Joel Hurtado Final Segment: Upper Minor Leagues and His Warmup Song

Joel Hurtado had a good chat with Angels On SI last week. As we used a translator, I've put out the interview in pieces. In the first piece we talked about his first Angels appearance in the Cactus League. Part two discussed the Angels finding Hurtado in the Dominican Republic and his adjustment to baseball and life in America.

The third segment went over his early minor league days. In this final segment we go over his climb from AA and get into him a bit as a person. I hope you've enjoyed this series and the full video is below.

Q: Last year you started in AA which is probably the Angels best club. Did you notice a big difference in the hitters at every level because I've heard that the jump to AA is a big one?

Joel: Yeah, I can tell you you can notice that right away. When you start going up like AA hitters are so much more selective at what they swing at they aren't going to swing at everything like they do at the lower leagues. So you can't fool them as easily. I was used to like, in the lower leagues, you could just throw something towards the ground and you know that they would go for it. Things like that. They don't chase like that the higher up you go.

Q: That's really interesting you talk about chasing because you walked way fewer guys last year than you did in the past. What adjustment did you make to cut down on your walks?

Joel: I think my gameplan going in was really just to attack the zone. I knew that I was willing to get some kind of rollers on the ground or some fly balls. But the idea was just to attack that zone.

Q: When you came over here everybody talked about your fastball. Fastball, fastball, fastball. But your slider is now your highest rated pitch. Who gave you some advice or what adjustment did you make to turn that slider into, um, that thing's just nasty right now?

Joel: So that was something I worked a lot on the off season. My pitching coach suggested that I just needed a secondary pitch, something to compete with that that fastball. So that's sort of what I got to working on.

Q: Have you worked with Mike Maddux yet or much and what maybe have you picked up from him?

Joel: Yeah, I've worked with him and honestly he just gives me so much advice. Not just for now but stuff to really take with me into the future.

Q: You're in big league camp. You're in big league camp. You're in the Angels locker room. You're wearing an Angels uniform. You're one step away from living your dream. Is it difficult to focus on right now and not look ahead?

Joel: I think my focus is really just on the present because really what I'm doing now will determine when I get there to that future.

Q: Real quick if you make it here, when you do make it here to Angels stadium and you're on the mound throwing your warmup pitches what is going to be your song?

Joel: I don't have one in mind yet but I like Bad Bunny songs so maybe I'll think about something like that for when I'm on there.

Q: Yeah, he slayed it at the Super Bowl so you can't go wrong with that one. Joel, we wish you the best of luck. Thank you so much for your time. It was fun watching you pitch today and I really thank your for your time today.

Joel: Thank you both.

Here is the full video. A sincere thanks to Melissa Rodriguez for translating. This would not be possible without you.