Cole Hamels AAA Debut 4/27
7 IP 3 H 0 ER 0 BB 14 K...Red Barons win 5-0
Cole Hamels' fastball was sitting in the high 80's, low 90's (play-by-play guy said he was between 88-93 all game, hitting 90-92 more often than not) - he got it up to 94 MPH on a 3-2 pitch that got Lastings Milledge looking in the bottom of the sixth, then did it again to get Chris Basak swinging in the next at bat. Hamels' 14 strikeout performance will go down as the second highest single game K total for the Red Barons - besting Matt Beech's 13 in 1997, but falling just short of Joel Bennett's (wow, that's a name I haven't heard in forever) record of 15 K's in 1999. The change was really working for him today - back to back 3-2 changeups for strikeouts early on was pretty good proof of that. Hamels whiffed every starter in the Norfolk lineup, struck out six in a row at one point, and finished strong by getting 5 of the last 6 hitters of the game to go down on strikes. Of his 98 pitches, 66 went for strikes. There were simply no negatives about Hamels' performance today...if you had to nitpick, you could mention the weak Norfolk lineup - today's lineup featured top prospect Lastings Milledge, former and future major leaguer Victor Diaz, marginal prospect slugging first baseman Juan Tejeda, and not much else.
Cole Hamels' fastball was sitting in the high 80's, low 90's (play-by-play guy said he was between 88-93 all game, hitting 90-92 more often than not) - he got it up to 94 MPH on a 3-2 pitch that got Lastings Milledge looking in the bottom of the sixth, then did it again to get Chris Basak swinging in the next at bat. Hamels' 14 strikeout performance will go down as the second highest single game K total for the Red Barons - besting Matt Beech's 13 in 1997, but falling just short of Joel Bennett's (wow, that's a name I haven't heard in forever) record of 15 K's in 1999. The change was really working for him today - back to back 3-2 changeups for strikeouts early on was pretty good proof of that. Hamels whiffed every starter in the Norfolk lineup, struck out six in a row at one point, and finished strong by getting 5 of the last 6 hitters of the game to go down on strikes. Of his 98 pitches, 66 went for strikes. There were simply no negatives about Hamels' performance today...if you had to nitpick, you could mention the weak Norfolk lineup - today's lineup featured top prospect Lastings Milledge, former and future major leaguer Victor Diaz, marginal prospect slugging first baseman Juan Tejeda, and not much else.
“The way he’s throwing today, he may not make that home appearance [in Scranton] on May 7th after all”
- Scranton radio play-by-play guy hinting at a very, very early (and unlikely) call up for Hamels
This may have been as close to perfect a start as possible for Hamels, but that doesn't mean it was all good news for the Red Barons today. More on that ominous bit of news coming up in the minor league update...
posted by XXX at 3:02 PM
2 Comments:
I wonder how Philly will handle Hamels if his success continues. When's the WolfMan coming back?
The range for Wolf's return is a wide one - I've read/heard anything from late June to late August. Some fans expect him to return to the team within that range, but I'm not one of them - I don't think he'll be back at all in 2006...just a hunch.
Big weekend for the Braves too...tonight's Pedro/Smoltz matchup should be something to see.
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