Sample Player Profile Page

HAMELS, COLE


Nickname:	N/A	Position:	P
Home:	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Team:	PHILLIES
Height:	6' 4"	Bats:	L
Weight:	195	Throws:	L
DOB:	12/27/1983	Agent:	John Boggs
Birth City:	San Diego, California	Draft:	Phillies #1 - 2002 - Out of Rancho Bernardo H.S. (San Diego)
Uniform #:	35

YR	LEA	TEAM	SAL(K)	G	IP	H	SO	BB	GS	CG	SHO	SV	W	L	OBA	ERA
2003	SAL	LAKEWOOD		13	75	32	115	25	13	1	1	0	6	1		0.84
2003	FSL	CLEARWATER		5	26	29	32	11	5	0	0	0	0	2		2.73
2004	FSL	CLEARWATER		4	16	10	24	4	4	0	0	0	1	0		1.13
2005	FSL	CLEARWATER		3	16	7	18	7	3	0	0	0	2	0		2.25
2005	EL	READING		3	19	10	19	12	3	0	0	0	2	0		2.37
2006	FSL	CLEARWATER		4	20	16	29	9	4	0	0	0	1	1		1.77
2006	IL	SCRANTON/WILKES		3	23	10	36	1	3	1	1	0	2	0		0.39
2006	NL	PHILLIES	$327.00	23	132	117	145	48	23	0	0	0	9	8	0.237	4.08
2006	SAL	LAKEWOOD		1	5.2	3	3	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.176	1.59
2007	NL	PHILLIES	$400.00	28	183.1	163	177	43	28	2	0	0	15	5	0.237	3.39
2008	NL	PHILLIES	$500.00	33	227.1	193	196	53	33	2	2	0	14	10	0.227	3.09
2009	NL	PHILLIES	$4,350.00	32	193.2	206	168	43	32	2	2	0	10	11	0.273	4.32
2010	NL	PHILLIES	$6,650.00	28	181	161	183	53	28	1	0	0	9	10	0.237	3.18

PERSONAL:
Cole has an aunt in Delaware who is a huge Phillies fan. In 1998, when the San Diego Padres clinched the National League West on September 13, a 14-year-old lefty was among the 60,823 excited fans at Qualcomm Stadium.	And Cole Hamels, who cheered that day from his lucky perch in the owner's box, wondered if someday he too might pitch there. With Qualcomm Stadium now home only to the Chargers, Hamels had to make his San Diego debut at PETCO Park. Cole grew up about 25 minutes north of PETCO Park and graduated from Rancho Bernardo High School, also the alma mater of Texas third baseman Hank Blalock. He remembers former Padres Gary Sheffield, Bip Roberts and Fred McGriff, and emulated Kevin Brown, Andy Ashby and Sterling Hitchcock. His favorite player was Tony Gwynn, however.

Watching closer Trevor Hoffman baffle hitters with his changeup taught Hamels something else. "He was definitely the guy I watched a lot," Hamels said. "He had a big impact on that pitch. He would throw that pitch so much where they knew it was coming and still couldn't hit. That had a big impact on me."	It's not a coincidence that Hamels' best pitch is his changeup. (Ken Mandel-MLB.com-7/16/06) Hamels mother, Amanda is a teacher, and his father, Gary, works as an assistant school-district superintendent. Cole and one of his best friends, Scott Lonergan played a lot of beach volleyball. "Cole and I were probably the most killer two-on-two beach volleyball combo ever to hit Del Mar," Lonergan said. "We'd fuel up with burritos from Roberto's Taco Shop and then we'd go out and just dominate." Lonergan pitched in the Red Sox organization in 2008.

Not long after he signed his first pro contract, Cole's teammates gave him the nickname of Hollywood Hamels. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DUDE Hamels was like most Southern California kids. He liked to sleep until noon, then go hang out at the beach. Cole enjoys playing beach volleyball at Del Mar Beach with his friends, then cook out and ride a body board. For music, he goes for L.A.-based rock band Lifehouse. He also likes punk, rap, rock and even country music.	He likes to go to movies, then grab a burger at In-N-Out or feast at local Mexican restaurant Sombrero's. "My hobby is watching movies," Hamels said. "I'm trying to be the Siskel & Ebert of the team." His favorite actor is Matt Damon, and favorite actress is Angelina Jolie. Cole likes to surf, play computer games, beach volleyball. He has developed a fondness for country music, expecially Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban. But his favorite music is actually alternative rock.

