FWIW - Just saw Bob Allen say that his "sources" told him that Cole Hamels has blocked a trade to the Astros. Can't find this anywhere else though. Anyone hear something similar?
Agreed. I'm not quite ready to see the Astros start giving up prospects yet. I'd kind of like to see how some of these young guys pan out.
How about a link? Or at the least a description of who the hell Bob Allen is and why we should believe this.
Sorry. He's the Sports Director for Channel 13 in Houston. He's been a sportscaster in Houston for over 30 years, but I'm not ready to call him a credible source for rumors. I don't have a link because he just reported it on the 6 p.m. broadcast.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Source tells <a href="https://twitter.com/BobAllenKHOU">@BobAllenKHOU</a> that Phillies LHP Cole Hamels has blocked (for now) any possible trade to <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Astros?src=hash">#Astros</a>. Rangers & Yankees are in play</p>— Daniel Gotera (@DTGoteraKHOU) <a href="https://twitter.com/DTGoteraKHOU/status/613125802817888256">June 22, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Would rather go after Kazmir anyways. It usually doesn't work out when a player has no interest in being there in the first place.
Who's his agent? Despite the success this year, we seem to forget some of the issues this front office had with other teams/agents that rubbed many the wrong way. Will take more than a half season of success to change some minds, rehab the brand/image and sway ideologies. Also, Hamels fits the douche factor better in southern Oklahoma.
Why would he want to force his new team to trade away more players to his old team? I believe he has a list of teams he can veto, so I assume Houston is on that list. I think he has a team option for the last year of his contract, so it could be a way to force a team he's not super-excited about to pick up the option.
Never heard that as a reason before. In the end, Astros have to move on (cueto is the better get for now, and still allows future payroll flexibility). There's also no rule that a player has to waive his no trade clause simply to go to a winning team.
So 30+ doesn't equal to 40? If Hamels doesn't want to be here, so be it, I'd rather have someone who wants to be here.