New Look Tommy Hanson
April 6, 2012 at 10:03 am by Ben Duronio under Atlanta Braves, PITCHf/x
Tommy Hanson made his first start of 2012, unveiling his new two-seam fastball for the first time in game action. He also focused on his curveball early, as he was generating a ton of downward movement. PITCHf/x charts are better used over full season samples and even then differences should always come with the disclaimer that the system consistently changes year-to-year. I wanted to take a look at Hanson’s “new delivery” as well as the addition of his two-seamer and look at how his release point and movement have differed with the new additions.
Hanson’s Release Point in 2011:
Hanson’s Release Point in 2012:
From the one start, it looks like his new delivery may have slightly altered his release point. Again, this is just one sample taken from one PITCHf/x system in one stadium, but it will be worthwhile to notice if the trend continues throughout the season. He only slightly altered his delivery, and the release point is also only sightly altered. He looks like he is releasing it a bit more towards the right-handed batters box than he did last season.
Hanson’s Movement in 2011:
Hanson’s Movement in 2012:
Hanson’s fastball had a pretty big variance in fastball movement yesterday, which is likely due to the addition of the two-seam fastball. He had more negative horizontal movement with his fastball yesterday than he did at any point of last season, which could partially be due to the altered release point as well. His overall velocity was down 2.3mph on average yesterday, which could also partially be due to the new pitch. He hardly threw his changeup last year, and his curveball also had additional vertical movement compared to last year, as almost each curve had at least -10 vertical movement while his average was at that level last year.
It is only one start and the data should be taken with a grain of salt, but it will certainly be interesting to follow how Hanson’s movement and release point differ this year compared to the past. Pardon the slight blurriness. The charts were taken from FanGraphs.
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Weird. It looked to me like he was using a two seamer as well, but according to Jeff Zimmerman it was a slow four seamer:
http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/index.php/johan-santana-tommy-hanson-on-the-comeback-trail/
PITCHf/x hasn’t figured it out yet. I am sure it would be caught by the guys at Brooks Baseball when they do their classifications. Jeff was going off the PITCHf/x charts.
He looked good, but I agree with you guys that he is probably still going to be injury prone. Even my untrained eye can see he hasn’t changed his delivery that much. Maybe enough, but I don’t know.
I can see him being a solid starter for a long time, but I am worried about the shoulder. I’ve heard this a million times from talking heads, and for once, they are right, in my limited observation… Shoulder injuries are NOT TJ Surgery – it isn’t a sure thing.
Regardless, we seem to have more arms than a south american drug cartel, so…
I’m not toot thrilled with the velo drop. Maybe I’m over reacting, but seeing him work at 87-88 for entire at bats was kind of alarming.
I was very happy with what I saw with Hanson through 5 innings yesterday. He had a pitch count of only 72 pitches. That’s very good sign.