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Don’t look now, but Cole Hamels is starting to turn it on. After last night’s terrific start against the Nationals, the Phillies’ ace has now gone four consecutive outings in which he’s thrown at least seven innings while giving up no more than two runs. In fact, he’s given up only one run in three of those four outings, including last night. He also has a 29/6 strikeout-to-walk ratio during this stretch, too. Long story short: He’s pitching like he’s one of the best pitchers in the game. (Which, you know, he is.)
The significance of this, of course, is that Hamels got off to an extremely rocky start. While most of his peripherals were fine, he was allowing a lot of hard contact through his first six starts. In that span to start the season, the 31-year-old had an unspectacular 4.14 ERA while allowing eight home runs. That rough start was supposed to have been something of a justification for the teams that didn’t trade for him over the offseason, but his track record should’ve been enough of a sign that he’d turn it around at some point soon.
Now, we’re back where we started, with Hamels being far and away the best trade chip at the Phillies’ disposal and the best starting pitcher who will be available in trades. There are plenty of teams who still need him, too. The Red Sox’ pitching has turned it around in the last few weeks, but they would still be a lot more comfortable with someone of Hamels’ stature. The Dodgers have Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, but losing Hyun-Jin Ryu was a big blow to their rotation. The Blue Jays, Yankees, Cubs and Astros could all use a true top-of-the-rotation arm as well. At some point he’ll be traded, and right now he’s proving that he’ll be worth the cost to acquire him.
- After his highly publicized fallout with the Angels, Josh Hamilton is set to make his 2015 debut with Texas on Monday.
- It seems the hottest trend in baseball over the weekend was pitchers using foreign substance in very obvious ways. Brian Matusz was ejected from Saturday’s game after Will Smith did the same thing on Thursday.
- While Hamels has started to pitch like he’s capable of, Stephen Strasburg continues to struggle mightily. There are many theories why.
- Someone needs to tell the Astros it’s only 2015, because they’re destroying opponents, leading the AL West, turning triple plays, and their pets’ heads are staying on.
- The Mets’ offense could desperately use some help, but David Wright just received some rough news in his rehab. The star third baseman has stenosis, which will shut him down for at least one more week.
- In more injury news, the Tigers are getting close to having Justin Verlander back in their rotation.
- The Cubs are likely going to have a late pick in the first round for the first time in a while in next year’s draft. Should they exploit the CBA to get the most out of this year’s class?
- A better bullpen would help those Cubs ensure a last draft pick. Remembering that Rafael Soriano exists and is available would surely help those reliever issues.
- After a hot start, the Yankees are falling back down to Earth. Is it time they dump their underperforming veterans in favor of young players on the farm?
- Like Happy Gilmore’s record of most times taking off his skate to stab someone, Bryan Price is likely near the top of the leaderboard for getting tossed from games before first pitch.
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