Chicago Cubs: Cole Hamels this year’s Justin Verlander?
By Nick Reid
Chicago Cubs get an extra month
One difference between the Hamels trade to the Cubs and the Verlander trade to the Astros is when they took place; Chicago picked up Hamels days before the July non-waiver trade deadline, while JV was acquired by the Astros just minutes prior to the waiver trade deadline in August.
The Cubs are getting an extra month out of Hamels than the Astros did with Verlander, but that works for the purpose of comparing the two. Verlander made as many starts (and thrown the same number of innings) in the regular season for Houston as Hamels has had so far for the Cubbies, so let’s see whose post-deadline, pre-postseason campaign was better: ’17 Verlander or ’18 Hamels?
In Verlander’s five starts with the Astros last September, he went 5-0 with a 1.09 ERA. Additionally, JV had a 0.65 WHIP, 4.50 Hits/9, and .272 opp. slugging %. Hamels has the edge in ERA and SLG%, while Verlander has a significant advantage in WHIP and Hits/9.
Looking beyond the surface, Verlander bests Hamels in K/9 (11.38 vs 7.94), BB/9 (1.32 vs 2.21), BABIP (.194 vs .286) and OPS (.464 vs .501). Meanwhile, Hamels leads in an abundance of counting stats such as extra-base hits allowed, grounded into double plays, pickoffs, and pitches/inning. Hamels has also gotten significantly less run-support than Verlander’s Astros gave him — the red-hot Houston bats averaged 6.88 RS/9 while Hamels’ Cubs have provided him 4.5 RS/9.
Based off of the numbers, Verlander had a better first month with the Houston Astros than Hamels has had with the Chicago Cubs, but only by a narrow margin. Now, what about comparing each of their best single-game performance in the same time span?
Peak starts favor Verlander
When determining Hamels’ strongest outing, look no further than this past Thursday. His 387th start was perhaps his second-best pitching performance ever, as Cole stymied the Cincinnati Reds to 1 run, 2 walks while punching 7 batters out en route to the 17th complete game of his storied career.
Hamels’ best start with the Chicago Cubs was impeccable, but Verlander’s top outing for the ’17 Astros is arguably more impressive. After thriving in his debut, JV made a fantastic second impression with his new team as he tossed an eight-inning, scoreless one-hitter. Along with that, Verlander gave up just one walk and struck out nine Los Angeles Angels hitters, with that game going down as one of the top outings of Verlander’s 200-win career.