The New Cole Hamels: 5 Factors That Have Made Him so Successful in 2011
June 7, 2011 by Ray Tannock
Filed under Fan News
Does anyone remember Cole Hamels’ 2007 season? It was arguably his best season as a member of the Philadelphia Phillies, earning a career best 15-5 record with a 3.39 ERA tagging close behind which gave Phillies’ fans more than enough reason to immediately fall in love with the kid.
The following year in 2008 wasn’t as spectacular in the win/loss column, but that ERA came down even lower to 3.09, and of course, Hamels did go undefeated n the postseason which included the World Series.
In 2009, however, Hamels seemingly hit a rough patch.
His season ended with a blow .500 win/loss record (10-14), his ERA ballooned to 4.34 and there were even times when Hamels couldn’t get any run support at all.
This was all compounded by the Yankees doing a number on him in the World Series that year, too.
2010 was an improvement, but not exactly what everyone expected the season to be as Hamels went 12-11 with a 3.06 ERA.
The point to mentioning all of this is simple: Cole Hamels has always been a staff ace on the rise, but sort of lacking in certain departments to elevate him to the next level permanently.
Well all of that has changed in 2011, and today we’re going to look at some of the factors that has helped in that accomplishment.