Cole Hamels

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.