Cole Hamels: Phillies Need to Learn from Brewers’ Mistake Not Trading Fielder

Cole Hamels should be traded, the sooner the better. 

It is the only way for the Phillies to keep their present backslide from turning into an outright collapse.  Coming off the heels of five terrific seasons, this team and this season have the feel of a once really great party that is now degenerating into chaos.

From 2007-2011, Phillies fans loved the five straight division titles.  They loved the 102 wins last season.  Heady days.  For the last five years, it was a bottle service blowout where miraculously the longer the party went on, the hotter everyone seemed to get. 

Every time the action started to flag, someone else better than the previous player walked through the door. 

“Brett Myers had to leave.  Oh, but look, it’s Brad Lidge.”  “Jamie Moyer said he was tired, he went home.  But Roy Halladay just showed up and brought Cliff Lee with him!”  “Chase Utley says his knee is bothering him and he needs to go crash in the back bedroom.  Thankfully, Hunter Pence’s date went home with a stomach virus so he came after all!” 

Time after glorious time, whenever it looked like the show might finally be over, Ruben Amaro Jr. came through with another signing, another trade, another move to keep the music playing.

Unfortunately, it is becoming horribly apparent that in propping the “we can win a title” window open for as long as possible, the Phillies exposed themselves to that phenomenon most party-goers can relate to.

For the Phillies, now, that same rollicking fiesta that carried them for five years has gone to a dark place.  It is 2:55 a.m.  The beautiful people who formed the epicenter of the good times have started falling asleep in corners or leaving altogether. 

Halladay is 4-5 with an ERA (3.98) that has not been this high since 2007.  Right now, of course, he is not pitching at all.  Lee is 0-3 and doesn’t even win when he shuts the Giants out for ten innings or is staked to three-run leads. 

And Utley and Ryan Howard sneaked out the back door; people are saying they are coming back, but you can only believe that if/when you see it. 

The Phillies are six games under .500.  Guests are leaving in droves: See the empty seats at Citizens’ Bank Park, which figure to be pronounced this week home to the Colorado Rockies.

Lee will win a game this season.  Halladay will pitch again this season.  Utley and Howard will play again this season.  Unfortunately, by the time they all come back to the party, the lights will already have been turned off.  It is over. 

It is not that they are nine games back in the division—they have to pass four teams to get back to the top from last place.  It is not that they are five games back in the wild card standings—they have to pass seven teams to get there.

There is no way to save 2012.  The time has come to work on saving 2013 and beyond.  Ironically, that process starts for the Phillies with trading this season’s most valuable player.  Cole Hamels must go.

He is both an elite talent and a proven playoff performer.  As the playoff contenders sort themselves out, teams will fight over Hamels.  They will do so as much to keep him away from other contending teams as they will to secure his services for themselves. 

The Phillies can jump-start the process of re-stocking their depleted farm system by igniting a bidding war for a World Series MVP.

This will be a bitter pill for the Phillies, as Hamels is home-grown.  Their fans will not like it any better. 

Trading Hamels will be the flying white flag the fanbase has not seen in almost a decade.  And he will be missed.  Here is the thing, though: Phillies fans can begin missing Hamels now or in November, when Hamels signs for eight years and $150M with the Dodgers, or the Yankees, or the Rangers.

If the Phillies need proof that this is the right move, they need only look directly behind them in the wild card standings.  There sit the Milwaukee Brewers, behind the Phillies only in winning percentage. 

The Brewers had the chance to sell Prince Fielder to the highest bidder at last season’s trade deadline.  They kept him, ultimately getting nothing of real value for Fielder when he signed with the Detroit Tigers in the past offseason.

The Brewers’ choice was defensible in that, with Fielder, the 2011 Brewers were an excellent team.  They won 96 games, they won their division, they won a playoff series.  With Fielder leaving, the Brewers likely knew that their 2011 iteration was their last best chance to win.  So they went for it. 

Conversely, the 2012 Phillies aren’t great…heck, they are not even good.

A year later, the Brewers are in a downward spiral and looking like sellers (Zack Greinke?) at the deadline themselves.

While they are at it, the Phillies could also consider parting with Shane Victorino and 2011 deadline darling Pence.  Whatever it takes to get younger, cheaper and eventually more competitive.

Nobody likes working through the housecleaning after the party ends.  Without it, though, stuff will really start to stink.

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com