Cole Hamels Talks about the Phillies

Former Philadelphia Phillie Cole Hamels was back in the area this weekend.

Garnet Valley hosted Hamels and allowed 60 kids to have a meet and greet with Hamels. Jason Groome a potential number one pick by the Phillies in the June draft was one of those kids.

Matt Gelb of Philly.com wrote about the connection between Hamels and Groome:

Hamels, without wanting to put pressure on Groome, has offered himself as a resource. The Texas Rangers ace is friends with Jeff Randazzo, Groome’s adviser and the owner of Maplezone. Consider Hamels paying it forward when he introduced Groome to Jim Brogan, a motivational speaker and former NBA player from Lower Merion who has worked with Hamels since 2009.”

The former Phillie keeps tabs of his former team. Hamels has family that lives in Newtown Square. Hamels went onto speak a little about what he’s seen lately of his former organization, specifically about how they’ve been stockpiling pitchers.

You acquire the pitching because you can always trade that,” Hamels said. “The best pitching, you keep it. Your hitters? Those are the second- and third-rounders that you need to get. Or you can easily pay them. Trust me. Every guy for the Rangers was like, ‘Oh man, we love to hit [at Citizens Bank Park].’ You can always get the hitters.”

Hamels was officially traded from the Phillies to the Rangers back in August in an eight player trade. Hamels of course was one of the main reasons that the Phillies won their world series when they did. You can check out Gelb’s full article here. It’s well worth the read.