November 06, 2006
Hamels and Moyer
The Good Phight makes the case that Jamie Moyer didn't help Cole Hamels.
It turns out that Hamels' 2006 ERA hit its high point after his July 24th start, in which he was lit up for 7 ER in 5 1/3 innings. In his next five starts prior to Moyer's arrival (including the 8/19 start), King Cole went off: 1.83 ERA and 0.84 WHIP over 34 1/3 innings. So, perhaps the more meaningful comparison would be between these numbers and his post-Moyer performance. It turns out that Hamels was on a big-time hot streak leading up to Moyer joining the team, and his subsequent numbers were actually worse.
At any rate, it appears, talking heads' comments and Hamels' own lip service to the contrary, that Moyer didn't help Hamels at all.
That's not to say Moyer won't be a help in the future. It would be bad if Moyer somehow convinced Hamels to pitch to contact. Hamel's strength is his ability to strike out batters. If Jamie can teach him a new pitch that is better at fooling batters, great. But Moyer shouldn't be trying to change Hamel's approach.
Posted by David Pinto at
10:25 AM
|
Pitchers
|
TrackBack (0)
If you ask Hamels, Hamels will tell you Moyer was a help. I would imagine they are very subtle things he's helped with and it's probably hard to quantify it exactly. No matter what though, I doubt the presence of Moyer will make Hamels any more or less of a star.
Plus, as the writer says...he was on a 5 game hot streak with a sub-2 ERA. Those aren't maintainable stats, so to compare that to what he did after Moyer arrived is sort of a stupid thing to do.
Look at the comment someone left on the blog...comparing the 34 hot streak innings before Moyer arrived to 42 after he arrived. Waaay too small a sample. And the fact that that reader goes on to blame Moyer's mentorship is just ludicrous.
When God plays Doom, he enters a code to play in "Cole Hamels mode".
Being a Mariner fan here in Washington state, I was sad to see Moyer go. I would have like Moyer to stick around a little bit longer and pass on some of that pitching knowledge to Felix. Moyer is such a stand-up guy that there in no way he is going to harm or hinder Cole Hamels' development.
