Results tagged ‘ joel hanrahan ’
Pirates’ to take part in mini camp
The Pirates are holding a mini-camp starting on Monday in Bradenton, Florida. The camp this year will be focused on conditioning and will run four days.
Those expected to attend (according to Jenifer Langosch) are:
Pitchers – Michael Crotta, Joel Hanrahan, Kevin Hart, Jeff Karstens, Brad Lincoln, Jeff Locke, Daniel McCutchen, James McDonald, Kyle McPherson, Evan Meek, Bryan Morris, Charlie Morton, Daniel Moskos, Ross Ohlendorf, Chris Resop, Aaron Thompson, Tony Watson
Catchers – Jason Jaramillo
Infielders – Pedro Ciriaco, Lyle Overbay, Steve Pearce, Josh Rodriguez, Neil Walker
Outfielders – Matt Diaz, Gorkys Hernandez, Garrett Jones, Andrew McCutchen, Alex Presley, Jose Tabata
Non Roster invites – Dusty Brown, Brian Burres, Josh Fields, Fernando Nieve, Justin Thomas, Cesar Valdez, Corey Wimberly
Pedro Alvarez and Chris Leroux are currently listed as maybes to attend.
Hanrahan celebrates Christmas with a competitive tournament
For Joel Hanrahan, Christmas consists of family and a competitive tournament of “The Black Velvet Open”.
The tradition began last year on Christmas Day. The Black Velvet Open takes place in an indoor driving range in Iowa. The winner takes home a bottle of Black Velvet with a golfer on top and a black velvet jacket.
“I was the champion,” Hanrahan said. “And I wasn’t even playing with my clubs. I was playing with my brother’s clubs. It was pretty interesting. Everybody can swing a little bit. It varies as to who is good or who is not.”
The second annual Black Velvet tournament takes place on Sunday and Hanrahan plans to hold the title.
On what Christmas is like at the Hanrahan family household: “Basically Christmas is just a whole lot of family coming over — about 20 — and we sit around and eat. Since we moved back to Iowa in ’97, Christmas has always been in Iowa. We play a lot of cards. The past couple of years my uncle has played the guitar and gets us to sing Christmas carols. Let me tell you, it’s not pretty.”
On what he remembers about Christmas as a kid: “It was my brother and I, and a typical Christmas began with waking up around four or five in the morning. We didn’t bother waking our parents up. Mark was the first one up every time, and he would come knock on my door and wake me up. We then ran to our stockings and began going through everything we got. The rest of the day was spent playing with the toys.”
On what he was looking forward to this Christmas: “The main thing is having all the family there this year. My grandma is going to be there, too. My schedule is pretty hectic, so it’s hard to get much family time. I’m looking forward to getting into the snow a little bit since I don’t get much of that in Texas. This is also my first time having a serious girlfriend at Christmas, so she’ll be with me. We’re headed up to Iowa before Christmas, then flying out to Washington, D.C., and then going back to Iowa for Christmas Day. This will be the first time doing both families.”
On what Hanrahan been doing this offseason: “I’ve been down in Texas working out at Athletes Performance. We have a group of about 14 of us working out down there. I’ve been playing catch for two to three weeks now. Once the new year starts, it’s time to crank up and start throwing. The offseason is flying by, and it’s really going to go by quickly after the holidays. I’ll head to Florida for mini-camp and then up to Pittsburgh for the caravan.”
Pirates plans for Bowker, closers role in 2011
Pirates beat reporter Jenifer Langosch answered fans questions in the final inbox of 2010. You can read the entire chat here.
With the signings of Overbay and Diaz, what are the Pirates plans with John Bowker?
If Doumit remains with the club, Bowker’s best shot at making the Major League club will be earning a spot as the team’s fifth outfielder. If Doumit is dealt before Spring Training, Bowker could be the Pirates’ fourth outfielder.
While the Pirates were pleased with Bowker’s showing last September, the reality is that he has never had sustained success at the Major League level. It was too risky for the club to have to count on Bowker to play in a semi-regular role given the lack of proven results above Triple-A.
Who do you see getting the closer’s job in 2011?
