The Rotation (4 page)

So did every other Phillies scout who stopped by that spring.

A report filed after Hamels' start on April 12, 2002, said: “See him as a Number One starter on a major-league club. Has impact-type stuff. Will
move quickly through a system. Mound presence and professional approach stand out.”

On May 3, another Phillies scouting report read: “A definite consideration at number seventeen.”

Hamels got better and better that season. In his year away from the mound, he had gotten bigger and stronger physically, and it showed in his fastball.

“I had never seriously trained, so I think the rehab helped me,” he said. “I went from 6-1, 140 to 6-3, 170. My fastball went from 85 to 91–92. I was like, ‘Wow, this is pretty sweet.' ”

Conner stayed on Hamels and all the Phillies' big scouts popped in for a look-see. Marti Wolever, who had taken over as scouting director when Mike Arbuckle moved up in the front office the previous year, watched one of Hamels' starts and told Conner, “That's our guy. Don't miss another start.” Arbuckle made a trip to San Diego and was impressed with the kid's demeanor.

“He had a way about him that said,
I've got this under control
,” Arbuckle recalled.

Less than two years after he had worried about Hamels' pitching days being over before they really started, Furtak enjoyed every pitch the left-hander threw that season. With each passing start, he saw Hamels' confidence and competitiveness grow. The kid was healthy—and really good.

“One time we were playing Torrey Pines,” Furtak said. “Cole had a no-hitter going and a guy tried to bunt on him. He was pissed.”

Hamels sought retribution. He threw at the code-breaking hitter twice, missing him both times. Hamels looked into the dugout where Furtak motioned for him to calm down. Furtak motioned for a fastball and Hamels blew the hitter away with two of them.

In another game, Furtak went to the mound and instructed Hamels to walk a batter.

“Can't I just hit him?” Hamels asked.

“Look,” Furtak said. “Walk this guy, throw the next guy three straight curveballs and you're out of the inning.”

Bingo, bango, bongo
. Hamels was out of the inning.

The game Furtak remembers most was Hamels' last one.

“It was at Montgomery High School,” he said. “Cole seemed a little out of sorts in the bullpen. He was bouncing his curveball ten feet in front of the plate. It was right before the draft and there must have been forty scouts
standing there watching him warm up. Every time he bounced a curveball, they'd write something down.”

In the dugout after warm-ups, Furtak tried to calm Hamels' nerves.

“Dude, you're going to be fine,” he said. “You'll be awesome.”

When Hamels took the mound, Furtak instructed the catcher to call a first-pitch curveball.

“It was a beauty,” Furtak said.

Hamels gave the scouts plenty to write about that day. He pitched so brilliantly that the opposing coach asked him to sign a ball after the game.

“That kid is going to be something special,” the coach told Furtak.

Even as Hamels dazzled during his senior season at Rancho Bernardo, there were skeptics in the scouting community. Conner remembers hearing his brethren from other clubs wonder how Hamels would react once he got to Double-A and was having a bad night, or a bad stretch of games. Was he tough enough to handle that adversity? Was he tough enough to make the climb to the majors?

Conner had no doubt.

“For me, coming back from that injury spoke volumes,” Conner said. “He could have went to school and I believe been a success in whatever he did. He could have ridden off into the sunset, but he fought back. The toughness question never crossed my mind. It was never a concern for me.”

The 2002 draft was a deep one. First-rounders that year included B. J. Upton, Zack Greinke, Prince Fielder, Jeff Francis, Joe Saunders, Khalil Greene, Scott Kazmir, Nick Swisher, Jeff Francoeur, Joe Blanton, and Matt Cain.

The Phillies had long liked Greinke, a shortstop-pitcher from the Orlando area who went on to win an American League Cy Young Award with Kansas City in 2009. In the spring of 2002, some folks in the Phillies organization favored using the 17
^th
pick on Greinke—if he was still there. Interestingly, the Phillies liked Greinke as an infielder. The team had come to realize that Scott Rolen's time in Philadelphia was coming to an end and some in the organization leaned toward selecting Greinke and converting him to a third baseman. In the end, it was a moot point. Greinke went off the board at No. 6.

During the time they spent evaluating Greinke at Apopka High School, Phillies scouts noticed a teammate, a young outfielder named Michael Taylor. The Phils kept an eye on Taylor throughout his college days at Stanford, drafted him in 2007, and ultimately used him as part of the package to get Roy Halladay from Toronto in 2009.

Wolever never wavered in the spring of 2002. Though he looked at many others, Hamels was the guy he wanted in the first round. But Wolever had to do some convincing before Cole Hamels could be fitted for red pinstripes. Signing bonuses had skyrocketed by 2002 and it would take an investment of at least $2 million to get Hamels out of his commitment to the University of San Diego. The case was turned over to team physician Michael Ciccotti, who was charged with reviewing Hamels' health history and deciding if he'd be a wise investment.

Ciccotti spent hours on the case. He reviewed x-rays, MRIs, and surgical reports. He spoke frequently with Fronek.

“What are you thinking?” Wolever asked Ciccotti a few days before the draft.

“I think this guy's potential upside is worth the medical risk,” Ciccotti told Wolever.

Wolever was thrilled to hear that.

Ciccotti felt comfortable making the call for a number of reasons. He and Fronek are old friends—their sons, Matt Ciccotti and Jeff Fronek, were classmates at Penn—in the fraternity of baseball team physicians and his trust for the San Diego surgeon and his work is immense. The injury, though serious, was not to the labrum or rotator cuff in the shoulder or the ulna collateral ligament in the elbow. Those are dreaded pitching injuries. This was a broken bone, in the middle of the shaft. Hamels was young and otherwise healthy. Those were all pluses in Ciccotti's mind.

