Cole Hamels

On Thursday, the Philadlephia Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. completed yet another trade deadline blockbuster which may put the team back on top of the NL East in short order.

With the aquisition of former Houston Astros ace Roy Oswalt, it's arguable the Phillies now boast the best top 3 starting rotation in the National League.

The injury bug has decimated the Phillies throughout season, with only a handful of games being played using the club's top starting lineup.

The text message read: “Hollywood is starting to look like Compton.”

I got that text from a high school friend late on Friday night, April 23: the night Cole “Hollywood” Hamels gave up four home runs in a seven-batter span en route to a 7-4 loss in Arizona.

Apparently Cole didn’t realize the Home Run Derby wasn’t supposed to take place in Phoenix until July 2011.

MLB's second-half of the season is officially in full swing

Thus far, in 2010 is proving to be one for the books. With so many tight division races, fans will have plenty of excitement to keep them occupied.

When you are a fan of a team like the Philadelphia Phillies, sometimes you'd rather score 10 runs and lose than score one run and win, particularly when your team has been struggling to score runs.

Saturday was one of those days.

The Phillies lost to the Minnesota Twins on Saturday afternoon by a score of 13-10 in a wild game in which the Phillies led 9-4 going into the ninth inning and managed to blow a five run lead.  

The Phils tossed the game when four different relievers allowed runs to give the game away the Twins in the later innings.

I’m sorry folks, I think I jinxed this one. With former Phillie Jim Thome at the plate in the ninth inning with the Phillies up by five runs, I said to my dad and brother, “I wouldn’t mind if he hit a home run right here. We would still be up by three and I don’t see us losing this game.

"Plus, I kinda want Thome to have more homers than that lying steroid user Rafael Palmeiro.”

As we all know, 2010 is being called the "Year of the Pitchers." With names like Stephen Strasburg and Ubaldo Jimenez popping up all over the place, how are the Philadelphia Phillies pitchers stacking up?

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There are times when a Major League Baseball team can’t seem to catch a break, and the reasons are not so obvious.  Good news, Philadelphia Phillies fans: this is not one of those situations.

In losing Wednesday night to the New York Mets, the Phillies struggled with the same two problems that have killed them during the current eight game streak in which they are 2-6 against four inferior baseball teams.

“You can do a lot with two inches.”

That’s what my son said while pondering his binder preferences at Staples.

Maybe you can.

You can also do a lot with two pitches. Cole Hamels tossed his curve into his limited repertoire but it was his fastball and change-up that ruled the game.

As a result, Ricky Botallico said Cole Hamels has “turned the corner.”

Are you kidding me?

This just in: Roy Halladay is one of a kind.

He’s been baseball’s best pitcher over the past decade and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. With that said, most major league pitchers can probably improve themselves simply by watching Doc work his mastery on the mound like clockwork.

Halladay’s teammate, Cole Hamels, can probably learn a valuable lesson from Roy, too.

When Cole Hamels won the World Series MVP award at the tender age of 24, few doubted that he had a very promising career ahead of him. 

He was the toast of Philadelphia, the unquestioned staff ace, and the heir to Steve "Lefty" Carlton. 

The only problem was that reality intervened, and the last two years have been riddled with speed bumps for the young Hamels.