This was a question asked of general manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle at the Winter Meetings, and both avoided tipping their hand as to which way the club is leaning. Huntington said it is a decision that should be made before Spring Training, though he added that there could be a scenario in which both Joel Hanrahan and Evan Meek are used in the closer’s role. Hurdle said that he would prefer to pick one defined closer.
While I can see benefits of going to either one, I’d have to guess that the Pirates are going to go with Hanrahan. He has previous experience in the role and has a particularly nasty two-pitch mix that netted him 100 strikeouts in 69 2/3 innings.
Hanrahan’s number retired, wants to bring a winning season to Pittsburgh
Bucco closer Joel Hanrahan’s high school jersey was retired on Friday at his former school–Norwalk High, in Iowa.
Hanrahan chatting with kids in first and second grade.
Kids lining up to ask Hanrahan questions.
Hanrahan talking to the Norwalk high school baseball team.
Pictures curiosity of Mark Harahan.
Hanrahan also chatted with 1460 KXNO in Des Moines where he discussed Cliff Lee signing with the Phillies, on the Nationals future, his arbitration process and why he enjoys chatting with fans on twitter. You can listen to the entire interview here.
On if 2010 was his best year: “For a full year, yeah. I feel like my half year in Pittsburgh was really good, after I left Washington. Obviously, I would have loved to have my ERA a little bit lower. I had one game where I gave up six runs in one inning. But the accomplishments I’ve had likegetting the 100 strike outs, was awesome for me. I don’t know if that’s a big deal for anybody else. I felt like that was pretty neat. I felt that pitching in 72 games was also good. Especially after missing the first week and really missing all of spring training. “
On his mentality as a reliever compared to when he was a starter: “Everyday is different. You never know. And that’s the beauty of being a reliever. You go to the park and you know you have a chance to play. Where as a starter, you pitch once every fifth day. As a bullpen guy, you never know what your job is going to be that day. You may have to come in and pitch six outs, finish up a one-hitter. That’s kind of the beauty, you never know what is going to happen. It brings some excitement and you got to be ready everyday.”
On National League pitching, and how he studies the players he faces: “We do a scouting report the first game of every series. They can tell you what Ryan Howard is hitting on a 0-1 breaking ball, when it’s 72 degrees and partly cloudy (laughs). They have stats for everything. Being around for a couple years, facing a lot of the same guys, you start to know what the hitters want to do and are looking for.
On how he gets Albert Pujols out: “You just really got to mix it up with him. He’s one of the best hitters in the game –if not the best. You gotta be aggressive and challenge him. Show that you’re not scared.”
On Pittsburgh: “Pittsburgh has been through a lot. I feel bad for what the fans have gone through. That’s part of the motivation though. You want to be a part of that team that brings a winning season back to them. I went to a Steelers game and a Penguins game this year, and it was ridiculous. People were fighting before the game even started, that’s how passionate they are. I feel like once we starting winning in Pittsburgh, it’s gonna be like that for baseball games.”
Hanrahan on how the Pirates will decide who will close next year: “I really have no idea what they are going to make that evaluation on. I know they want to make a decision before spring training. The main thing they are going to look for; who’s the most consistent. I think it’s going to have a lot to do with the past. And who they feel more comfortable with. I talk to Evan [Meek] once every two weeks and we don’t really look at it as a competition. We wanna win. We want to do what’s best for the team. We feel like we can be the top 8-9 combo, whichever way it goes.”
On the rumors that Ryan Doumit will be traded: “I hope it’s not [true}. I'm a fan of Ryan Doumit. We get along pretty well, on and off the field. I hope Doumit's still around. He's looking for a bounce back year, that's for sure."
On Pirates new skipper: "Clint Hurde is going to be great. I met him at the Steelers game. He did a great job [with the Rockies], same with Texas. Led those guys to the World Series as the hitting coach. He’s very motivational, very passionate about what he’s doing and he really wants to win, wants to turn this thing around. He’s been sending me a motivational text message everyday with a different quote. He’s in this for the long haul. I think he’s going to be great with our young guys and getting them motivated and keeping them going for 162 games.”
On offseason conditioning: “I took off October. I was in DC for a little bit. Then, moved back down to Texas and starting working out November 1st. I’m up at 7:30 every morning, I workout at eight for about two hours. I started throwing December 1st. Once I get back from the holidays, I’ll get back in the throwing program a little bit. After New Years, I’ll starting throwing off the mound every once in a while. I have a Pirates mini-camp going on in January. Then going to Pittsburgh for the Pirates caravan, going to my teammate Pedro Alvarez’s wedding. Then, time to go to spring training.”
