Philadelphia Phillies: Could Cole Hamels Start the All-Star Game?

Although the line drive hit by the Red Sox Adrian Gonzalez unleashed a collective gasp from Phillies Nation as it hit off of Cole Hamels' hand, according to MSNBC, there was no serious damage and Hamels is scheduled to make his next start on Tuesday.

Now, the next question is, could Hamels also start the All-Star game for the National League?

I would argue that he has a very strong chance of being given the honor.

Hamels is 9-4 on the season with an ERA of 2.41 and is the only starting pitcher in the National League to have a WHIP under one (his is 0.94).

As indicated by that stat, he is very efficient at not allowing runners on base. He is ranked fifth in the National League in hits per nine innings and second in walks per nine innings.

For all of you sabermetricians, he is fourth among all starting pitchers in wins above replacement and is second in the National League.

Granted, Roy Halladay is first in that category, but I know that not everyone believes in sabermetrics, and that could limit the impact that this statistic really has on the voting anyway.

This could very well be a race between Hamels and Halladay to see who gets the start.

However, Hamels has one more advantage over Halladay.

This type of success from Halladay is what people have come to expect. He is always supposed to win almost 20 games, and he is on pace to do that which is amazing. He is 10-3 with a 2.40 ERA.

Hamels has finally stepped out of his roughly .500 records of the past few years to finally establish himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball.

I think that we all knew that Hamels could put up these numbers, so it is nice that he finally did.

He is more dominant than he ever has been, and I think that that type of improvement will be rewarded with the start.

I think that Halladay is amazing, but at the same time, I think that Hamels is a very likely candidate to be named the starter at the All-Star game because he is breaking out and securing his spot as one of baseball's best pitchers.