Tremendous Baseball Nicknames

Non-nameplay nicknames are a bit of an oddity in baseball, not many players have them and its unclear what it takes to get one. Having a great non-nameplay nickname is truly more of an art than a science.  Here are my top 5  favorites and how these unique monikers came about:

1. Pablo Sandoval (Kung-Fu Panda) : Affectionately nicknamed after the Dreamworks character by Barry Zito on September 19, 2008, when he scored a run against the Dodgers by jumping over the tag of catcher Danny Ardoin.

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2. Dmitri Young (Meat Hook) : A two-sided hook normally used in butcheries to hang up meat or the carcasses of animals such as pig, Dmitri sounds like ‘DaMeat’hook.

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3. Travis Hafner (Pronk) : In his minor league career he was called “The Project” and during in spring training of 2003 some of the players began to call him “Donkey” because of how he ran (Project + Donkey = Pronk).

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4. Frank Thomas (The Big Hurt): Coined in 1992 by broadcaster Ken Harrelson presumably because he used to strike fear in the competition by swinging a rusted iron pipe in the on deck circle.

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5. Carlos Lee ( El Caballo): Another broadcaster-origin presumably becuase he puts a team on his back and carries them, also a popular atta-boy saying in Latin America.

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High Five keeper set analysis

High Five Fantasy Baseball league, the link below opens the keeper turnover analysis I mentioned on the discussion board.

Keeper Turnover

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Enter Tommy

Uber-prospect Tommy Hanson made his much anticipated debut for the Braves on Sunday June 7.

Tommy Hanson's first pitch

Here’s the view from the Chop House as Tommy readies for the 1st pitch.

Here are his Minor league stats:

Season	Team	W	L	ERA	G	GS	CG	ShO	IP	TBF	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	HBP	WP	BK	SO
2006	Braves (R)	4	1	2.09	13	8	0	0	51.2	208	42	15	12	2	9	1	1	3	0	56
2007	Braves (A)	2	6	2.59	15	14	0	0	73	296	51	28	21	6	26	0	6	5	0	90
2007	Braves (A+)	3	3	4.2	11	11	0	0	60	260	53	33	28	10	32	0	4	0	1	64
2008	Braves (A+)	3	1	0.9	7	7	0	0	40	148	15	6	4	0	11	0	5	5	0	49
2008	Braves (AA)	8	4	3.03	18	18	1	1	98	410	70	39	33	9	41	0	9	5	0	114
2009	Braves (AAA)	3	3	1.49	11	11	0	0	66.1	257	40	16	11	5	17	0	4	4	0	90
TOTAL		23	18	2.53	75	69	1	1	388	1579	271	137	109	32	136	1	29	22	1	463

Particularly impressive are his 2009 stats with AAA Gwinnett.

Debut performance:

5 IP…7 Hits…7 Runs (6 Earned)…1 BB…5 K’s…3 HR’s Allowed (2 to Ryan Braun)

He quickly learned that the ability to throw 95 mph wasn’t going to save him in the majors if he kept  the ball up in the strike zone. At times he was dominating, like the in the 3rd inning when he struck out the side, and his control was decent all game, but there were some ‘welcome to the big leagues son’ moments, like the 2 line drive homeruns by Ryan Braun and a off-the-wall double by the pitcher.  The addition of Tommy Hanson is a big deal for the Braves because the starting line-up desperately needs some youth, so much so that they had to cut ties with Braves legend Tom Glavine to make space for him. Old Tom out, new Tom in, couldn’t have planned it any better.

And you knew the crowd was into Tommay Hanson because the stadium waves (a fan favorite in Turner field) didn’t start-up till the 7th inning, until after he was pulled.

Here’s a video clip of his first pitch, I recorded it with my Canon PowerShot SD1000 from the Chop house balcony.

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