When healthy, Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Tommy Hanson is one of the best pitchers in the National League. So then it was pretty awesome to read this tweet from David O'Brien:

Braves Hanson was working on two-seamers (sinkers) today, first time used it a lot in game. "Just throwing another pitch into my arsenal."

Yes, please. This is terrific, and will hopefully take NL hitters by surprise. Tommy could rack up a lot more strikeouts this year, and adding just one more effective pitch that generates a lot of swings and misses is huge for a pitcher.

It's gonna be fun to watch. I'm already starting to get more excited about this team. The Braves I saw in today's game on SportsSouth looked like a hungrier group. They were more aggressive and more relentless in their at-bats. This was highlighted by a 12-pitch at-bat that Jack Wilson had against Justin Verlander. Yes, he ended up striking out, but against a Cy Young and MVP pitcher with all of his pitches working, little Jack Wilson was able to battle and get some terrific hacks.

There is more energy in this team right now than I saw at any time during the September not to remember. The Braves have a chance to get off to a hot start this season, facing weak opponents in the season's first month. But they still need that extra fire in their belly to do it. Hopefully that fire will show up on the field when the bell rings.