You can begin to see the cracks forming in the collective faith that Phillies fans have had in lefthander Cole Hamels.

The same pitcher who took a city on his back and led us to a championship in 2008 that meant so much more than outsiders will ever know is the one who is now the least sure thing in the Phillies rotation.

In fact, Jamie Moyer has had better results over the last month than Hamels (3.90 ERA vs. Hamels’ 4.95), and he’s the one who has been jettisoned to the bullpen.

It’s hard to believe that the Phillies are over 20 games over .500 and very much in control of the NL East while their 2 best pitchers from the 2008 campaign (Hamels and Lidge) are going through extremely disappointing seasons.

The Phillies comfortable 6.5 game lead over the Marlins and Braves gives Charlie Manuel something he lacked in both 2007 and 2008 – a bit of a margin for error that will allow him to continue to send Hamels and Lidge back out to the mound to work on their issues.

The conventional wisdom after the Phillies brilliant trade for Cliff Lee was that Hamels would benefit tremendously from not having to shoulder the pressure of being the defending champs’ undisputed ace. Instead, Hamels has continued to struggle, and last night’s loss to the Mets was a great example of what Hamels has dealt with all year – laboring through innings, quickly ballooning pitch counts and frustration evident on the pitcher’s face.

The crux of Hamels’ woes definitely seem to be centered around a National League that is more and more comfortable with his repertoire of 2 outstanding pitches as well as Hamels’ inability to locate his pitches on a consistent basis, which is resulting in longer innings that seem to be wearing on Cole.

A review of the outstanding pitching resource PitchFx at brooksbaseball.net shows that Hamels is trying to pepper in his still unpolished curveball and a two seam fastball into his game, but he doesn’t seem to be confident using them in clutch spots. At times in 2009, Hamels seems to be reaching back for an extra MPH or 2 on his fastball, but he was throwing in the 94 MPH range at times in the 2008 postseason when he was dominating everyone.

Ultimately, all of the talk of mechanics and more is most likely red herring. Hamels is just 25 years old, and is less than a year removed from going global. His awe-inspiring 2008 postseason performance not only turned him into a folk hero in Philadelphia, but led him to many distracting responsibilities as he soon learned the price that came with wild success.

Does Cole need to hone his curveball in order to continue to improve his game? Absolutely. Tacking on a 4th pitch that he could throw here and there wouldn’t hurt, either. Does Cole need to chill out, talk to the media, and maybe pick Cliff Lee’s brain for some insight? Definitely.

But to suggest that the Phillies should consider not including Hamels in their postseason rotation is ludicrous, and stating that Cole Hamels sucks shows a lack of perspective and patience that the game of baseball demands. It is a long season, and we could be talking in 2 weeks about a remarkable resurgence by Cole that has rendered previous criticism as typical Philadelphia knee jerking.

In 1970, Steve Carlton followed up an outstanding 1969 season (17-11, 2.17 ERA) with a disappointing 1970 season for the Cardinals where the southpaw went 10-19 with a 3.95 ERA). A strong season by Carlton could have made a huge difference for a Cardinal team that finsished 76-86 and in 4th place in the National League East.

Carlton went on to have quite a career despite that forgettable 1970 campaign. Cole Hamels still has time to turn around his 2009 season, and we should have the expectation, not the hope, that he will pull it off in time for fall ball.

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For more on Cole, check out the following articles recently from the Phillies’ beat writers.

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Don’t miss Mike Schmidt’s thoughtful article on why Pete Rose should be reinstated.