Phillie of the Week

As the week went on I was ready to announce Jamie Moyer as the Ramblings Phillie of the Week, but manager Charlie Manuel's erratic method of switching pitchers so often and leaving Tom Gordon in for two innings instead of Brett Myers resulting in an extra innings loss washed away a beautiful performance by veteran pitcher. Then came along Cole Hamels, who ran away with the award after his stellar performance last night.

Hamels pitched a complete game, only yielding one run and striking out 15 Cincinnati Reds en route to a 4-1 Phillies victory. With Brett Myers in the bullpen and the wait to see how Freddy Garcia is going to be, Hamels is clearly the guy who seems to be the top arm in the rotation right now. Moyer provides some good game with his strategy, but Hamels is the kid who could be the ace of the future for us. In a game in which he struck out the most batters since Curt Schilling did it in 1997 (or 1998, I forget which year I read), Hamels provided a much needed spark for the floundering Phillies.

The game also featured a major lineup change, but just because they won 4-1, it doesn't mean it's the perfect solution. Shane Victorino doesn't thrill me as a lead off man, but I'm not too upset about Aaron Rowand in the 2 spot. Hopefully when Ryan Howard comes back form his injury he can fix his game and give this lineup some juice again.

Congratulations once again to Cole Hamels, this week's Ramblings Phillie of the Week!

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I also want to give my Kevin Seal of Approval to the Penn State students and fans who wore their Virginia Tech colors to the annual Blue-White game yesterday. While the actions obviously won't change what happened down in Blacksburg, Virginia, the sentiment shown by Nittany Nation were unrivaled by any other school that I've seen thus far.

As for the Blue team, which had many starters, they better get their act together after losing 30-6 to the White team!