On what he wants to improve on for 2011: “I need to get left-handed hitters out better. I felt like I was pretty good against righties. I gotta find a way to start pitching inside a little better and getting lefties out.”
“There’s not a better oppurtunity in sports”
On Wednesday (day three) of the Winter Meetings, new Pirates manager Clint Hurdle stopped by MLBNetwork’s live coverage for an interview. Here is what they discussed:
On being the new manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates:
Hurdle: “I’m humbled by the opportunity. It is an exciting time for me personally but I think professionally, there’s not a better opportunity in sports across the board. To rebound a city with a team, like there is in Pittsburgh with the Pirates baseball team.”
Chris Rose: “Some people may say, ‘you know the numbers. 18 straight loosing seasons. It’s been tough. It’s a football town’. And you are telling me, it’s the greatest opportunity? Explain.”
Hurdle: “The fact that they’ve lost 18 consecutive seasons, its just bound to turn. Like I talk to hitters: ‘so you’re not hitting, but you’re due to get hot.’ These young kids, they can play. We’re learning lessons. I think we’re adding pieces. It’s an organization that’s committed from the top down. Through that interview process, I found that out from Bob Nutting, Frank Coonelly, and Neal Huntington. We got work to do, there’s no doubt about that but we are excited about the players that are in place and we’re actually finding ways to be creative. I think, [we need to] find some grown men to come in and help us do this. We have internal, we’re adding external.”
On what Hurdle says to the players to get them to believe:
“Well, the first thing that I talked to any player about developing a relationship, because I was a player once, a long time ago, and I’ve had new coaches and I’ve had a new manager from time to time. Anybody entering that door for the first time, I have three questions for the man walking through the door: ‘Can he make me better?, Does he care about me?, and Can I trust him?’ I’m going to lay that out to those guys. I need to find a way and my coaching staff needs to find a way to answer those three questions. Sooner or later for those men. We answer those questions, they will bring the skill sets with them. Too many times in this sport we try to capture the skill set first. We need to capture the players heart first, I believe, and we have got some players who are passionate about playing better and doing good things and doing big things.”
On who are the guys the organization can build around:
“Well, I’m still going through that filing. Watching tape, asking questions, talking to people. I’ve talked to a lot of people outside our organization about the team. Got to watch them play myself for three games last year. But for me, these internal conversations I’m having one-on-one, I’m finding out a lot more. With Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, Joel Hanrahan, I had one yesterday with Pedro Alvarez, Garrett Jones is still on my to do list. I’ve talked to Paul Maholm, Chris Snyder. One-by-one I’m taking them down but there is a core group in place. On the offensive side, we need to add to some of the skill guys we got already, our number one focus is improve off the mound. Number two focus is catch the ball, put away outs on defense. We’ve all been around the game long enough. Pitching and defense will win you championships.”
Hurdle addresses lineup, cedeno and the closers role
Manager Clint Hurdle addressed the media on Wednesday for a 30-minute gathering. Here are some of the things he addressed:
- Hurdle was asked on the projected lineup for next season but he did not give his thoughts on it. He did, however, say he has made up a few lineups for fun. Hurdle did mention Paul Maholm, James McDonald and Ross Ohlendorf as key pieces to the starting rotation.
- Hurdle, who has spent seven seasons in the majors as a hitting coach, will work often with Gregg Ritchie directly.
“I have some ideas,” Hurdle said. “There will be days when I’ll be in the cage. It’s just something I love to do. I’m not going to get in the way, but I also think I can help make a difference along those lines.”
- Hurdle said that both Joel Hanrahan and Evan Meek are still being considered for the closers role. He prefers to choose one before opening day, rather than have them share duties throughout the season.
- Hurdle has been doing extensive homework on shortstop Ronny Cedeno and has gotten mixed reviews.
“Some of the comments that have been shared with me that he has made, he understands, that he needs to be more consistent,” Hurdle said. “He’s got to get better on the field. There are a whole bunch of us that are waiting for the day we don’t have to talk about what to do, we can just play the game and start doing it. I think he would fall in that category.”
