Hanson Handled in ROY Voting

Tommy Hanson entered Spring Training in 2009 with a whole lot of hype surrounding him. Arguably the most of any prospect in baseball, certainly in the Braves organization.

Despite not making the roster out of Spring Training, the buzz never ceased. Finally, with a call-up made in early May, the highly-touted Hanson arrived to the Big Show in Atlanta.

The latest great Braves pitcher, following a line of the 90s that includes three first-ballot Hall of Fame pitchers, did not disappoint. The only natural culmination to this season was with hardware in the form of the National League Rookie of the Year.

Nope. The Baseball Writers of America did not see things the same way.

Chris Coghlan, who most certainly had fine season, and J.A. Happ, distanced themselves from a very tight group of NL first-year players. How this happens is simply mind-blowing.

Hanson, built somewhere between an SEC-quarterback a la Ryan Mallett and an NBA power ford, dominated the National League, AND American League.

His ERA of 2.89 is impressive for a Cy Young winning veteran pitcher, let alone for a rookie (who is just 23-years-old.) Given an additional month at the start of the season, he would have likely eclipsed Happ's 12 wins (just one more than Hanson's 11.)

The rookie dealt with the Yankees and the Red Sox in consecutive starts, shutting out not one, but both. Those games coming in this fourth and fifth MLB starts as well. Allowing just four hits in 5.1 innings against the eventual champions, the Yankees, and just two in 6.0 innings against the Red Sox, the rookie completed a debut month with a 4-0 record and 2.48 ERA.

Expecting someone to tail off after such a start is reasonable, but Hanson never let up. His monthly ERA was never higher than 4.00 and he increasingly racked up more strikeouts per game as the season progressed.

As rookies tend to struggle on the road, expectations for a sub-par season away from pitcher-friendly Turner Field also would prove fair. Yet Hanson went 4-2 with a 2.61 ERA away from Atlanta, while at home he went 7-2 with a 3.13 ERA. His successes deserved more recognition than a distant third-place in the ROY voting.

Coghlan had a terrific rookie campaign, but in a year where no offensive rookies in either league performed in an even mediocre manner, his season looked more impressive in comparison.

As with Most Valuable Player awards, offensive players are favored. The glamor statistics are much more liked by voters across the board. For J.A. Happ and Tommy Hanson, the clear-cut best rookies this year, they received the short end of the stick.

Hanson is future ace material, and has a long future career at the helm of the Braves pitching staff. Happ will fall into place with the Phillies rotation already containing Cole Hamels as another dynamic left-handed starter.

Coghlan will have a nice piece of hardware to display on his mantle for years to come, and likely that is that. He will continue to have decent success for a while, but not the career of the future star Hanson.

Hanson may have been handled for this trophy, but next time Hanson is up for an award (Cy Young), Coghlan will not be able to steal that one.