Prospect Hanrahan getting AAA chance

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 9:31 a.m.

51s snapshot

What we especially liked was how he helped his own cause with a double, then he scored to erase the damage he had done by allowing three runs in that first inning.

In Joel Hanrahan's debut for the 51s on Monday night in Memphis, he tried to be too cute. He picked corners, worked too fast and overthrew.

"Trying to prove to people I belong here," he said. "I tried to do too much that I couldn't do. When you try to do too much, your mechanics go all out of whack and you throw the ball everywhere."

He also acknowledged that a degree of nervousness played a role in his first Triple-A start.

That surprised Las Vegas pitching coach Shawn Burton.

"I asked him the same thing, and he said, 'No.' I think he was lying to me," Barton said. "If you don't have butterflies, at any level, at any time in your career, you'd be lying. That's a natural thing, to have that nervous energy.

"Once you make that first pitch, you bear down and do what you need to do."

Largely, that's what Hanrahan, one of the young gems of the Dodgers' system, did, yielding three earned runs in that first frame and then keeping the Redbirds off the scoreboard for five more innings.

A 6-foot-3, 215-pound right-hander, he settled with the help of 51s catcher Koyie Hill and some words of wisdom from Barton.

"Joel got a little inconsistent with his release point," Barton said. "It changes, and that's an ongoing thing with him. He tries to make his pitches better, and he thinks, by dropping his arm, that he'll make them better. But that's how you get the opposite result.

"Once he responds to what's working well, and not trying to make (poor pitches) better, there will be no looking back."

Barton is looking forward to Hanrahan's first start in Las Vegas, Saturday night against Portland. Memphis hits .253, at the bottom of the Pacific Coast League. The Beavers hit .266.

"It'll be interesting to see how he does in our ballpark," Barton said, "against a better-hitting team."

Hanrahan has been considered a top-10 prospect in the Dodgers' system since they picked him in the second round of the 2000 draft. After graduating from Norwalk (Iowa) High, he chose pro baseball instead of a University of Nebraska scholarship.

He's 21, and one scouting service tabbed his clutch performance as "great," and both his strikeout ability and low home run yield as "brilliant."

Hanrahan threw two no-hitters last season at Double-A Jacksonville. A year earlier, Single-A Wilmington manager Dino Ebel, who followed Hanrahan to Jacksonville this season, had to pull his ace out of a no-hitter in the seventh inning.

Hanrahan had thrown 101 pitches. Typically, managers don't allow young pitchers to break the triple-figure barrier, fearing injury.

"He has all the pluses," Ebel said. "He's mature for his age and an outstanding person. What a big prospect for the Dodgers. One day, he'll be pitching in the big leagues. He's definitely on a mission."

Hanrahan might not be as untouchable as Edwin Jackson or Greg Miller, two current Jacksonville pitchers with fantastic upside, but he's in the next rung of players whom the Dodgers covet.

And want to keep. Hanrahan's name regularly came up in proposals, by other teams, before the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, according to a source close to Dodgers general manager Dan Evans.

Perhaps wisely, though, the Dodgers consider Hanrahan a keeper.

Next season, at the very least, Andy Ashby's spot in the rotation will likely be available. Hideo Nomo will be a year older, Kazuhisa Ishii often walks a tightrope with his wildness, and health is always a concern with Kevin Brown and Darren Dreifort.

A source close to the situation acknowledged that Hanrahan will likely be given a strong look in the spring, with the possibility that he could break camp with the parent club's 25-man roster.

At the very least, he is expected to begin next season in Las Vegas. At Jacksonville this season, he went 10-4, with a 2.43 earned-run average. He struck out 130 in 117 innings.

Catch a glimpse of him while you can.

"It was pretty easy," Hanrahan said of picking pro baseball over becoming a Cornhusker. "I knew I'd miss the college life, but I took the chance of getting taken, where I was taken, in 2000, or waiting three years and then getting drafted.

"If I had gone to college, I'd be in (Single-A) ball right now. And I'm in Triple-A. I think it has worked out all right for me."

About that first inning Monday ...

He walked the first batter he faced. He had the next guy 3-2 when the Redbird on first tried stealing second, pulling second baseman Joe Thurston toward that base. The hitter smacked it right where Thurston had been situated.

The mini-avalanche was on.

Hanrahan and Hill formed a battery in Jacksonville in the first month of this season, so Hill knew what to say. Hanrahan was getting too fancy, so Hill instructed him to just throw it down the pipe and let the ball's action take it from there.

"And I got outs that way," said Hanrahan, who has the classic starter's repertoire of a low-90s fastball, slider and changeup. "Usually, I like to get ahead with the fastball and put them away with the slider. That wasn't working too well.

"So we went after them with pretty much all fastballs and changeups. The change is usually my third pitch, but it was working as my first pitch."

By the time Hanrahan left Monday's game after six innings, Las Vegas had a 4-3 lead. Then its bullpen fell apart in a 6-4 defeat.

Barton said he knew Hanrahan was special after the Dodgers drafted him, when he lost only one of 11 starts in an instructional league.

"And, obviously, the organization thinks highly of him, as well," Barton said. "What he did the other day, he kept his poise and composure. He didn't get rattled after he gave up those runs.

"He kept us in the game by doing a great job without having his best stuff that particular day."

Hanrahan's best stuff is yet to come.