JOEL HANRAHAN
10/6/81; '00 2nd (Los Angeles Dodgers); Norwalk, IA (HS)
R/R; 6-2, 191
| Level |
W-L-Sv |
G |
GS |
IP |
H |
HR |
BB |
K |
BB/9 |
K/9 |
WHIP |
OAVG |
ERA |
| 2000 R+ (LAD) |
3-1-0 |
12 |
11 |
55.0 |
49 |
4 |
23 |
40 |
3.8 |
6.5 |
1.31 |
.231 |
4.75 |
| 2001
A (LAD) |
9-11-0 |
27 |
26 |
144.0 |
136 |
13 |
55 |
116 |
3.4 |
7.3 |
1.33 |
.250 |
3.38 |
| 2002 AA (LAD) |
1-1-0 |
3 |
3 |
11.0 |
15 |
2 |
7 |
10 |
5.7 |
8.2 |
2.00 |
.326 |
10.64 |
| 2002
A+ (LAD) |
10-6-0 |
25 |
25 |
143.2 |
129 |
11 |
51 |
139 |
3.2 |
8.7 |
1.25 |
.242 |
4.20 |
| 2003 AAA (LAD) |
1-2-0 |
5 |
5 |
25.0 |
36 |
2 |
20 |
13 |
7.2 |
4.7 |
2.24 |
.343 |
10.08 |
| 2003 AA (LAD) |
10-4-0 |
23 |
23 |
133.1 |
117 |
5 |
53 |
130 |
3.6 |
8.8 |
1.28 |
.239 |
2.43 |
| 2004 AAA (LAD) |
7-7-0 |
25 |
22 |
119.1 |
128 |
22 |
75 |
97 |
5.7 |
7.3 |
1.70 |
.284 |
5.05 |
| 2005 AA (LAD) |
9-8-0 |
23 |
21 |
111.2 |
118 |
17 |
55 |
102 |
4.4 |
8.2 |
1.55 |
.273 |
4.92 |
| 2005 A+ (LAD) |
1-0-0 |
5 |
5 |
21.1 |
25 |
5 |
11 |
25 |
4.6 |
10.5 |
1.69 |
.291 |
5.91 |
| 2006 AAA (LAD) |
4-3-0 |
14 |
14 |
74.1 |
70 |
7 |
39 |
46 |
4.7 |
5.6 |
1.47 |
.249 |
4.48 |
| 2006 AA (LAD) |
7-2-0 |
12 |
12 |
69.1 |
50 |
4 |
39 |
69 |
5.1 |
9.0 |
1.28 |
.216 |
2.60 |
| 2007 NL
(Wash) |
5-3-0 |
12 |
11 |
51.0 |
59 |
9 |
38 |
43 |
6.7 |
7.6 |
1.90 |
.286 |
6.00 |
| 2007 AAA (Wash) |
5-4-0 |
15 |
15 |
75.1 |
65 |
10 |
36 |
71 |
4.3 |
8.5 |
1.34 |
.226 |
3.70 |
| 2008 NL
(Wash) |
6-3-9 |
69 |
0 |
84.1 |
73 |
9 |
42 |
93 |
4.5 |
9.9 |
1.36 |
.233 |
3.95 |
| 2009 NL (Wash) |
1-3-5 |
34 |
0 |
32.2 |
50 |
3 |
14 |
35 |
3.9 |
9.6 |
1.96 |
.342 |
7.71 |
| 2009
NL |
0-1-0 |
33 |
0 |
31.1 |
23 |
0 |
20 |
37 |
5.7 |
10.6 |
1.37 |
.204 |
1.72 |
Hanrahan was a top prospect coming up through the Dodgers'
system, regarded as a likely mid-rotation starter due to a heavy, low-90s sinker
that he was very successful in keeping down, as well as a good slider and a
solid change. He seemed to hit a wall in AAA, though, and managed to go
backwards through the system more quickly than he came up. As he made his
way back up, he struggled a lot more, especially with his control, and he
started having gopher ball problems. He never reached the majors with the
Dodgers and became a minor league free agent, signing with the Nationals.
He pitched reasonably well in AAA and, with the Nats desperate for pitching, was
called up and struggled for them as a starter.
In 2008, Hanrahan made the Nationals as a reliever out of
spring training and showed
significant improvement. Pitching out of the bullpen, he increased his velocity to
95 on average. As a reliever he's thrown his slider increasingly often
and rarely uses his change. He eventually won the closer's job and
started 2009 in that role, but he lost it twice due to severe
ineffectiveness. There hasn't been any indication that Hanrahan was hurt and his walk rate actually
improved. He also struck out over a batter an inning. For some
reason, though, his opponents' batting average on balls in play was a staggering
.451. This raises the possibility that he was pitching in an enormous
amount of bad luck, as well as pitching in front of an extremely bad
defense. The Nationals did, in fact, rank last in the NL in UZR and
next-to-last in defensive efficiency at the time of the trade, so the move may
help Hanrahan, but it's unlikely that bad luck and defense were his only
problems. For one thing, he's been a strong flyball pitcher in the majors
despite a sinker being his main pitch.
The Pirates acquired Hanrahan and OF
Lastings Milledge for Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett. Exchanging Burnett
for Hanrahan seemed like a questionable decision. The Pirates
had been badly hampered the year and a half prior to the trade by GM
Neal Huntington's experiments with hard-throwing, scatter-armed relievers like
Denny Bautista, Tyler Yates, and Craig Hansen. The bullpen had become
reasonably effective thanks largely to the injury-related absence of Yates
and Hansen, and vast improvement from Burnett. Hanrahan isn't young,
either, as he turned 28 shortly after the season ended. The exchange of
Morgan for Milledge made sense, because the Pirates were getting a potentially
very good player for a player with limited upside who's best suited to be a
fourth outfielder. In Hanrahan, however, the Pirates are getting a highly
risky player for a reliever who was performing very well at the time of the
trade. Part of the Pirates' thinking, though, might have been that
Hanrahan would give them a potential fallback at closer in the event of trade,
injury, or ineffectiveness on the part of Matt Capps.
Hanrahan pitched
much better with the Pirates, although he was more of a
mixed bag than his ERA indicates. He actually had much
more trouble throwing strikes and occasionally failed to get through
an inning because he simply couldn't get the ball over. He didn't get
hit nearly as hard and allowed no HRs.
I don't have his BABIP solely with the Pirates, but his overall BABIP was
.392, which probably indicates that he had a more or less
normal figure with the Pirates after the anomalous one he
posted in Washington. He had a mild platoon split with the Pirates; for
his career RH hitters have posted an OPS+
of 101 against him, LH hitters 99. Hanrahan's had a pretty
strange career so far, but if he could avoid outings where he can't find the plate, he could settle in as the Pirates' 8th inning reliever.
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