Joel Hurtado Talks About His Adjustment from the DR to the USA

It is often stated the pitching mound is the loneliest place in a baseball stadium. One man stands alone with the fate of the game in his hands. For Joel Hurtado, a pitching prospect in the Angels organization, he also left his family thousands of miles away as he pursued his MLB dream.

The journey from young prospect to the Major Leagues is unique for each player. Just like the transition to the United States is unique to each immigrant. Joel Hurtado blends the two in part two of his interview.

Yesterday we published a piece on his first appearance in an Angels uniform. Today is part two of the interview where Joel talks about being discovered and some of his adjustments he's made along the way.

Part two of the interview with Joel Hurtado.

Q: You come from the Dominican Republic. How did the Angels find you down there?

Joel: Well I had been doing a lot of tryouts with different teams so I was trying to get myself out there. And then on one of those occasions there was a tryout where a lot of teams came and the Angels saw me there.

Q: You spent a year at the Dominican league before coming over to America. How big of an adjustment was that landing in America to play baseball?

Joel: So at first it was a little uncomfortable and absolutely every single thing was different from the way we operated in DR. It was just even being far away from my family was different. The weather was different. I think I made it a mindset to try and learn through all those differences and honestly just relying on my teammates for just advice on how to adjust.

Q: You moved initially to California where there's a lot of Spanish speakers here but it is a slightly different dialect. Did that at least help you a little bit when you transitioned over or where you just basically with the team all the time?

Joel: I think just like it was landing in Florida it was still an uncomfortable sort of change getting out here because things were just different once again. I think I struggled maybe just a little bit at the beginning. Even pitching in front of the crowds I was pitching in, I'd never pitched in front of crowds like that. So, you know, I had to sort of put my head down and make adjustments and work harder to kind of rectify all that.

Q: Did you have any bilingual teammates or some veterans who could show you around, maybe take you out for dinner and make it a little easier?

Joel: Yeah, that was it. I had exactly one teammate I could think of that I really leaned on a lot. He was bilingual and kind of took me under his wing; translated for me a lot and helped me make it out to restaurants so I could order food and that kind of thing so I really leaned into him.

Tomorrow we'll lay out his journey through the minor leagues and how he's working to improve as a pitcher.