Tommy Hanson didn’t fool anyone into thinking he was Johan Santana Friday night against the Orioles, but aided by a cameo appearance by the Braves offense, he earned his first victory, and more importantly, precluded what would have been a three game skid and a loss to start the road trip. If the Atlanta Braves are a playoff team this year, they may be asking more from a rookie pitcher than is reasonable: to minimize the growing pains, and be significantly better than a future hall of famer would have been in his stead.
In a division race that seems destined for a photo finish, the very mediocre Mets, Phillies, and Braves are going to be micromanaging games in an attempt to find a way to eek out 5 or 6 more wins than their rivals. We will never know how one Tommy (the one with 305 wins) would have fared pitching in the fifth spot in the rotation for the rest of the year. My gut tells me he would have contributed a “quality start” half the time, and been a ball machine in cletes the other half (like the one who failed to record one out in his final start for the Mets two years ago). The problem with the quality start is it often isn’t capitalized on by the Braves’ anemic offense. It is easy to imagine Glavine’s numbers looking like this: 1-7, 6.05 ERA-the earned runs against inflated because of a couple horrible starts. That, folks, would not get it done. Not even close. Tommy Hanson has the ability to shut down an entire squad when he is on and his stuff is electric. He is special. Although it may not be consistently apparent this year, he has the tools to be dominant on any given night. When the 2009 campaign comes to a close, his ERA may not be leaps and bounds above what Glavine’s would have been, but he is the only one of the two who could, sandwiched in between the flotsam and jetsam of mediocre outings, throw a 3 hit shut out or two.
And like I said, with this listless offense, and its penchant for squandering mere “quality starts”, Tommy Hanson may be the lynchpin for success.
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