Hanrahan’s high school jersey to be retired
According to Mark Hanrahan, Norwalk High School in Iowa will be retiring Pirates Joel Hanrahan’s number 3 jersey at their basketball game on December 17th.
Hanrahan, who was acquired by the Nationals in 2009, was nasty for the Pirates in 2010–he struck out 100 batters (a career high) in 69.2 innings. He finished with six saves, a 4-1 record with a 3.62 ERA. In four major league seasons, Hanrahan is 16-11 with a 4.45 ERA in 220 games (11 starts) and 20 has saves. He has struck out 308 batters in his career and averages 10.3 strike outs per nine innings (12.9 per nine in 2010).
“You know how they say hitters get the home runs, and chicks dig the home runs? Well, I like the strikeouts.”
I would say Pittsburgh, as well as Iowa love the strikeouts too.
Huntington discusses first day of winter meetings
After day one of the Winter Meetings, General Manager spoke to Pittsburgh Media on busy day:
On progress from day one: “Much like the first day of the Winter Meetings –always a lot of conversations. Some lead to dead ends. Some lead to fruition. A lot of dialogue.”
On whether the Pirates would be open to giving up prospects for a trade: I think we’re open to the right deal. In a perfect world, we’d love to hold every prospect that we have, but we know to get good players that are the right fit, it’s going to take some players in return.”
On trading Joel Hanrahan or Evan Meek: “We like both guys a lot. We think both are capable of closing at the Major League level, and we’re looking for value in return.”
On what Ryan Doumit’s role would be for next season: “As we sit here right now, Ryan will be our right fielder with some time behind homeplate to supplement Chris Snyder. Sitting here right now, Ryan is going to play a lot. It’s up to him to play well and to continue to play, but sitting here, that’s the plan.”
On whether Ryan Doumit could be a part of the platoon situation in right field: “If there is a right-handed complement to be had… we have Steve Pearce internally that we feel comfortable with. But we continue to explore the trade market as well as the free agent market to see what else is out there. Sometimes clubs in our market have to be creative to maximize the roster and maximize the production of the roster. ‘Platoon’ seems to be a negative word. But the reality is that if it helps us put quality production on the field, it’s something that we’ve got be open to.”
On which position has the most options, first base or right field: “There’s options at both. There are some established Major League veterans out there. There are some players that are available in a trade. We’ve got two guys that we feel comfortable with, so it would have to be a situation of trying to find an upgrade if that is possible out there.”
On whether the Pirates have made a decision on who will be the Bucs closer: “The tough part is that it’s not going to be a Spring Training competition. So if we do decide on one – and there have been multiple conversations that Clint [Hurdle] and I have had and we’ve got to continue to have – we have to decide before Spring Training. In early conversations, we’re open to moving both guys depending on situations and how they match up. But it is an ongoing dialogue internally as to whether we’ll settle on one or go with both.”
On whether the Rule 5 draft has good players: “No.”
On whether the players who were non-tendered are still of interest to the Pirates: “Yeah. We’ve made contact on a good number of players and continue to be open to find different ways to help our club continue to move forward.”
Ohlendorf & Hanrahan to be tendered, others still in talks
During the Pirates live web chat with President Frank Coonelly on Thursday, he was asked if they have made a decision on who they will tender/ non tender.
“We will definitely tender Ohlendorf and Hanrahan. We continue to have discussions with the reps for Cedeno, Milledge and Karstens.”
Bucs have until Midnight on Thursday to tender contracts
The Pirates have until midnight on Thursday whether to tender the contracts of: Karstens, Cedeno, Hanrhan, Ohlendorf and Milledge.
The five Buccos are all arbitration-eligible.
Karstens went 3-10 with a 4.92 ERA. He made $401,500.
Ronny Cedeno batted .256 with eight home runs and 38 RBI. He made $1.125 million.
Joel Hanrahan went 4-1 with a 3.62 ERA. He had 100 strike outs in 69.2 innings with six saves. He made $453,000.
Ross Ohlendorf went 1-11 with a 4.07 ERA. He made $439,000.
Lastings Milledge batted .277 with four home runs and 34 RBI. He made $452,000.
Kristy Robinson
Recent Comments