by Michael Gill
Is Hamels An Ace?
Left hander Cole Hamels allowed a pair of home runs in a 6-3 loss to St. Louis on Friday night. The staff “ace” fell to 9-7 on the season, while his ERA rose to 3.37.
Normally, I don’t like to take win/loss record into account when measuring the success or failure of a pitcher, but in the case of Hamels, it seems instead of the team getting up for their ace, they don’t play nearly as well for Cole.
Take a look at other aces from teams in contention around the league:
Carlos Zambrano – CHC – 12-4, 2.80
Johan Santana – NYM – 9-7, 2.93
Ben Sheets – MIL – 10-4, 3.14
Dan Haren – ARZ – 11-5, 2.62
Brandon Webb – ARZ – 15-4, 3.04
Kyle Lohse – STL – 13-3, 3.73
Only Santana matches him in record and only Loshe has a similar ERA, and he was not really thought of as an “ace” when he was in Philadelphia (more on that later).
It seems whenever Hamels takes the mound and pitches well, the Phillies bats go silent. When he’s rocked, like he was in a recent outing versus the Atlanta Braves, they somehow manage to pull through.
While Hamels run-support isn’t great, he dug his team an early hole last night, leaving a pitch up in the zone to a guy who has been toiling around the minor leagues since 2001, Joe Mather.
For all his talent, Cole is a two-pitch pitcher and doesn’t over-power you with his fastball. If he leaves something out over the plate, a journeyman like Mather can take you deep and that shouldn’t happen.
As for Loshe, that whole scenario is still puzzling. Why is he not pitching for the Phillies right now? Money. The Phillies answer is that Loshe wanted too much money and to be fair the Phillies did offer Loshe a better deal then the one-year deal he ended up taking. However, to sign Kris Benson and say there wasn’t any room for Loshe anymore after that signing is a joke. Loshe and his 13 wins should be pitching every fifth day in Citizens Bank Park and has become an ace for the Redbirds.
As for Cole Hamels, unfortunately right now in the hierarchy of aces, King Cole is still a pawn.
I don’t really think run support or win/loss record can be taken into account when determining if a player is an ace or not. I also would not consider Kyle Lohse an ace, though I admit it certainly would have been nice if we could have retained him.