The Sky is Falling

Hanson's line from his first major league start was not too impressive: 6 IP, 6 ER, 5 K, 3 HR. So maybe the Brewers aren't the Toledo Mud Hens. Don't depsair, though; there is a lot to like about Hanson's much antipated debut. First of all, the Brewers are one of the best power hitting clubs in the National League, ranking third in homers with 54 this year (compared to only 38 by the Braves). The homeruns didn't surprise me a ton, anyways. Power pitchers typically give up more homeruns than those that pitch with more finesse. Think Javy Vazquez here. Similiar pitching styles: both strike out a lot of guys, both throw hard, both are fly ball pitchers. In 2008, Vazquez had the 14th highest HR/9 among AL-qualifiers. So the kid is probably going to give up some long balls, but considering he allowed only 5 in 66 IP in Gwinnett, I wouldn't count on 3 per game from here on out.

What can we take awat from this game? Well, for most of us, it was the first time seeing Hanson pitch, and his stuff sure didn't disappoint. In fact, the kid was downright nasty at times, bringing a fastball that averaged about 93.5 mph but topped out at 97, a big, slow curveball that made a lot of professional hitters look bad, and a slider that comes in around the high 80's. He showed all of them off in the bottom of the second when he struck out the side on only 12 pitches. One thing I always like to see from a pitcher is throwing strikes, which Hanson did with 67% of his pitches, slightly better than the league average of 62%. However, Mark Bowman writes that most of those came against his first 9 batters faced, when the threw 24 out of 31 pitches for strikes. After those hitters, only 34 of his 60 pitches came in as strikes. So, I think we saw what the 22 year old is capable of when he retired the first 10 batters he faced, but also some of the inconsistency that is bound to plague any young pitcher, even phenoms. Any opinions on the kids performance?