Tommy Hanson hit 13 batters already

[dyoshot]

I heard this during the game yesterday. Now I am not trying to bash Hanson at all. I'm just trying to understand what he's doing now as opposed to last year that could be causing the increase. I don't know the game of baseball well enough to attempt to break it down like that, so I thought I would ask this question here. It seems like there are some very knowledgeable people who post here so maybe there is something you guys see. Any thoughts?

[Joremarid]

for whatever reason, don't know if it's mental or mechanical, he doesn't have the control that he has shown in the past.

[Ransack]

It's mechanical. I'm not sure what he's trying or has been told to do but his mechanics are all over the place. He's not getting on top of his pitches and he's falling off the mound which leaves the ball high and over the middle or low and away out of the zone. His arm slot is all over the place as well which is why he gets wild.

Step 1 for fixing his issues are to do towel drills. The drill is designed to keep the pitcher moving forward towards the batter rather than side to side. Randy Johnson used to do these a lot in his younger years when he had control issues. Tall pitchers usually struggle with this sort of thing.

Step 2 is to work on staying on top of the pitch. Joe Simpson touched on this last night (and if you can see it from the announcers booth is pretty **** glaring). Hanson is getting sloppy and letting his hand slide off the top of the ball and he's essentially getting under the ball making it float and not break the way it's supposed to. Thus the hanging sliders that are getting crushed.

Step 3 is to vary his pitch selection. Normally I don't call out McCann but he's partly to blame here. He's not working with Hanson to establish the fastball and he's calling for too many sliders. The curve needs to be worked in more and Hanson needs to go to work on perfecting a change-up. Sliders are the most overused pitch in baseball and I hate them. Pitching coaches are teaching it like it's going out of style because it's easier than teaching a good curveball. Sliders are a complementary pitch unless you have one like Smoltz used to and 99% of guys out there don't. A curve is a true out pitch and Hanson is sorely underutilizing it (it would help if he'd locate it a bit better as well.... see step 1/2).

Hanson has some of the best stuff in the game but right now he's a mess. McDowell and McCann really need to help him out right now and stay on his mechanics until he gets his groove back.

[Goodoleboy58]

im going to go with...

scouting has shown that if you crowd the plate Tommy has difficulty getting you out... hence more people crowding the plate, more struggles, and more HB... lets not make it rocket science!

[Warrior999]

To me early on in games Hanson is always trying to aim his pitches. It is like he trying to throw Darts and trying to hit certain spots. When he get to the middle innings he just relaxes and pitches. He is not trying to aim his pitches and just trusting the movement.I think it is 50% mechanical and 50% mental.

[K26dp]

90% of this game is half mental.

- Yogi Berra

[Falconsfan567]

As Don Sutton said yesterday "When Hanson comes inside sometimes it gets away from him and he hits the batter. Now would you rather him hit the batter or leave the ball out over the plate and have hit get crushed?"

Don Sutton also said "I wouldn't change a thing about Hanson. You've got to pitch inside and sometimes you're going to hit the batter."

I personally don't see what the big deal is. So he hits batters. Better to make a mistake too far inside than out over the plate and have it get crushed.

If batters have a problem with it then they need to back the **** up off the plate!

[nobkowski]

Very true, but we don't need those batters on base; so the best thing is to get that inside pitch under control.

I'm not an expert so I'm not gonna attempt to state how.

[K26dp]

I'm not an expert so I'm not gonna attempt to state how.

That doesn't stop the rest of us.

[dyoshot]

Thanks for all the great answers guys. Chris Domino mentioned yesterday that his fear is not that he keeps hitting batters, but he gets afraid to throw inside pitches. I don't think that will happen with him though.

[muskokas finest ©]

Maybe he is the 4th Hanson brother?

[K26dp]

Maybe he is the 4th Hanson brother?

Mmmm... no.

[Falconsfan567]

Thanks for all the great answers guys. Chris Domino mentioned yesterday that his fear is not that he keeps hitting batters, but he gets afraid to throw inside pitches. I don't think that will happen with him though.

Nope. If Hanson were worried about hitting too many batters he would have stopped coming inside a long time ago. The BEST thing about Hanson is that he is fearless on the mound. I love that the most about Hanson. No batter in baseball scares him the least little bit.