Former Pirates closer Joel Hanrahan is shooting through the Pirates minor league coaching system. He started in Rookie Ball and has worked his way to become the pitching coach at AAA Indianapolis.
Of course, a very familiar and now polarizing name has been sent back down to AAA in the last few days: top pitching prospect Mitch Keller.
Hanrahan joined The Fan Morning Show Tuesday to lay out what the plan is for Keller to make his way back up to the Majors, hopefully for good. Hanrahan and his staff will be looking at everything, from workload to pitch command to mentality out on the mound.
"It's one of those things where you just kind of have to start getting more confident and showing your confidence," said Hanrahan. "One of the things I tell my guys is, 'Dude you throw 97 mph. Act like it. Walk around like you're a bad dude.' I think that's going to be one of the things for him."
Hanrahan put some things into perspective with Keller, cautioning that this is not an overnight process.
"Obviously, if there was a quick answer it would have already happened. I've been in his shoes before where when I got traded to the Pirates. If you look at my numbers from '09 with the Nationals, I had a seven and a half ERA. I got traded to the Pirates and I had a one and a half. Or a one seven. That's all in the same year. So, changes can be made. Things can happen.
Mine was a change of scenery.
I had some good friends, Andy LaRoche and Delwyn Young, who were with the Pirates and played against me and said, 'Dude you stink.' And I was like, 'Oh yeah, you're right.' And I made a change there."
He says the Pirates have far from given up on the idea that Mitch Keller can do the same and turn things around.
"He's going to come down here, take some pressure off, take some of the load off. We're going to work him in easy. He's not going out there expecting six innings, 100 pitches and reading his name on the bottom line of ESPN.
That's not how it's going to happen here. It's going to be come in, relax, play catch, let's throw an inning today, take a couple days off, maybe we'll throw two innings. Let's work back into it, kind of like a Spring Training build up. You're not expected to go out there and put up seven zero's.
We're going to go out there and hopefully throw up a zero and keep our team in the game and go on to the next day and continue to slowly get better and stronger and more confident."
Hanrahan has also done his homework on Keller and laid out which areas Keller needs to improve when pitching in-game.
"One of the biggest things with him that's going to be a focus for him here in Indianapolis is to really hone in on that fastball command. You see him try to pitch in the top of the zone quite a bit. Sometimes he does it pretty well. One of the focuses is going to be being able to repeat that pitch, along with the fastball down and away.
You can't just throw up, up, up the whole time. You've got to get to two strikes [as well]. Figuring out how to get to two strikes is going to be the goal here in Indy. Part of that is being able to throw that fastball down and away and with him and the fastball up, the curveball pairs off that really well.
So, just being able to get all of those pitches working together and honing in on that slider he's been throwing as well. He's got all the tools; we just have to get them to all work together."
