J-Roll was a fairly obvious pick, and we debated among ourselves who Zolecki would proclaim as Phillies pitcher of the decade. We figured that Cole Hamels didn't pitch enough and that it would come down to Brett Myers beating out Randy Wolf; at one point, we even had Vicente Padilla in the running. We reasoned that young Brett pitched the most of any Phillies pitcher in the decade, and although he didn't live up to expectations, he did perform well.
We were wrong. Zolecki went with the flameout Cole Hamels:
Forty-six pitchers made starts for the Phillies in the '00s. Of the 16 hurlers with 30 or more starts, Hamels is one of only two pitchers to have an ERA under 4.00 -- Padilla had a 3.98 ERA.
Hamels' .244 batting average against ranked second behind Robert Person (.233). Hamels' opponents' on-base-plus-slugging percentage (.704) ranked first. Hamels also ranked first in baserunners per nine innings (10.73), strikeouts per nine innings (8.38) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.67).
Oh, and he owned the 2008 postseason.
Yes, Hamels went 10-11 with a 4.32 ERA in 2009.
Yes, he pitched poorly in the 2009 postseason (1-2, 7.58 ERA in four starts). But nobody enjoyed the kind of success he had in his short period of time.
Somewhere, Adam Eaton demands a recount.
I guess we can't really gripe - it's just odd that a guy with less than four full seasons would get the honor. Then again, that may be a lot of seasons for one pitcher on one team in one decade. Let's just hope he retains his title in this decade.
It's official: The 2010 Red Sox are Bill James' science experiment on defensive metrics. ... The team acknowledged the minor league signing of Brian Shouse, along with six others.
Football: I don't know when we'll post tomorrow, so I'll make my weekend football picks now so that nobody accuses me of rigging my picks when the Cardinals upset the Saints tomorrow. I'll also pick the Cowboys to upset the Vikings, but the favorites in the AFC - Colts over Ravens and Chargers over Jets.
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