Staff Blog
On Hamels and Happ
When the Phillies recalled J.A. Happ up to the Show I, like many others, assumed that he was there as a replacement for Brett Myers: insurance for what I saw to be the inevitable Myers move, either out of town or to the bullpen.
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| J.A. Happ, still in the majors |
| phillies.scout.com |
Now that the trade deadline has come and past and Brett has put together two straight quality outings, and Happ remains in the bullpen it may be time to address a more problematic possibility: Happ isn’t here as insurance for Myers – he’s here as insurance for Cole.
Obviously Hamels isn’t going to be traded or moved to the bullpen, but he is running up on his career high in innings, and is already right where he was when he went down last year (he was at 160.2 innings last year, he’s at 160.1 right now). No one has ever complained about Hollywood’s stuff, and the last time he had any type of real slump was his freshmen year of high school (seriously). The one real knock on him is that he has struggled to stay injury-free.
There is a precedent for him not pitching well, and it isn’t talent or even mindset, it is health.
Hamels denies being hurt, and those around him deny that he’s hurt, but his reputation for getting injured, his contract situation, and his legitimate desire to be the man down the stretch all give him incentive to dodge the issue. His quote last week “this is the year Cole Hamels doesn’t go on the DL” was telling. He really wants that to be true, and has trained really hard trying to make sure it is. Going down now would be a hit not only to the team, but also to Hamels’ self-image. At some point injuries stop being bad luck.
I’m not saying that this is true, and if Hollywood goes out there and shuts everyone down over the next coulple of weeks this post will be forgotten along with all the rest, but for some reason he’s had two bad starts and for some reason Happ is still in the majors. I really hope they’re not the same reason.
