How Good Is Joel Hanrahan?

The Pirates defeated the Brewers 6-4 tonight to improve their record to 18-22. The story of this game was some pretty solid starting pitching, some clutch hitting, and some more great work from the back end of the bullpen. Joel Hanrahan was especially impressive, striking out the only 2 batters he faced. So far this year the two best pitchers in the bullpen have been Evan Meek and Hanrahan, and they both look like they could be closing for some of the better teams in the league. However, they are second and third behind Octavio Dotel for the Pirates, but that is working out just fine for the Bucs. Let's take a closer look at Joel Hanrahan.

So far this year Hanrahan has an ERA of 4.50, which does not do him justice to how well he has pitched. His FIP was 3.48 before tonight's game, and that has decreased a couple points after his .2 innings tonight. Without his rough outing in the 20-0 shlacking the Pirates took from the Brewers, when Joel gave up 6 runs in 1 inning, his ERA would be an outstanding 1.20, that game really inflated a lot of ERAs for the Pirates pitching staff.

Hanrahan is one of the hardest throwing Pirates, he reaches 97 on the gun at times, and his average fastball has been coming in at 94.9 miles per hour this year. Hanrahan is turning into one of the league's top strikeout relievers, having an incredible K/9 ratio of 13.5 so far this year. His control hasn't been the greatest, as his BB/9 is at 3.38, but the strikeouts more than make up for that.

Having guys like Meek and Hanrahan in the bullpen make it a lot easier on the Pirates starters, because they know if they can get their team the lead through 6 innings, they have a very good chance of winning the ballgame. The Pirates are 10-6 in games that Hanrahan pitches in, and 8-4 in games that Hanrahan pitches after the 7th inning.

The best thing about Hanrahan's 2010 campaign is that Hanrahan has allowed only 1 run while the Pirates are ahead in the game. That run came on April 16th when the Pirates were up 3-0 on the Reds. He gave up a run in the 8th but the Pirates ended up winning that game in bottom of the 9th when Lastings Milledge drove in Andrew McCutchen after Octavio Dotel blew the save.

Hanrahan has been especially great lately. In his last 8.2 innings (since May 4) he has not allowed a run, surrendered only 5 hits, struck out 13, and notched 7 holds.

It's not like he's been facing slackers on offense either. He has gotten big outs on guys like Ryan Braun (K), Prince Fielder (K), Ryan Howard (K), Jimmy Rollins, Derrek Lee (K), Albert Pujols (K), Aramis Ramirez, Joey Votto, Alfonso Soriano, and others.

The Pirates have had one of, if not the best bullpens in protecting leads this year, and much of that can be attributed to Joel Hanrahan.

So how good is Joel Hanrahan? I'd say... real freaking good.