MVN - Most Valuable Network

The New Craig Hansen

Imagine a 6-6, 230-pound pitcher who throws 95 fastballs along with a filthy slider.

Imagine that same pitcher with a case of sleep apnea — which is a serious sleep disorder that occurs when a person’s breathing is interrupted during sleep, and when left untreated causes people to stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep (sometimes hundreds of times).

Right.

The pitcher could be operating on gasoline fumes.

Boston Red Sox’ reliever Craig Hansen was a living, breathing example of a person with sleep apnea and which — despite his pleas to the contrary — had to have had an wffect on his career.

“I was diagnosed two years ago before spring training,” related Hansen, who was promoted from Pawtucket on May 5 when Brandon Moss was placed on the disabled list after undergoing an appendectomy. “I was supposed to have had surgery but it would have interfered with spring training. So, I held it off for another year and had it done this past off season.

“Ever since then I’ve been fine.”

Indeed.

Through his 11 relief appearances with Pawtucket, Hansen was 1-0 with a 1.62 ERA in 16 2/3 innings pitched. He had walked five, struck out 17 and his OBA was a miniscule .107

The procedure to correct his problem was, to hear Hansen explain it, quite simple.

“They took out the deviated septum and fixed it,” he said. “That was it.”

Oh.

“If you don’t get your proper rest you don’t feel good the next day,” said Hansen, in a modicum of understatement.

“Basically that’s how it was every single day. If you don’t sleep well you’re not going to be able to play well and recuperate from throwing and lifting.

“You’re not able to build on what you have because you’re not getting proper rest.”

Hansen didn’t have a lot to build on when he spent time with Boston in 2005 and 2006.

In 38 relief appearances, he was 2-3 with a bloated 6.59 ERA.

His numbers last season with Pawtucket showed modest improvement: 3-1 with three saves plus a 3.86 ERA in 40 appearances. But his strikeouts-to-walks ratio was 1.5 to 1 (i.e. 48 strikeouts and 32 walks) which didn’t exactly conjure up visions of, oh, Dick Radatz.

Hansen attributed his fast start with Pawtucket (which was “interrupted” by a one-day promotion to Boston on April 23 against the Angels) to more than the operation which cured him of sleep apnea.

“Basically, my mechanics have changed dramatically,” he said. “I went back to how I was throwing in college (St. John’s, where he was the Big East Pitcher of the Year as a senior). It’s more my style … just staying on line and being aggressive.

“What happened was I listened to certain people (who are no longer with the organization) and that’s what really got to me - listening to other people and taking some advice from different people and trying to incorporate it into my mechanics.

“It didn’t work out.”

Good point.

In addition an adjustment made by new Pawtucket pitching coach Rich Sauveur also helped unlock the door to the wealth of talent Boston’s feels Hansen possesses.

“What I saw him do in spring training was he had a lot of tilt in his front shoulder,” said Sauveur. “I mentioned that to him. If you look at video from his prior days, there’s a lot of tilt in his front shoulder. What I wanted him to do was level it out. I wanted his shoulders to be more level.

:”He has done that. I’m not going to say that’s the reason why he’s throwing the way he is. But it might have helped him a little bit. The day I told him about it, his command improved from one inning to the next.”

Something else improved for Hansen when he reported to spring training: he made a major attitude adjustment.
“Guys who were here last year have told me they saw a big change in him during spring training,” said Sauveur. “After he got here, he’s done nothing but work. He was a very good work ethic. His attitude on and off the field has been a plus.

“Really, I think his attitude coming into spring training was a 100 percent turnaround from last year. He came into spring training saying he was going to wipe the slate clean and start over. He wanted to go 100 percent.”

That’s exactly what Hansen’s done in the early part of the season, since a sense of confidence and relief resulted from his operation plus his return to his former mechanics.

“Just knowing that everything is back to the way it was for me is a huge load off my shoulders (how do you spell two-ton gorilla?),” he said. “Before I was pitching to how they wanted me to pitch as compared with the way I was taught by different people - try to do this, try to do that.

“Now I listen to certain things and take certain things in but not everything. Listen, build off it, use it, don’t use it and stuff like that. Basically I’m going with what feels comfortable.”

And which makes batters feel very uncomfortable.

One school of thought espoused the theory that Hansen was very uncomfortable when he became the first player in Boston history to reach the major leagues the same year he was drafted (Hansen was Boston’s first-round pick in the 2005 draft) - that he might have been better suited to have remained in the minors.

In four relief outings, he was 0-0 with a 6.00 ERA in three innings.

“It’s six of one and half-a-dozen of the other,” said Sauveur. “Who’s to say that what happened was going to happen? There have been guys that have been rushed to the big leagues and have had very good careers. You can’t put any blame on that - getting him to the big leagues very fast.

“Sending him back to the minors and getting a year and a half or whatever at Triple-A very well could have helped him. So far, it looks like it has. Again, it comes down to himself, his attitude and what he wants to bring to the table. I think there are going to be a lot of good things coming out of this kid.”

How good?

“He wants to get better,” said Sauveur. “He’s got the ability and his stuff is ridiculous. It’s almost scary to see a man built like that have an arm like he does.

“I mean, the kid has major league stuff. Because of the way he went about his business here, he earned another call to the big leagues. I think he’s going to have a very nice career there.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 5:31 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.