Here is tha article from the local paper: Prospect is headed for bigger things 05/08/2006 MOOSIC - The Syracuse SkyChiefs faced him for seven innings Sunday. They got five hits — two on harmless bloops that just happened to find empty turf. They scored one run. They didn’t draw a single walk. They struck out 10 times. The Syracuse SkyChiefs faced him for seven innings Sunday. They got five hits — two on harmless bloops that just happened to find empty turf. They scored one run. They didn’t draw a single walk. They struck out 10 times. It was, far and away, the single best offensive performance against Cole Hamels in his Triple-A career. Sure enough, he did it again. Another day. Another start. Another performance that won’t allow anyone to keep an overzealous fan or scribe from the inevitable prediction that Cole Hamels is, indeed, the next coming of Steve Carlton. He might not win four Cy Young Awards, or be one of the five best lefties in the history of baseball. But the hype came to Lackawanna County Stadium on Sunday, and Hamels left fans and writers — and maybe the Phillies — with one lasting memory of the occasion. This Hamels guy. . . he really is pretty good. How good? Catcher Dusty Wathan could have used his stage after the game to chat up his 10th inning, walk-off home run that beat Syracuse, 2-1. Instead, he took time to compare Hamels and another top pitching prospect Wathan once caught when he was in the Marlins chain. “This guy’s right there with him, if not a step ahead,” Wathan insisted. “He’s special. I’ve been in the minor leagues for 13 years, and he’s one of the best — if not the best — I’ve ever caught.” The pitcher on Wathan’s mind: Some guy named Josh Beckett. Nobody has ever questioned his stuff, or his uncanny poise, but Hamels is putting up numbers with the Red Barons that you can’t put up in video games. In 17 seasons before Hamels first put on a Red Barons uniform, there were only 36 games in which the Red Barons’ starter struck out 10 batters or more. Hamels has never not struck out less than 10 as a Red Baron. The fact that Syracuse actually scored a run against him is going to be big news on the Philly talk-show circuit today. Norfolk and Richmond had 16 innings worth of chances in Hamels’ first two Triple-A starts, and he made them look like high school teams. In 23 innings pitched, Hamels has allowed one run on 10 hits. He had the nerve to walk one hitter. He has struck out. . . four plus two. . . carry the one. . . 36. “If Pat Gillick called this afternoon and said they want him in Philadelphia, I don’t think I could say he’s not ready,” Red Barons manager John Russell said. “I don’t know what else he has to do.” As long as he continues to master the filthy change-up that stymied SkyChiefs batters all afternoon, he won’t need to do much more. Hamels’ fastball reached 92 on the stadium radar gun. He threw a few curveballs, too. But consider that Syracuse hitters swung through the third strike on nine of his 10 strikeouts, and that seven of them were on change-ups. That’s not a pitcher fooling hitters. That’s hitters not being able to hit a pitcher. Hamels learned the change-up grip from his high school coach, and he learned how devastating a pitch it could be by watching Padres closer Trevor Hoffman baffle hitters with it his entire career. Thing is, Hamels’ change moves so much, it would have gotten him burned at the stake if he pitched in Salem in the 1600s. It fades down and away from righties one time, sailing away from lefties another. “Sometimes,” he shrugged and chuckled, asked if he can control the change’s direction. “Sometimes it just happens and I’m like, That was great. And sometimes I’m like, Dang, I’ve got to work on that. So, it’s whatever the ball does.” The ball always smiles on Cole Hamels, and the safe bet is he’ll be here only as long as the Phillies feel they can get by with Ryan Madson and Gavin Floyd in their rotation. But no matter what Madson and Floyd do, they won’t be able to hold Hamels back much longer. Not the way he’s feeling now. “I think I feel pretty comfortable,” Hamels joked with the postgame media swarm, most of whom saw their first and last Red Barons game of the season on his account. “But that’s all up to you guys. “What do you think?” Uh, yeah. He couldn’t have been more comfortable had he brought a lemonade, the Sunday paper and a hammock with him to the mound. He just better not get too comfortable in Scranton.
I'm sorry about my post I am a random idiot and I don't know what stats I was looking at. I was probably just making up random numbers. I should feel disgraced since I am in a 13 team 23 man roster nl only league.
Hamels' debut is going on right now -- he has 7 K's through 5 and just gave up his first major league hit with 2 outs in the 5th. He has struck out Ken Griffey Jr. twice. He might be overexcited though as he is throwing way too many pitches to every hitter... he's thrown 92 so far through 5 and has 5 walks (3 coming in the second inning). 2-0 Phillies.