Hamels worked out three times a week with fellow-Californian and pitcher for the Cubs, Mark Prior, during the off-season before 2003 spring training. Cole said he picked up a lot about pitching from him. In 2003, Cole was named the winner of the Paul Owens Award, given the best pitcher and position player, respectively, in the organization's minor league system.	In 2003, Hamels was USA Today Sports Weekly's Minor League Pitcher of the Year. And Baseball America ranked Cole as the #1 prospect in the Phillies organization, entering the 2004 season. And before 2005 spring training, the magazine had Cole as the 3rd-best prospect in the Philadelphia farm system. In January 2005, Cole was involved in an incident at a Clearwater bar called Razzel's Lounge. It almost sidelined his career before it started. At Razzel's, four quarters will buy you two tablets identified by the handwritten sign on the men's-room vending machine as MAX AROUSE SEX STIMULENT (sic). There's cold J�germeister on tap, and the SMOKING PERMITTED signs on the front doors serve as more of an enticement than a warning. In short, Razzel's, which is located in a strip mall across a side street from the original Hooters restaurant, is not the kind of establishment the Phillies like their players to frequent. In fact, the organization has for years assessed a $500 fine to any minor leaguer whose car is spotted in the parking lot.

It was in that lot, however, that Hamels broke his pitching hand during a brawl between a handful of minor leaguers and a few Clearwater residents. One of the latter, a young man named T.J. Ferrol, hit on the girlfriend of Edward Buzachero, a member of the Blue Jays organization. The groups exchanged insults and eventually punches; in the end a friend of Ferrol's was thrown into a nearby lake and Ferrol himself was stomped on and kicked in the face. He was hospitalized and received eight stitches beneath his left eye. "I swear there were eight guys beating me up," says Ferrol, who is now 27 and works in customer service at the Men's Wearhouse in Clearwater, "but maybe with all the punches it just felt like eight."	The Phillies' general manager at the time, Ed Wade, was apoplectic ("I've never been yelled at like that in my life," says Hamels) and rescinded the young pitcher's invitation to big league camp, where he wouldn't have been of much use anyway with a fractured hand. The other Phillies minor leaguers involved in the fight, lesser pitching prospects Lee Gwaltney and Beau Richardson, were released�the former almost immediately and the latter during the season. "We try to treat all of our players fairly," says Phillies G.M. Ruben Amaro, who was then an assistant to Wade, "but some players we treat more fairly than others." (Hamels still counts Gwaltney and Richardson as friends.)

Ferrol declined to press charges. "Both sides were partying," he says. "It happens. If I had pressed charges, maybe the Phillies would have dropped [Hamels] and he would have never made the World Series. I'm an athlete too�I play soccer�and we have to stick together. I hope Hamels knows that I have no hard feelings." Those close to Hamels consider the fight an aberration ("He's a cruise ship, not a battleship," says Lonergan), an expression of fraternal loyalty more than anything else, but Hamels recognizes the damage the incident did to his reputation. "What I would do now is just get away," he says. These days his idea of a big night is watching DVDs with Heidi. "We've got The Dark Knight," he says. "We've got The Duchess...." (Ben Reiter-Sports Illustrated-2/23/09)	Before the 2006 season, Baseball America had Hamels back at the top�as the Phillies top prospect in their farm system. CELEBRITY WIFE When Cole was called up to the Phillies on May 10, 2006, the first call he made after his callup went to girlfriend, Heidi Strobel, the "Survivor: Amazon" contestant and August 2003 Playboy cover girl. (They met during a 2004 exhibition game in Clearwater, Florida.)

