Tommy Hanson of the Atlanta Braves had a successful rookie season and off to a solid start this year. Do you see him having the pote?

Tommy Hanson of the Atlanta Braves won eleven games as a rookie in 2009 with an ERA under three. So far this season he has three wins to his credit and has kept his ERA once again under three. When I look at a pitcher, I look first at the number of hits he allows compared to the number of innings pitched.

I like it if a pitcher has allowed fewer hits than innings pitched. Then I check his walk to strikeout ratio, and strikeouts to innings pitched. Here I like to see at least a one to two ratio in walks to strikeouts ratio and it is nice if you also get a strikeout an inning.In Hanson's case he is just shy of striking out a batter an inning, but has a 1 walk to three strikeout ratio.

These stats tell me that he is not afraid to pitch in the strike zone and also has enough control to his spots. S minor league stats back up what he has done at the major league level, so he has thrown well no matter where he has been. I do not think he is a fluke.

Rather I am sure that barring injury he will have an outstanding major league career and combine with Jurgens once healthy to take the Braves back to the top. To go along with his stats, the kid is an intimating presence on the mound, standing 6 and a half feet tall and 220 pounds. Would you look at him as a Smoltz?

Possibly, and what a pitcher that would be.

Tommy Hanson is, and will continue to be the real deal. The kid has been one of those prospects who everyone knew would be one of the better young pitchers in the league once he actually made the majors. There is a very real chance that if he can stay healthy, and have the same sort of longevity as Tom Glavine, he might actually put up better numbers than Glavine or even John Smoltz should he have a little luck and if the Braves could actually return to being a very good team.

Of course he might not spend his career with Atlanta the way Greg Maddux, or Glavine, or Smoltz did. We are in a new era where the best pitchers of the game generally don’t stay with one team, and while the Braves still control Hanson’s contract for a few more years, if he has the kind of success I think he will, he’s going to demand more money than Atlanta can pay him. Hanson has the stuff to be a perennial 20 game winner on the right team.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.