For all of Cole Hamels' accolades and achievements during his 10 seasons with the Phillies, he never finished higher than fifth in Cy Young voting.
This year, in his first full season with the Texas Rangers, he's Bovada's AL Cy Young favorite as of Sept. 1, with 2/1 odds.
Hamels is 14-4 with a 2.91 ERA in 27 starts with Texas this season. He's struck out 171 batters in 173 innings but also walked a career-worst 3.4 batters per nine innings.
Despite pitching in the tougher league, Hamels has posted the third-best ERA of his career and the third-best in the American League, behind only Aaron Sanchez and Jose Quintana. The Rangers, at 80-54, have the best record in the AL.
It really just shows that, despite the common perception in Philadelphia that the Phillies received a strong haul in exchange for Hamels, Texas is quite happy with its own portion of the trade. Hamels has made 39 regular-season starts for Texas over the last 1½ seasons and gone 21-5 with a 3.16 ERA. And keep in mind the Rangers are paying only about half of his remaining salary.
Another former Phillie, J.A. Happ, is fourth on Bovada's list of AL Cy Young favorites at 8/1, behind Corey Kluber and Chris Sale (3/1).
Happ has been remarkably consistent for another AL playoff contender in Toronto, going 17-4 with a 3.23 ERA and 1.15 WHIP in 26 starts.
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