Know What? Cole Hamels Has Been Better Than He's Gotten Credit for in 2012

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Aside from the contract talks over the first half of the season, Cole Hamels' performance on the field has almost flown under the radar in 2012. Lost amongst the disappointing struggles of his teammates has been his impressive work.

In fact, he's accomplished something only two other Phillies pitchers ever have.

To what are we referring? Well, Hamels struck out more than a batter per inning, and finished with a 1.12 WHIP and 3.05 ERA that was 32 percent better than the league average.

Phillies hustler Corey Seidman is here to tell us what it all means:

Only two other pitchers in the 130-year history of the Phillies have had a season with as many wins, as low a WHIP, as many strikeouts per nine innings and an ERA that much better than the league average: Curt Schilling in 1997 and Cliff Lee last season.

According to Seidman, only two other pitchers in baseball had those numbers this year -- Cy Young favorites Gio Gonzalez and Justin Verlander. Lee and Clayton Kershaw accomplished the same last year, but prior to those two, no one had done it since 2007.

And as for history that goes a bit farther back:

If you want to go back even further (and I know you do!), you’ll find that only three pitchers total met those criteria in the entire decade of the 1980s: Roger Clemens, Mike Scott and Doc Gooden. Only one pitcher – Tom Seaver in 1971 – did it in the ‘70s.

The Phillies have the 28-year-old Hamels locked up for six more years at the cost of $144 million. He won a career-best 17 games in 2012 thanks to his victory yesterday, and his manager knows he'll win 20 at some point -- if not 22, if not 24. Hey, that's Charlie, folks.

Here's a question, how many pitchers in baseball would you rather have over the next six years than Hamels? Hit the comments.

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LINK: Hamels' 2012 matched by only two other Phillies [CSN]

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