It’s not often that a player has the opportunity to go out on top and it’s even less common for a player to go out on top while playing for an atrociously terrible team, but that’s exactly what happened for Colbert Michael Hamels in the final chapter of his Phillies career.
While reflecting on Hamels’ time in red pinstripes, I was struck by how unlikely this outcome was. As a high school senior in San Diego, Hamels went 8-0 with a 0.37 ERA and a drool-worthy 108:16 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 57 innings pitched, yet the Phillies were able to take him with their 17th overall pick.