I know we've done quite a few All-Star big leaguers in the Big Leaguer Breakdown segment in the past. So this Sunday, I thought it was time we gave some love to a young gun. Tommy Hanson is an up-and-coming righty whom the Atlanta Braves will be relying on this year to deliver on the promise that his first year showed. And what a first year it was. Going 11-4 with a 2.84 ERA, Tommy was limited to 127 innings, where he struck out a 116. These stats were good enough to place him third in the Rookie of the Year voting and makes him this week's Big Leaguer Breakdown.
Check out this aerial view of Tommy Hanson warming up to study his mechanics.
The first thing to notice is how smooth and calm his delivery is. Of course, some of this can be attributed to the fact that he is warming up. Still, from my experience watching him in games, his ability to repeat that smoothness does not change once the up yells "Play Ball!" Tommy Hanson, out of the stretch here, utilizes a lower leg lift than usual. You can this at the .03 mark of the video. Of course, this may just be, because he is working on being quicker to the plate out the stretch with runners on. Pitcher's must understand that the shorter the leg lift, the quicker they must get their elbows up to shoulder height before throwing their pitch. Out of the windup, a pitcher has the luxury of a high leg lift to make their timing a little slower, and possibly easier to keep "on time."
Here, we see Tommy get those elbows up almost immediately after the front knee works down and out. At the .04 mark, we see that Tommy actually lack s a little bit of the athletic position we look for with those elbows up. With his elbows up, he essentially glides down the mound to foot strike. However, this movement forward allows him to keep his front side (elbow, shoulder, and hips) on target until turning those hips.
If we look at the .20 mark, we see the hip turn beginning to bring the throwing arm forward. As we watch the video past this mark, and see Hanson's finish position. He does a good job of getting the chest over a rather straight front leg. Of course, he does bend slightly at the knee before it straightens out. As a general rule, I don't recommend locking the front knee out, but if you are flexible enough, you can still locate pitches down in the zone over top of a straight front knee.
In that same part in the video, rewatch what Tommy's glove is doing. If you've been following this blog, you'll know that I am a huge fan of a glove turn instead of pulling with the glove. Here, Tommy gets the glove tucked underneath his stomach, keeping his body online throughout the finish.
Overall, I really like Tommy's mechanics. I think if he were able to develop a bit better timing with the elbows and hips, he may be able to develop a little better velocity. However, he seems to be on the right track his ability to repeat what he does through out a long season...so we'll let him stick to what he's doing.
Until Next Time!!
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