Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 2,048

This is the grave of Tommy Hanson.

Born in 1986 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Hanson grew up in Redlands, California. He was a star high school baseball pitcher, though he didn’t move to pitching full time until his junior year. He didn’t get a ton of attention from scouts in high school and was on the margins of college too. He ended up pitching for a community college for a year and played in an independent west coast college baseball league, the West Coast League, which is like a 3rd rate version of the Cape Cod League where real scouts hang out. I saw a Cape Cod game once, it was real quality baseball in a fun setting. There are other leagues too though that you’ve never heard of; my nephew, a very good D-III college baseball player, played in one on Long Island for example one summer.

Every now and then, some player out of these leagues does get the attention of a scout. That’s what happened to Hanson. In 2005, the Atlanta Braves picked him in the 22nd round. No one who gets picked in the 22nd round is seen as having any shot to make the majors. In fact, since 2021, Major League Baseball now ends the draft after 20 rounds. So at that point, you were picking for nothing more than middling fodder to fill out your Class A team.

But Hanson proved to be a rare exception. He was great in 2006 with Danville in the Appalachian League. By the next year, he was the top pitching prospect in the entire South Atlantic League. He was very good in AA in 2008 and was the MVP of the Arizona Fall League that year.

In 2009, the Braves made the sad but correct decision that Tom Glavine’s career was over. The team called up Tommy Hanson to replace him on the roster. Hanson had a great start to his career. Well, technically that’s not true. He got bombed in his first start. But he had an excellent 2009. He went 11-4, with a 2.89 ERA and while he was never a huge strikeout guy, had a solid 116 Ks in 127.2 innings over 21 starts. He was worth 3.9 WAR on Baseball Reference’s version of the stat. He also finished 3rd in the Rookie of the Year voting.

So the Braves were pumped. Though Hanson was no flamethrower, they thought they might have a rock to recreate their great rotations of the 90s. He was pretty good in 2010, but not quite as good as he was the previous year. He went 10-11 with 3.33 ERA. He did lead the league in hit batters, but that’s not very meaningful as a one off. He was worth 2.8 WAR.

But things really started to slip in 2011. Basically, he had already worn his arm out. The already not amazing velocity started slipping and in even the days before everyone through insane heat like they do today, trying to get by on a high 80s fastball as a starter wasn’t really going to work unless his secondary stuff was really on. He was hurt for part of the year and went 11-7 with a 3.60 ERA. That was worth 1.7 WAR. OK, but basically a #4 starter. In truth, his arm just didn’t have anything left. The Braves tried to rework his motion to protect his shoulder, but that did not lead to the velocity coming back.

Then things really went south. Hanson went 13-10 with a 4.48 ERA at a moment when offense was down and ERAs were generally pretty low. He was basically awful compared to league average pitching and was worth -0.9 WAR. After the season, the Braves traded him to the Angels for Jordan Walden. The next year, he had an awful start, developed a -0.4 WAR with an ERA well north of 5 in 15 starts. He had a death in the family and spent much of the season away from the team. In 2014 and 2015, he tried to make comebacks in minor league ball, but never saw the majors again. He was healthy enough to pitch in AAA for the Giants organization in 2015, but was awful.

The other problem Hanson faced is that he was dealing with his life through a lot of drinking and drugs, which certainly did not help his pitching and which soon killed him. After the 2015 season, he died of a massive overdose of cocaine and alcohol. He was 29 years old. The technical cause of death was “catastrophic organ failure.” A sad story, even outside the story of a once promising pitcher having fallen on hard times.

Tommy Hanson is buried in Green Lawn Cemetery, Roswell, Georgia.

If you would like this series to visit other baseball players who died during their career, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Charlie Ferguson, a pitcher for the Phillies who died of typhoid in 1888, is in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dick Wantz, a pitcher for the Angels who died of brain cancer in 1965, is in Cypress, California. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.