Alex Anthopoulos talks about Cole Hamels going on the injured list
The Atlanta Braves placed Cole Hamels on the 10-day injured list Monday with shoulder fatigue. He will miss the rest of the season.
General manager Alex Anthopoulos got the call around 4:20 that something was wrong. Hamels had just met with the media 80 minutes earlier and did not mention any concerns or issues with his arm.
Then, he evidently went and threw on the side - not a side session but just throwing and did not feel comfortable. He then alerted the trainers, who called Anthopoulos.
Hamels was asked around 3:00 pm ET what he was hoping for in his final two starts, which were expected to be Tuesday and Sunday.
"Getting up to a really good, healthy pitch count," Hamels said. "I think when you're really able to a healthy pitch count, seeing obviously the ratios of what pitches I'm throwing, and if I'm able to kind of get a predominant higher percentage of fastballs in there, everything is going to play out fat. And then just percentage of strikes. That's really what I want to do is to throw strikes and just really plug away. And with that, that's going to build. If I'm able to build off that, you gain that sort of confidence and then you get locked it. You want to be locked in for postseason."
Does that sound like someone who a little over an hour later would determine that he could not pitch again this season?
The Braves will instead use Bryse Wilson in Tuesday's start against the Marlins. They'll move Max Fried up to Wednesday and then Ian Anderson up to Thursday.
Braves manager Brian Snitker now must deal with another starting pitcher going down with an injury that ends his season. And more importantly, he must figure out what to do when the Braves get to the postseason.
Fried and Anderson are locks to be starters, and now Kyle Wright will likely be the third starter.
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