The Astros have been the worst team in baseball over the last half-decade and one of the worst of all time over that span. It's hard for the stench of failure to go away after that, and I have a feeling some are still looking at this as a fluke.
Good. Dont want Hamels anyways. His trade value seems skewed anyways. Dude is an injury waiting to happen. 31 years old, 2000 IP, no thanks. Was he great? Sure. But his starts have been spotty and he's clearly on the downside of his career.
Would have liked Hamels, but I'm far from heartbroken over not getting him. There are plenty of pitching options. If he doesn't want to be here, whats evs.
I'd hate to give up prospects that many of us have been tracking pretty heavily the past couple of years for an aging vet with his price tag. Luhnow's formula has been working with regard to minor-league talent; I'd like to see some of that bear some (more) fruit. I know part of his model is stacking minor league talent for the purpose of trading for established major leaguers, but I'm not sure Hamels is the right guy to do that with.
Well, that's the only other option... but chances are only a select few will make it. You don't want to lose prospects for "nothing"... mainly they get exposed to not be as good as their minor league numbers showed or they get exposed in the rule 5 draft. The "art" of trading prospects when their value is best is almost a skill in and of itself.
Would have liked to see what the offer was to the Phillies. Also, I wonder if he blocked trade because Astros didn't agree to exercise his option year. I would not be surprised if this is the case and the Astros and the Philles re-work the trade with the Phillies paying for portion of option year or agreeing to less prospects.
For those not wanting to give up prospects…we have way too many in our system. We actually have to give up some of them unless we don't mind having them play out their careers in minor league ball.
I believe he had that clause at the time of him signing that extension a few years ago (he's only in his 10th year now). That's why I said he "earned" it then by being excellent.
Maybe he doesn't think his stuff would translate well to MMP as a LHP with the short porch in left (5 HR in 6 career starts)? Career stats are inflated by one really bad appearance in 2008. Code: Year W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF WHIP SO9 SO/W 2006 1 0 1.000 2.35 1 1 0 0 0 0 7.2 3 2 2 0 4 0 11 1 0 30 0.913 12.9 2.75 2007 1 0 1.000 1.29 1 1 0 0 0 0 7.0 8 1 1 1 0 0 8 0 0 31 1.143 10.3 2008 0 0 13.50 1 1 0 0 0 0 4.0 7 6 6 1 1 0 0 0 0 20 2.000 0.0 0.00 2009 0 1 .000 6.00 1 1 0 0 0 0 6.0 8 4 4 0 2 0 6 0 0 28 1.667 9.0 3.00 2011 0 1 .000 7.20 1 1 0 0 0 0 5.0 9 5 4 1 1 0 6 1 0 27 2.000 10.8 6.00 2012 1 0 1.000 3.86 1 1 0 0 0 0 7.0 7 4 3 2 1 0 8 0 0 29 1.143 10.3 8.00 Career 3 2 .600 4.91 6 6 0 0 0 0 36.2 42 22 20 5 9 0 39 2 0 165 1.391 9.6 4.33 I think he might be holding out for an assurance of more money in the form of the Astros to picking up his team option for 2019.
I think this is being poorly reported; there's no indication the Astros made an offer - just that Hamels has (reportedly) said no to "any" trade to the Astros. Right?
I was also wondering if the Phillies and Astros agreed on a trade on Hamels nixed it or if Hamels just said he wouldn't accept a trade to Houston. This article links to an article in the Boston Globe that seems to suggest it is the latter:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sources: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Rangers?src=hash">#Rangers</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Phillies?src=hash">#Phillies</a> having ongoing dialogue about Cole Hamels, and he is willing to waive no-trade to Texas. <a href="https://twitter.com/FOXSports">@FOXSports</a></p>— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/jonmorosi/status/613383740086177792">June 23, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Just going by the OP that said Hamels blocked a trade according to Bob Allen. Bob Allen to my knowledge hasn't been the type to spread false rumors and I am taking the OP on face value that he relayed info correctly. Agree that reporting is either poor or accurate (i.e. nothing to report)
