Relief Pitchers Preview

Well, spring training got off to a rip-roaring start Thursday when the Pirates announced that one of their key relief pitchers would be unable to throw for between 2-4 weeks just moments before the pitchers and catchers held their first workout at Pirate City in Bradenton.

Right-hander Joel Hanrahan, who figured to be one of the Pirates' key set-up relievers after a fine finish to last season, was diagnosed with a flexor-pronator strain in his right elbow, a condition referred to in layman's terms as "golfer's elbow."

Hanrahan almost certainly will have to begin the season on the disabled list but the big question is whether he will have to eventually succumb to Tommy John reconstruction surgery on his elbow. More often than not, it seems, these kind of so-called mild injuries lead to major surgery.

Hanrahan will visit the world's leading elbow authority, orthopedist James Andrews, next Thursday in Pensacola, Fla., and Pirates right-handed reliever Jose Ascanio will tag along. Ascanio will be out until at least midseason after having shoulder surgery last October.

Hanrahan was tentatively slotted as the Pirates' seventh-inning pitcher, ideally serving as the bridge from the starters to the late-inning tandem of closer Octavio Dotel and set-up man Brendan Donnelly, two veterans signed as free agents in the offseason.

The Pirates are hoping Dotel will be an upgrade over Matt Capps. However, it is telling that the Pirates were the only team to pursue Dotel as a closer on the open market and Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen began shying away from using him in important late-inning situations as last season wore on.

While Dotel struck out 10.8 batters per nine innings in 2009, scouts say he lost confidence in his fastball and increasingly tried to trick hitters with his cutter.