The final piece of evidence that Ciccotti used in giving Hamels the thumbs-up was the pitcher's work during his senior season at Rancho Bernardo. The kid had healed, done his rehab, and come back better than ever. That was enough for Ciccotti to make the call that other teams weren't willing to make.

“The two guys most responsible for Cole being a Phillie are Marti Wolever and Dr. Ciccotti,” said Mike Arbuckle, who moved on to Kansas City's front office in 2009. “Marti really pushed for him and Dr. Ciccotti gave him the OK after a whole bunch of teams red-flagged him. Dr. Ciccotti knew Cole's doctor and knew how he was handled. He said, ‘It's not going to be
an issue,' and we were comfortable with it.”

The consensus around baseball: Hamels would have gone in the top 10, maybe the top 5, if he didn't have the medical concern.

Hamels' medical condition actually led Phillies scouts to engage in some high-stakes cat-and-mouse games before the draft. In the days before a draft, it is not uncommon for a scout from one club to call a scout from a rival club to get a feel for what that club might do with its first pick. When opposing teams asked Phillies scouts about Hamels, the Phillies scouts told strategic white lies.

“We can't take that risk,” one Phillies scout told a rival club that was considering taking Hamels before the 17
^th
pick.

On June 4, the 2002 draft began. In a basement conference room at Veterans Stadium, the Phillies scouting staff listened via conference call as the names began coming off the board. Sixteen picks were made and now there was elation in the room. Wolever cleared his throat and said, “The Philadelphia Phillies select left-handed pitcher Hamels, Colbert Hamels, from Rancho Bernardo High School, San Diego, California.”

Conner, the Southern California-based area scout who had been on Hamels all along, was at home, getting ready to go check out some players for the next year's draft when he got the news. He was elated. All those visits to the Hamels' home, all those phone calls to the pitcher the night before starts, all those days behind the backstop . . . they were worth it.

“The way the draft works, there's a lot of chance and luck that goes into it,” said Conner, still with the club as a West Coast cross-checker. “But when you get the one you want at Number One, it's pretty special. That was a very rewarding day.”

Eight pitchers went before Hamels in the draft. Only Greinke's success rivals that of Hamels. Four left-handers—Adam Loewen, Francis, Saunders, and Kazmir—went ahead of Hamels. Kazmir was selected by the Mets two picks before Hamels at 17.

The two matched up against each other in Game 1 of the 2008 World Series when Kazmir was with Tampa Bay. Hamels went seven innings and allowed just two runs. Kazmir went six innings and allowed three. It was Hamels' fourth win of that postseason and when it was over, Rob Holiday, the Phillies' assistant director of scouting, looked at his boss, Wolever, as if to say, “We got the right one.”

One of the 16 teams that passed on Hamels that June was his hometown Padres, who selected Greene, a shortstop out of Clemson with the 13
^th
pick.

In the spring of 2011, Hamels said the Padres passed on him because he was too expensive. He received a $2 million bonus and the Padres paid Greene $1.5 million.

Bill Gayton, San Diego's scouting director in 2002, disputed Hamels' claim that he was too expensive for the Padres. Gayton said his team extensively scouted Hamels, liked him, and, of course, had no medical concerns given that their team physician was the pitcher's personal doctor.

“I took our whole draft room over to watch his last start and he was impressive,” Gayton said.

According to Gayton, the Padres' decision to take Greene reflected an organizational desire to get a middle-of-the-diamond position player that could rise to the majors and make a quick impact. Greene, who was college baseball's Player of the Year in 2002, became the first position player from the 2002 draft to reach the majors when he made it to San Diego late in the 2003 season. He started at shortstop for the Padres for five seasons, but hasn't played since 2009.

As a kid, Hamels was a big Padres fan. He was angry when the Padres traded Fred McGriff. He liked watching Ken Caminiti and Steve Finley with the 1998 World Series team. And, of course, he loved watching Trevor Hoffman throw that changeup. It was his inspiration for learning the pitch. But a decade into his pro career, Hamels said he was glad that the Padres passed on him in the 2002 draft. He believes there would have been too many distractions pitching for his hometown team. And besides, he likes the passion of the East Coast.

“Now I know there is nothing better than pitching in Philadelphia in front of sellout crowds,” Hamels said in April 2011. “There aren't too may sellouts on the West Coast. There's just so much to do out there. The East Coast is the ultimate baseball experience.”

Brett Myers was a second-year major-leaguer on his way to making 32 starts for the Phillies when he started hearing about Cole Hamels in 2003.

“I was like,
Holy shit! This guy is striking out everyone
,” Myers recalled in April of 2011.

A year out of high school, Hamels looked like what scouts call a fast-tracker.
He overmatched hitters in the South Atlantic League, going 6-1 with an 0.84 ERA in 13 starts. Out of curiosity, Phils officials brought Hamels, then just 19, to Cooperstown, New York, for the annual Hall of Fame exhibition game that June. Hamels dazzled everyone with his poise and control, striking out nine Tampa Bay Rays in five innings. He moved up to the Florida State League and held his own against hitters several years older. In all, Hamels struck out 147 batters in 101 innings his first year in pro ball. He was becoming an overnight phenom and his star was about to become even brighter.