball bullshittery, and Cole Hamels knows this better than anyone.



In 2010, Hamels is 8-10 after 27 starts and 174 innings pitched. He ranks fifth in the National League with 176 strike outs and has a respectable 3.31 ERA which is 27^th of all qualified MLB starting pitchers.

While he hit some rough patches in the beginning of the season (his era hovered between 4.29 and 5.28 briefly, but the booming Phillies offense was busy bailing him out), Hamels deserved better than what happened to him between wins number 7 and 8.

After his last win on July 11^th, Cole pitched through 62 innings, giving up just 17 earned runs and posted a 2.47 ERA before locking in win number eight. In that span he walked only 11 batters and struck out 69 on 929 pitches (68% of those for strikes). The Phillies thanked him for his efforts by going 4-4 in games he started leaving Cole with 3 losses and 5 no-decisions before shutting out the Padres 5-0 on August 29^th.

What else happened during the Dark Ages of Hamels?

• Nelson Figueroa & J.A. Happ became Astros
• Juan Castro became a Dodger
• Jamie Moyer, Shane Victorino, Ryan Howard, Ross Gload and Danys Baez were put on the DL
• The Domonic Brown era began
• Mike Sweeney & Roy Oswalt became Phillies

Cole goes for his second straight win tonight against the Brewers. Here’s hoping it isn’t another seven weeks between victories, because frankly, the Phillies don’t have that kind of time. Pin It Now!