18 September 2008
In his last two starts, Mike Hampton has drawn the two best left-handers in the division and arguably the two best in the league, Johan Santana and now Cole Hamels. Hamels has not been well-served by his offense or his bullpen this year; he has lost 4 games and gotten 6 no-decisions in games in which he gave up 3 runs or less. And he's only won 2 games in which he gave up 4 runs or more. So that means we'll just have to score a lot of runs. That seems like a difficult task, but he has given up at least 4 runs in 10 of his 31 starts. We'll have to hope to catch him on an off day. He's tough.
Hampton... well, he's not one of the best left-handers in the division, let along the league. But he is left-handed and breathing, so by the law of WHIL (Well, He
Is a Lefty), he'll have a job in baseball as long as he wants. As long as he doesn't want more than $1 million, as far as I'm concerned, he's welcome to a spot on my team. Basically, he's auditioning for his future employer next year, much like the young call-ups on every other team.
He's got a pretty good chance tonight, since the current Phillies are hitting very poorly against him: all the Phillies on the current roster, combined, are hitting .218/.296/.319 in 136 PA, led by Jimmy Rollins (42 PA, .256/.286/.308) and my offseason fantasy Pat Burrell (40 PA, .156/.325/.250). Ryan Howard's 0-1 with a walk. Of course, that's why they play the games.
