It's Not All Cole's Fault

Prior to Monday night's rain out, the truth about Cole Hamels was revealed. Some suspected that Cole's slow start was due to an undisclosed injury. Others believed his innings increase from 2007 to 2008 had Verduccified him. Still others believed that the pressure of being the last son of Krypton weighed too heavily upon the young southpaw. As it turns out, the truth was that all of the postseason, and post-postseason, responsibilities of Being Cole Hamels had set his training schedule weeks behind. Cole is (almost) Cole again, and expects to be back in form for his Thursday start against Milwaukee. Nothing to worry about, not even that soon-to-be-reduced ERA of 11.17.

Cole has learned from his mistakes, and won't repeat them during the next offseason. But Cole doesn't deserve all the blame for his poor start. None of us are blameless. Making certain these issues don't happen after 2009:WFC II will take a team effort, and not just from those who happen to be on the actual team. We all need to contribute.

One of the offseason concerns was balance. Cole was spread thin, while the other members of the rotation were grossly underutilized. For example, the Late Show with David Letterman. Couldn't that appearance have been delegated to Brett Myers? Myers could have engaged in combat with a gang of manatees, utilizing his boxing pedigree, as well as his dazzling repertoire of pitches. Wouldn't The Ellen Degeneres Show have been well-served with a Jamie Moyer appearance? Would you purchase an issue of Sports Illustrated, if the cover story was "The Fabulous New Life of Joe Blanton?" Of course, the answer to all of these questions is a resounding YES! For best results, we need to divide the offseason responsibilities.

Another issue was travel. Cole made numerous trips from Clearwater to the Northeast for a variety of functions. As a result, he would often go days between workouts. This wasn't fair to Cole, or to the City of Clearwater. These appearances should have been at a time and place of Cole's choosing. Why can't Comcast interview him in Clearwater for their team-sponsored shows? Why can't the Resorts Atlantic City fly their high rollers to Clearwater, to meet-and-greet Cole? Why does the New York Chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America feel a need to hold their Awards Banquet in New York? Florida is MUCH nicer in January, as well as in the other eleven months. Shouldn't the BBWAA be a little less focused on all the banquets, and more focused on updating their website and/or (correctly) inducting Bert Blyleven into The Hall of Fame? Obviously, these mistakes weren't Cole's fault.

Finally, there is the adoption issue. Cole spent a lot of time in the offseason working on adopting a child from Malawi. This is time that could have been spent training. Or relaxing. The solution here is rather obvious. Who wouldn't freely surrender their first-born to Cole? If you wouldn't, you're just not a good Phillies fan. If you wouldn't prefer to have your child raised by Cole and Heidi, well, you're probably just not that good of a parent.

Phillies host the Sabathia-less Brewers Tuesday. Jamie Moyer v. Manny Parra. The Phils get to .500 tonight. Lock it up.