Next call? His parents. "I know my Mom won't like that," Hamels said. When Hamels met Heidi Strobel in 2004, his name was familiar only to the most devoted Phillies fans and baseball draftniks, while she already had a firm understanding of life in the public's unforgiving gaze�and how to prosper in it. A year earlier she had appeared as a contestant in Survivor: The Amazon, the sixth season of the reality TV series. (She finished fifth, but she and the competition's eventual winner, Jenna Morasca, became famous for taking off all their clothes in return for some Oreos and peanut butter.) By the end, she says, she weighed 70 pounds and was paralyzed from the waist down for almost a month due to a bite from a poisonous spider. After the show aired, she parlayed her fame (VH-1 ranked her Survivor stripping as the 12th-greatest moment in the history of reality TV) into a cover appearance with Jenna in the August 2003 issue of Playboy, in addition to a variety of other profitable gigs. One of those took Heidi to Bright House Field, the home of the Class A Clearwater (Fla.) Threshers. Hamels, who had received a $2 million signing bonus as the 17th overall pick in the '02 draft, out of Rancho Bernardo (Calif.) High, was spending most of the '04 season at Clearwater on the disabled list due to elbow tendinitis.	Cole approached Heidi at the urging of two of the ballpark's security guards. ("I told him, 'She's a pretty girl, she don't drink, she don't smoke�you should meet her,'" recalls one of the guards, Woody Woodard.) Within a few weeks, after Cole had flown to her hometown of Buffalo, Mo., they were dating. They were married in 2006, on New Year's Eve. "Part of what attracted me was how mature he was," Heidi says. "I didn't know he was young"�she is five years his senior�"I thought we were the same age." (Ben Reiter-Sports Illustrated-2/23/09)

On December 31, 2006 (New Year's Eve), Cole married his wife, Heidi, in her hometown of St. Louis. Asked about when he met Heidi, Cole said, "She had an appearance when I was in A-ball in Clearwater (in 2004); it was Survivor day at the ballpark. I went to get her autograph, and I asked her out. She said yes, if I'd come to Missouri -- Springfield, where she's from. I flew out two weeks later. We went to a concert and a movie: Cellular. I still have the movie-ticket stub."	Hamels grew up watching Trevor Hoffman close out games for the Padres, entering to "Hell's Bells," while coming out of the bullpen to the mound. Hearing this, Hoffman took an interest in Hamels. "Absolutely," Hoffman said. "Once there's a connection, it's fun to watch. It becomes part of the territory. You stick around long enough, some of these kids will grow up and make it to the big leagues before you're out of there. It's cool that I've been able to stick around long enough and have an impact on somebody who wasn't just dreaming about being in the big leagues."

Hamels did that, too, but made it a reality in May 2006. A little more than a year later, the two became All-Star contemporaries. "He's one of the up-and-coming guys in the leagues," Hoffman said after watching Hamels' duel with co-ace Chris Young. "Believe the hype, man. He's a good kid. He's utilizing a mid-90s fastball to go along with a curveball and a [changeup]. The main thing is, he realized that the changeup is an effective pitch. He's appreciative of the game and respectful of guys who have come before him. It was neat to meet him in San Francisco [at the 2007 All-Star Game]."	During the offseason before 2008 spring training, Cole worked out with legendary pitching instructor Tom House. Actually, Hamels has been working with House since he was 14 years old. As far as learning the game from a teammate, Hamels says he learned the most from Jamie Moyer. In January 2008, Cole took a vacation to Australia. In 2008 spring training, Cole was asked what he was shooting for for the upcoming season. "I'd like to get the Cy Young this year," he said. "But I know there's some steep competition out there. There are some great pitchers in the National League, especially with [Johan] Santana and [Dan] Haren coming over."

Hamels, who has not pitched a no-hitter at any level of play, has carried no-hit bids into the seventh inning each of the last two seasons. "I'm striving for it," he said. "It's exciting. I want the fans who watch me pitch coming to the ballpark thinking I might throw a no-hitter that night. I definitely want one. And I want it to be on a nationally televised game with a sellout crowd." If Hamels can stay healthy�no small hurdle when he has yet to make it through a full season without a trip to the disabled list�rack up some 20-win seasons, win a Cy Young award or two, toss in a no-hitter, and a have some postseason success, he might one day be worthy of the Hall of Fame.	"Being in the Hall of Fame shows you did really well for a long time," he said. "That's something I want. I don't want to be out of the game in the snap of a finger. I want to do well for a long time." Asked where his inner drive comes from, Hamels said, "Growing up and being a boy, you always want to be good at something, whether it's in the classroom or on the playground," the San Diego native said. "Sports just came easily for me, easier than the classroom. Instead of homework, I'd be in the backyard throwing a baseball. "I realized when I was young that I had some baseball talent, and I always wanted to be the best. My parents always told me, 'Life passes quickly. Go out and give everything all you can.' I guess that's what drives me." (Jim Salisbury-Philadelphia Inquirer-3/02/08)

