I have pretty much hitched my Phillies phandom to Cole Hamels for the 2010 season. Even though Laura and I secretly think that Cole might prefer a beanbag hackeysack to a baseball, his performance this year (even more than J-Roll's health, Fat Joe Blanton's abs, the hole in Raul's swing, and Lidge's slider) is the most critical issue for the Phils to win the World Series.
Two weeks in and I am cautiously optimistic. I own Cole on both of my fantasy teams as a 3rd starter with the potential to either pitch like an ace or bum (2008 vs. 2009). After listening to Cole's game on the radio yesterday driving back from Syracuse, I took a look at the Fan Graphs performance so far and am pretty confused - not just by the stat dork sabermetrics (http://bit.ly/c5HGTU):
ERA (08/09/10): 3.09/4.32/3.86
K/9: 7.76/7.81/9.16
FIP: 3.72/3.72/4.02
I like what I am hearing listening to Cole's starts. I like the high K's numbers and efficiency of pitches. I am concerned by the love of the cut fastball and the FIP. If his FIP in comparison to the ERA was the cause for the optimism for this season, should I be worried that he is off of both his '09 AND '08 numbers??? Ugh.
Either way, give him some run support and I think he can deliver behind the workhorse behemoth that is Doc Halladay. Love it.
1 comment:
Pizza - I wouldn't be so worried about his FIP. Fact of the matter is, Hamels is giving up fly balls more often than Soriano is catching them over in Wrigley. His fly balls are way up - and therefore, his homeruns are going to be way up. I think you'd sleep easier at night to hinge your 2010 season on Hamels xFIP - and know that he's outperforming his magical 2008 run. How's that for dorky?
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