Atlanta Braves: The Pros and Cons of Cole Hamels Signing
By Seth Carter
The Atlanta Braves have signed Cole Hamels to a one year, $18 million deal. We take a look at the pros and cons of this signing.
I know $18 million is a lot of cheese. My initial reaction was “how much?” I thought MLBTradeRumors.com was crazy when they predicted Cole Hamels would sign with the Atlanta Braves for $15 million… They were WAY OFF.
Give them credit, that was a great call. So now that the ink has dried on the contract and Cole is blow-drying his hair for the obligatory jersey-over-the-suit-and-tie pictures (I hate when they do that) let’s review the details of the deal, the tale of the tape, the narrative of the numbers to see if the Cole Hamels is a good signing for the Braves in 2020.
Just hold the jersey up or put on a hat or something. Don’t put it on over the shirt and tie.
Back of the Baseball Card
Age: 35 (will be 36 during 2020 season)
Major League Seasons: 14
Wins:163
Losses:121
Winning %: .574
ERA: 3.42
WHIP: 1.18
Games: 422
Innings Pitched: 2694.2
Strikeouts: 2558
FIP: 3.69
BB/9: 2.6
WAR: 59.6
4x All-Star
4x’s Finished inside top eight in Cy Young voting.
2008 NLCS MVP
2008 World Series MVP
World Series Champion 2008
2007-2015 Best Hair in Baseball
Hamels has earned $192.4 million in his 14 Major League seasons.
Cole Hamels ranks 192nd all-time in WAR.
He’s had six seasons inside the top-ten in ERA.
Hamels has a career batting average of .169 and an OBP of .195. He compares well to other hitters like Mike Zunino.
He has hit exactly 100 batters in the regular season during his career.
His 163 wins are good for 220th all-time.
Now the introductions are out of the way, let’s take a look at reasons why the Cole Hamels signing is a good thing and reasons why it could be bad. We shall get the negativity out first and end on a positive note. Please proceed to the next slide.