What’s Wrong with Cole Hamels?

The Philadelphia Phillies need to take a page from the New York Yankees’ playbook.

Given a home series with the floundering Florida Marlins, the Phillies proceeded to screw the pooch over the weekend and watch their seven-game division lead fade to four, after a three-game Marlin sweep.

Meanwhile, the Yankees’ strangled their bitter rivals, the Boston Red Sox, taking four from the Sawx with timely hitting and fabulous pitching, thereby securing a firm hold of the division lead.

Speaking of pitching, what has become of Phillies’ ace Cole Hamels, who got lit up again this weekend and fell to seven-seven on the year?

The California Goldenboy who brought Rocktober back to Philadelphia by leading the Phillies to a World Championship last season has been remarkably pedestrian thus far this season. What’s up?

Is Hamels satisfied after signing for $20.5 million guaranteed this offseason?  Yes, he avoided arbitration and got his money earlier than expected, but one expects his next contract to be a monster compared to the $6.6 million he gets next year and $9.5 million in 2011.

Is he pissed off that the Phils signed fellow lefty Cliff Lee to be another horse in the rotation? 

Hamels was making some progress over the last few games before the Lee signing and went all to hell ever since.  However, one can’t imagine that Hamels minds having another stopper in the rotation to take some of the pressure off.

So what is it? Wife Heidi Strobel has a baby on the way, and they just bought a new $2.2 million mansion to house the newest Hamels…is that it? 

Or is it too much time on the banquet rounds after winning his NLDS and World Series MVP trophies, which Cole alluded to earlier in the season.

One thing is for sure, if the Phillies can’t get the Cole Hamels of October 2008 back sometime soon, a back-to-back World Series dream will fade into never never land.