Regardless of how you feel about the recent acquisition of Cole Hamels from the Texas Rangers, here’s a couple of things you have to know about the new Chicago Cubs pitcher.
1. It’s spelled Hamels
So I know a lot of fans get this messed up because of former Cubs starting pitcher, Jason Hammel, but Cole Hamels last name is spelled H-A-M-E-L-S. Maybe us Cubs fans have issues with spelling last names that begin with an H? We had a hard time with Hammel, spelling it Hamels, Hamel, Hammels, or other variations. We for some reason also have a hard time with Jason Heyward, which is misspelled as Hayward all over Cubs fansites on Facebook or other social media posts.
2. They’re replacing Tyler Chatwood
While the pedigree suggests that Cole Hamels will be the choice over the likes of Tyler Chatwood, but the Cubs are finishing out the season with 60 games in 65 days. The Cubs also are better with Mike Montgomery in the bullpen than they are with him in the starting rotation. So while I certainly expect to see Monty start some more throughout the remainder of the season, he is a strong candidate to return to the pen. The pen, which has been battered and bruised (not saying they’ve been bad, just overused) lost another arm in Eddie Butler in the Hamels trade and with the ineffectiveness of Brian Duensing this season, Mike’s left arm will be important unless the Cubs find another reliever. So expect to see Chatwood in more starts throughout the remainder of the season.
3. Don’t rely on his ERA to tell you his story
Looking at Cole Hamels stats right now, you wouldn’t be very impressed. In fact, you’d likely say, “we traded for the left-handed version of Tyler Chatwood.” Well, that’s not entirely true. After his June 19th start (his 15th of the season) in which he gave up 1 run (unearned), Cole had a season 3.41 ERA. That marked his 8th Quality Start on the season and second time this season he was charged with no runs. Including his June 19th start, Cole had allowed 41 runs, or 2.73 a game. Then in the five starts since he has given up 29 runs, or 5.8 runs a game.
4. Texas was very very bad for him
This season, Cole is 1-7 with a 6.41 ERA and a 1.508 WHIP at home. On the road, he is 4-2 with a 2.93 ERA and a 1.229 WHIP. He was better on the road in 2017, and 2016 as well. While his splits weren’t gigantic in 2017, his 2016 splits were nearly as drastic as they are in 2018. Across his career, it hasn’t always been this bad (speaking about his Philadelphia Phillies time). This isn’t that surprising as Globe Life Park at Arlington gives up more runs and home runs than any other park in baseball.
5. Chicago has been very very good to him
In his six career starts in Wrigley Field, Cole owns a 1.76 ERA an 0.854 WHIP and yes, there was that no-hitter he tossed against the club back in 2015. With Cole’s success on the road and his incredible success at Wrigley Field. I assume that Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer did a ton of homework on this, and Cole will be a very nice addition to the Cubs rotation, if not, they really didn’t invest much in him.
