Rangers’ Hamels an All-Star blend of talent, competitiveness

He says that his competitive nature comes from his youth and teen years, when in San Diego he felt that he wasn’t always the most talented player and needed to work harder and put up more fight if he wanted to be among the best.

Cole Hamels was talented enough to be the 17th overall pick in 2002 and was the only prep player from San Diego County picked in the first round. It doesn’t sound like there was much competition, but whoever it was, he left them in the dust.

Maybe he was competing against players up Interstate 5 in Orange County and Los Angeles, where two prep pitchers were selected ahead of him. Maybe he was competing against the scouts who thought a broken bone in his million-dollar left arm during his junior season would keep him from being a top-flight prospect.

Maybe he was trying to compete against the San Diego Padres. Or maybe against himself.

No matter. He was better than any of his peers, regardless of where he got his competitive spirit.

“I think you’re born with it,” said Michael Young, who was Hamels’ teammate in Philadelphia in 2013. “You either have it or you don’t.”

Count the Texas Rangers’ all-time great among the teammates, former and current, who have seen the drive that helps make Hamels great. Of course, he’s oozing with talent, too.

From his natural ability, to his work between starts, to trying to one-up his fellow rotation members, to wanting to shove every time he takes the mound, Hamels is usually going to be better than the other guy.

“Having a younger brother helps, too, because you never want your younger brother to beat you,” Hamels said. “Growing up, it’s not like I was the best. I always had to fight and compete with the guys that were a little bit faster, a little bit stronger, bigger, more mature. I always had to fight. I think that’s what brought my competitiveness about.

“Once you reach a certain level, it’s just the expectations of knowing what I’m capable of doing — I’ve done it before — and then always expecting to be able to maintain it and repeat it.”

Hamels returns to the mound Friday night for his second start with the Rangers since the eight-player trade that delivered him from the Phillies. He allowed five runs in 7 2/3 innings and took a no-decision Saturday in his debut.

The Seattle Mariners’ lineup he will be facing won’t be entirely foreign to him. Hamels has seen enough of the hitters during interleague play or on video but has never faced former Rangers slugger Nelson Cruz, who once again has hit 30 homers.

But Hamels said that he will have a feel for how to pitch the Mariners, through poring over video, talking to his catchers and using the scouting report provided by pitching coach Mike Maddux.

And the three-time All-Star will have worked his tail off, displaying the kind of work ethic that trickles down to others on the pitching staff.

“With very rare exceptions, all the truly great players are similar in that their work ethics are off the chart and they want to be great,” Young said.

Then, sit back and watch.

“On the days he was pitching, it was game on at 7 o’clock,” Young said. “It was Cole’s show. He became a different guy. All he wants to do is compete.”

Once Hamels climbed through the Phillies’ farm system, he eventually was joined in the rotation by Cy Young winners Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay. Whatever Hamels hadn’t learned about competing, Lee and Halladay filled in the blanks.

They were like machines between starts, married to their routines and fiercely competitive on the mound. Hamels was a natural fit with them.

“That’s what helped create a pretty good routine when you’re able to see the veteran guys,” Hamels said. “You think you know everything, but you don’t know because you don’t have anything to compare it with. Then you get another guy who is just as machine-oriented and dedicated, and you pick things up here and there. Those guys were impactful in my thought process and my preparation.”

Hamels had plenty of it before Lee arrived midway through the 2009 season, only to be dealt away in the off-season before re-signing the next winter after helping the Rangers get to the World Series. Halladay joined the Phillies for the 2010 season.

In other words, Lee and Halladay weren’t around when Hamels helped pitched the Phillies to the World Series in 2008, beating Yovani Gallardo in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.

Hamels won three more games that postseason, two in becoming the MVP of the NL Championship Series and another in the World Series to secure MVP honors. He went 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA in five starts covering 35 innings.

For outfielder Hunter Pence, who played with Hamels in 2011 and 2012, Hamels is as good as any of the starters he has played with in stops at Houston, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

“He’s as good of a starter as anyone I’ve played with,” said Pence, the Arlington High grad and former UT Arlington star. “He’s intense, and his energy is powerful to play behind. He goes out there and gets after it. He was a World Series MVP. When you win a World Series MVP, that’s the most intense fire, the biggest stage, and he’s been the best person on that stage. That takes a very strong person.”

Unlike Lee, however, Hamels isn’t nearly as stoic all day every day between starts. Young and lefty reliever Jake Diekman, who was packaged with Hamels for Matt Harrison and five Rangers prospects, said that Hamels lets loose more than Lee ever did.

On the days of his starts, he’s dialed in, but the other four days — once he has finished his bullpen session or a high-intensity workout — he enjoys the game and his teammates.

Hamels and his wife, Heidi, launched the Hamels Foundation in 2008 to support education in Philadelphia and to build a school in Malawi, and he started Hamels Heroes in 2011 to give game tickets to military members in Philadelphia.

“He’s a great teammate,” Diekman said. “He likes to take the team out to dinner. He likes to throw a get-together for the team at his house. He’s just a good guy.”

It doesn’t always work out well for Hamels on the mound. He was only 5-7 with a 3.91 ERA before tossing his first career no-hitter July 25 at Wrigley Field, throwing a 129-pitch gem under the weight of the trade-deadline rumors.

Hamels had allowed 14 runs in 6 1/3 innings over his previous two starts. As he himself said, at some point he’s not going to live up to his standards or those that have been set for him, but he’s always going to be prepared and he will always compete.

“Even if I’ve given up 15 hits in a game, I’m trying to get the next guy out,” Hamels said. “I like to throw up zeroes. I like to strike guys out, and at the end of the game, I like when there’s a W next to the team.

“When you win as a team, it shows the type of work ethic and dedication that everybody has, and you were part of that.”

This story was originally published August 6, 2015 at 1:36 PM with the headline "Rangers’ Hamels an All-Star blend of talent, competitiveness."