There’s little Roy Halladay can teach Cole Hamels about fitness

Man, Buster Olney has been strongly advocating that the Phillies trade for Roy Hallady. I mean, he’s really pushing for it. You’d think he was a Phillies fan. Or maybe he has money riding on this or something?

Today, Olney gives us not one, not two, but eight reasons the Phils should acquire the Toronto ace. I’d like to take issue with this one:

Halladay could help make Hamels even better than he is. Halladay’s workout regimen is legendary, and you hear stories from guys who played with the Blue Jays about how Halladay’s approach rubbed off on them. He was a constant reminder to them of how they could be better, both in their preparation and in their conditioning, and even in how they would conduct themselves.

That reason implies that Hamels could stand to improve his conditioning. But I’d like point you to a post I did before the 2008 season, which linked to a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Hamels’ daily routine. From the Inky:

Hamels does his back program seven days a week and he’s obsessive about it. It lasts about two hours, though he may shorten it during the season. In a typical day, Hamels does 500 crunches. (No wonder his body fat is a minuscule 6 percent.) When he’s done working on his back, he moves to the baseball portion of his day and finishes with an ice bath.

“I’ll look in the mirror before bed and ask myself, ‘Did I do all I can do?’ ” Hamels said. “I’ll do 500 crunches and wonder if it’s enough. I feel guilty if I don’t feel like I’ve done enough. I get paranoid.”

500 crunches. Two hours of back exercises. 6 percent body fat.

Maybe Halladay would be good for the Phillies (how could he not be?). But I’d say Hamels’ fitness is not an issue.