http://tinyurl.com/5vuyhr Tommy Hanson is a 22nd round draft-and-follow pick (2005) by the Atlanta Braves who has reached the heights of prospectdom through a combination of missing bats, decent control, and challenging hitters up in the zone. John Sickles of Minor League Ball reviewed Tommy Hanson in this post in May 2008, and had this to say about him: Hanson began 2007 with Rome in the Sally League, going 2-6 but with a 2.59 ERA and a 90/26 K/BB in 73 innings, with just 51 hits allowed. Promoted to Myrtle Beach at mid-season, he went 3-3, 4.20 with a 64/32 K/BB in 60 innings. The main negative here was an elevated home run rate at Myrtle Beach, with 10 homers given up in just 11 starts and 60 innings. Nevertheless, I was impressed with him and gave him a Grade B+ in the book this year, a grade for which I took some flack. Most people seemed to think he was more of a Grade B/B- type guy. 2008 has been great so far: 3-1, 0.79 for Myrtle Beach, with a 42/10 K/BB in 34 innings and just 14 hits allowed, zero homers. Yes he's repeating the league, but given the way he's dominated so far I imagine a promotion to Double-A will be in order shortly and we'll get a better read on his progress then. He's just 21 so although he's a league-repeater he isn't old for the competition by any means. Throughout 2008, Tommy has done nothing to hurt his prospect status - he ended up 8-4 with 114 strikeouts in 98 innings for the AA Mississippi Braves, throwing 138 innings across two levels along the way. Though he walked 41 batters, he is still just 21 years old and pairs a lively fastball that works from 88-92 mph with a nasty curveball, a hard slider, and a serviceable changeup. He does tend to work up in the zone, but his stuff is good enough for now that he can get away with it. Before we look at his pitching mechanics specifically, I would like to illustrate the ridiculously big split between his fastball and curve: If you are expecting one pitch and get the other, good luck fouling it off! Now, on to analyzing his mechanics... Tempo: Hanson is 24-25 frames from maximal leg lift to footplant. Since we want this to be at or under 20 frames, this is Bad. Arm Action: This is how it's done! In general, I prefer a pitcher who has an easy leg lift, a smooth equal and opposite glove arm, and a pendulum swing to the target. Also, I really like pitchers who finish aggressively. Tommy Hanson does all of the above with the exception of a slow tempo from maximal leg lift to footplant. Note how he uses a pendulum swing to take the arm from a relaxed position down, back, and up. While his pitching arm never gets perfectly vertical (he'll experience a bit more load on the elbow than someone who gets their arm up a bit more), it is past the vertical plane of his shoulders in plenty of time. Tommy does not reverse rotate the shoulders and keeps his arm on a straight driveline to the target. Not only is this a more efficient way of delivering the ball, but it will help to hide the ball from the hitter for a longer period of time - just like Greg Maddux did. When you have a crazy velocity split between your fastball and curve, it makes it all the more unfair. Very Good to Excellent arm action. Ball Release: Like I said above, I love the intent to throw hard: Still, Tommy does feature a shoulder and arm recoil that I'm not a fan of. He seems to be overly concerned about getting up and being in a good fielding position, rather than decelerating his arm safely. I'd like to see a bit more shoulder turn and movement forward. Average. Followthrough: Tommy has great glove side rotation into his frontside, but he gets lazy at the end - his glove ends up at his hip and not at his shoulder. Below Average to Average. Overall, I really like Tommy Hanson's arm action - and I do mean I really like it. I will be using it to show my students and hope that they can learn from him. I'd like to see him get a little quicker from maximal leg lift to footplant, and I'd like to see a bit better followthrough, but a clean arm action is the most important part of the delivery and Hanson definitely has that going for him. --

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