One of Hamels' favorite parks is Great American Ball Park. "This is one of my favorite parks," he said. "A lot has happpened here. When you feel really comfortable at a field, it's always exciting to go there." Myers attributes Hamels' favor to Great American Ball Park's high pitcher's mound. "I think it's the tallest mound in the league," he said. "The angles that I pitch from, to their eye, I don't think they can register the ball as well." Cole says if he wasn't a baseball player, "I would probably have to be into something that has to do with exercise. So, I might have been a physical education teacher, a personal trainer, or something in that sort of department."	After his baseball career, Hamels said, "I hope it's relaxing. I also hope I'm able to make a difference with kids. Not just teaching them about baseball skills, but life skills." As of the start of 2009 spring training, Cole and his wife, Heidi, were in the process of trying to adopt a child from Ethiopia. "I think it's going to be a real fun experience for us," Hamels said. "It's a grueling process we have to go through to see if we're fit parents. If I can bring a kid into this life and provide for somebody that doesn't have everything that is involved with growing up - it's about trying to help someone out." Heidi started a company with her sister, Dawn, called sistasshirts.com. They pproduce and sell inspirational T-shirts for female runners. Heidi is a dedicated runner with a master's degree in exercise physiology.

Cole is humble and quick to laugh at himself. He casts himself as the rube in many of the personal stories he tells. There was the time that shortstop Jimmy Rollins and a few other teammates invited him to play cards on the team plane. ("I was like, 'Sure, I know how to play poker,' but it wasn't poker, and the next thing I know, all my meal money's gone.") And the misunderstanding over the 2010 Chevy Camaro he won as the World Series MVP and promised in a postgame interview to give to Heidi. ("I kept waiting for them to deliver it, so I finally called and they said you have to order it online, and it'll take eight months. I was like, I thought I just got the one that was on the field!") And the awe with which he still remembers his Letterman appearance, because of the chopper ("I'd never been in one before!") and because actor Paul Rudd, a guest on that night's show, congratulated him backstage. ("I was like, You, Paul Rudd, watch baseball? And you know who I am?") (Ben Reiter-Sports Illustrated-2/23/09)	Cole and Heidi celebrated the birth of their first child, a son, Caleb Michael, on October 9, 2009. The couple still intends to travel to Ethipoia to adopt a child. "We're going to adopt a girl, and it will be great for her to grow up with a brother. They'll be like twins," Cole said. Hamels and Strobel have shown a consistent interest in Africa. The Cole Hamels Foundation aims to improve education in American inner cities as well as in Malawi, where the couple initially planned to adopt a child. But Malawian rules require parents to live in the country for a year before adoption, so the family turned to Ethiopia. TRANSACTION REPORT June 2002: The Phillies chose him in the first round, out of Rancho Bernardo High School in San Diego. Cole signed on August 23, receiving a $2 million bonus. He was signed by scout Darrell Conner.

January 17, 2009: Cole and the Phillies avoided salary arbitration and agreed to a 3-year, $20.5 million contract.

