Tornoe’s Toons: Phillies Pitching
Cross posted at Laugh!
I’ll be the first to admit to being hard on Cole Hamels. He has definitely struggled with his consistency over that last two seasons, but he does have a 36:10 K:BB ratio thus far (thanks to 10 strikeouts last night), so his 5.14 ERA shouldn’t be around for long.
We’ll see if he can become the dominant pitcher he’s been billed as, or if he’s just going to be another Barry Zito. Let’s hope he can hold-on to that fastball.
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Tags: Cole Hamels, Philadelphia Phillies, phillies, Phillies cartoon, Roy Halladay
Gotta tell ya’ Rob (channeling my inner Richie there)…
His velocity on his supposed fastball concerns the hell out of me. To be an effective changeup pitcher, which is his M.O., you either need a good fastball to mix it up, or be a helluva finesse pitcher, a la Jamie Moyer. Hamels, right now, is neither, at least not on a consistent basis. His lack of confidence in his curve ball is perplexing. His first full year here, his fastball was in the 91-94 range and he had some kind of breaking ball that POPPED, although not technically a curve ball pitch. It could have been a two-seamer, three-seamer, what ever, but he had something that popped. Then came the WS win and an offseason of fluff, and he’s never consistently returned to that form. His fastball is lucky to hit 92 anymore and how did he end up abandoning this breaking ball that he had in 2008?
His stamina seems completely off. Four or five innings, he’s money, then KA*BOOM, he’s too mortal. Was it this chiropractor demand the Phils gave in to him in 2008? Sounds silly, but think about this. They coddled him late in ’08, so has he lost his physical edge as a result?
The dude is a question mark, but still has amazing potential. I’m not ready to give up on him yet, but this mental chess game of his certainly can be frustrating.