PITCHING:
Hamels is a strong lefthanded pitcher. His lively FASTBALL is in the 90-94 mph range. He also has a good overhand CURVE that he usually has excellent command of, now. And he has an excellent circle-CHANGEUP that especially baffles righthanded hitters as it sinks and fades aways from them, keeping them off-balance. He also has a CUTTER. His change is one of the best you will see in all of baseball. He has excellent control of it. His motion is so deceptive that hitters rarely get a good swing even when they know it is coming. Cole developed that changeup after hs broke his pitching arm when he was a junior in high school. He got the grip from his high school coach, who got the grip from carefully watching Greg Maddux use it.	Cole's most devastating changeups fade, starting over the middle of the plate and flopping through the lefthanded batter's box before it is caught. Sometimes it rides the other way, running in on a righthanded hitter. Cole has fine mound presence and solid mental makeup. He is confident out there on the hill�businesslike in his approach. His smooth, easy delivery comes from solid mechanics. He has a very good feel for the pitching craft and impressive poise. He doesn't get real high or real low, not letting his emotions show if he is having a great day or a lousy one. What really sets Hamels apart is that he throws all three of his pitches from the same release point. It is devastating to a hitter when all three pitches look just like a fastball and two of them aren't.

He has exceptional control. He can throw his fastball or changeup in any situation with good location. Hamels has great life on his pitches. And all of his pitches are high quality�a rarity. BREAKDOWN VS. LEFTIES AND RIGHTIES In 2006, this lefty thrower held lefthanded hitters to a .207 average with 4 home runs in 92 at-bats. Righthanded batters hit .244 with 15 home runs in 401 at-bats. In 2007, lefthanded hitters hit .247 with 2 home runs in 97 at-bats. Righthanded batters hit .236 with 23 home runs in 590 at-bats against Cole. In 2008, Cole allowed a .262 average with 12 home runs in 210 at-bats vs. lefthanded hitters. But he held righthanded batters to a .215 average with 16 home runs iin 642 at-bats.	In 2009, Hamels held lefthanded hitters to a .242 average with 7 home runs in 161 at-bats. Righthanded batters hit .282 with 17 homers in 593 at-bats. At the start of the 2010 season, Hamels had a career record of 48�34 with a 3.67 ERA, having allowed 96 home runs and 679 hits in 736 innings.

FIELDING:
Hamels has a very good pickoff move. He has worked hard at fielding his position and at holding runners on base. He now does both very well. Cole is a good hitter for a pitcher. In 2008, he had 17 hits and a .224 batting average.

CAREER INJURY REPORT:
2001: Cole broke the humerus bone in his pitching arm while throwing a pitch and missed all of the high school season. "I delivered a pitch and heard a pop," Hamels said. "I was stunned. I didn�t know what had happened or what to do. I was in so much pain. But I still thought it was some kind of muscle injury." It wasn't. It was the same type of injury that ended the careers of major leaguers Dave Dravecky, Tom Browning and Tony Saunders. (Those who were in San Diego the night Browning broke his arm will never forget the sound. It was like the limb of a tree had been snapped. And the tremendous pain Browning was in was obvious.) No pitcher has made it back from this injury, though Saunders tried. He broke his arm May 26, 1999, while delivering a pitch for the Devil Rays against the Rangers. After extensive rehab, he tried a comeback late in the 2000 season. But after four appearances, he fractured the same bone while pitching for Class A St. Petersburg. Saunders had a spiral fracture high on the arm, near his shoulder. Doctors say that�s the worst possible. He first injured the arm in an off-the-field accident before aggravating it while he was pitching. Hamels had a butterfly fracture closer to the elbow. Jan Fronek, the Padres� team physician, told Hamels his type of fracture and his youth�the fact that his growth plates will help the bone heal stronger than before�are on his side. Hamels had surgery the day after the injury. Pins were inserted and he was in a cast for two months. The arm was in a sling for two more months. After that, Fronek placed the arm in a brace, fearful something as simple as a bump walking to class would set his patient back. Hamels resumed throwing in the fall of 2001, under the guidance of former Texas Rangers pitching coach Tom House.	2003: Hamels pulled a muscle behind his right shoulder, costing him a spot on the U.S. Olympic qualifying team. April 2004: Cole was sidelined for over a month with discomfort in his elbow. He overthrew the ball in spring training in March, when he struck out out Derek Jeter and A-Rod in an exhibition game. He hurt his left triceps muscle, but didn't tell anyone he was hurting. June 10, 2004: Hamels was diagnosed with an inflamed joint in his left elbow, missing a few more starts. July 2004: After being limited to just four starts because of inflammation in his elbow, Cole told assistant general manager Mike Arbuckle that he felt a twinge in the elbow during an intrasquad game early in big league spring training camp. "It was his first big league camp and he didn't want to say anything," Arbuckle said. "Had he said something, we might have been able to head this off sooner." At his request, Hamels was examined by Dr. James Andrews, who concurred with Phillies doctors: Hamels had an elbow strain, showed no structural damage and needed rest.

January 29, 2005: Cole broke his left hand in what the Phillies described as an altercation in Florida. It was a fight outside a Clearwater bar about 2 a.m. on January 29 as Hamels and four friends, two Phillies minor leaguers and two Toronto Blue Jays minor leaguers, left a club called Razzels, on Gulf to Bay Boulevard. "We got attacked from behind," Hamels said. "Some of the guys who did it were really drunk. We were just trying to protect ourselves." Cole said he was the designated driver. However, Clearwater police had a different story, saying the fight came after Hamels and his friends drove up in a sport-utility vehicle, exited, and started attacking a man with whom they had had words inside the bar. Hamels told police that he hurt his hand while defending himself after he and his fellow players were jumped inside the bar.	"With Hamels being untruthful, he was asked to sit down while I talked with the other person," wrote Clearwater police officer David Marshall in the 12-page report. There was a fight inside the bar, but it was strictly verbal, witnesses told Marshall. Edward Buzachero, one of Hamels' friends and a player in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, told the officer that a bar patron started calling Buzachero's girlfriend names. Hamels, Buzachero, and the other players left, Marshall's report states. The intoxicated patron followed them outside, and the bar's security workers separated him from the players. Then the players left in a black SUV, the report says. But as the man, identified in police reports as Thomas Ferrol, was about to get into a vehicle with a friend, Hamels drove up in the SUV, and all of its occupants got out and started fighting with Ferrol. Ferrol's brother, thinking they were outnumbered, joined the fray, police said. He had surgery February 3 and started the 2005 season on the D.L. Dr. Randall Culp, a hand specialist aligned the fracture with an intermedullary pin. The pin was removed three weeks after surgery. The break was of the fifth metacarpal, the bone that leads to the pinkie on his left hand.

"You can't change the past," he said. "You can only really change the future. It's a life lesson, but I can't do anything about it except make sure it doesn't happen again in the future. I definitely learned a big lesson. I'm more aware of my surroundings, and basically realizing that baseball is my life, this is what I want to do, and to do it I have to protect myself and make sure I do everything I can to make sure I get there. "It's a definite shock," Hamels said of the attention. "You don't think it'll get blown up that big. It sounded like I was the biggest factor in the fight, but I really seriously was just the smallest person involved... . I'm a little higher profile than somebody else my age. I guess I obviously didn't think that at that point. I kind of knew it, but it hadn't really set in. But now it's set in. This is who I am, and this is the way I need to act, as a professional and as a mature 21-year-old."	August 2005: Hamels was on the D.L. with what was thought to be a stress fracture in his lower back. It is a chronically sore lower back, but was rediagnosed in December 2005. It was a degenerateive disk that puts pressure on a nerve. "I've got an odd back compared to most people," Hamels said in February 2006. "The joint in my lower back just works differently. But I'm on a good program now and it shouldn't be a problem." "Cole will have to manage the condition of his back all through his pitching career." - Phillies General Manager Pat Gillick - January 2006 In his words, Hamels has a degenerative disk that can put pressure on his sciatic nerve. He also has what he calls an extra vertebra "because something that was supposed to fuse didn't fuse." Obviously, there's a lot going on down there and that calls for heavy maintenance work.

"He does exercises I've never seen," Smith said. "Sometimes he looks like a yoga teacher. He's on the mat. He uses an inflatable ball. He uses machines. "It's amazing to see a guy that young work that hard. You do those exercises over and over for a couple of hours - there's no way it can be fun. May 19-June 7, 2006: Hamels was on the D.L. with a strained left shoulder. August 16, 2007 Hamels was on the D.L. with a mildly strained left elbow after feeling discomfort during his start vs. the Nationals. On April 28, 2009, a grade one sprain (the least serious of sprains) of his left ankle and had to miss a start.