Vinny Messana (VM): We cover Long Island usually so our audience may not be familiar with you. But I thought you were a perfect guest for this because of your story and pedigree. You got drafted out of Pace last year in the 25th round by the Milwaukee Brewers. Two-time All American.
Most impressively, from a scouting perspective, you had a 63:5 K to BB ratio. That’s pretty mind boggling. How did you refine your command to the point where it was basically nation-leading?
Dan Wirchansky (DW): My sophomore year, I had a 70:35 K to BB ratio which was pretty bad. That summer, I went to the NECBL and basically worked on throwing a lot more strikes and getting ahead of guys and not trying to be perfect with everything. I started getting between with my command.
VM: Before that I saw you pitch three years at Pace. Where were you freshman year?
DW: I went to Rockland Community College.
VM: So it worked out perfectly. You went to school, saved on tuition and transferred to Pace. How was your experience there?
DW: Rockland is a very small junior college. There are no dorms so you commute. The coach their I grew up with my whole life, he was my tee-ball coach. It was easy to transition to college ball with him on my side.
VM: Could you start with draft day and where you are leading up to now?
DW: Draft Day- I was home and had a couple buddies from school come up. I’m watching the livestream and sitting there on my couch. My summer ball [group] chat started going off and were like ‘Oh, Dan you just got picked, congrats.’ And the TV monitor was going slow so I didn’t see it. All I hear is my name pop up and then I get a call from Todd Meyer about getting selected. Then it’s a fast turn around; two days later, I’m on a plane to Arizona’s Spring Training facility. Then right then and there they started off doing a whole staff MRI and physicals.
VM: That’s for everybody right?
DW: Yeah. I’ve heard from players in several other organizations they don’t do MRI’s but the Brewers did a whole staff MRI. A couple of days later, they told me I had some stuff in my MRI and I kept asking what it was, never got an answer. All I knew was I got sent home. A couple of days later I get in touch with Dr. Amhad and he calls me in and told me there wasn’t a tear. I knew they were looking at my elbow more than anything, I don’t know if you knew my junior year I missed half the season because of forearm inflammation. He wrote a whole note up and a month later I got picked up by the Texas Rangers. They saw the Brewers MRI and said come down, everything is fine. Two days later, I had to do another MRI. Two days after that, I get called in the office and told ‘Yeah, the MRI’s changed’ and I got sent home again. I went back to Dr. Ahmad and showed him both MRI’s. Then I went to Dr.[James] Andrews and he was big at the time, especially when Chris Sale was having his elbow issues. He said there was no tear in the UCL and he goes ‘ I wouldn’t give you surgery. But if Ahmad wants to do the surgery, do it.’
VM: That had to be so frustrating up to that point. You weren’t getting any clear answers and this was your career on the line.
DW: I only got a report and not any details to what was wrong with me, which is the most frustrating part. You want to get it fixed. You work so hard to get to that point and you get to your childhood dream of playing baseball and it gets taken away from you from an MRI, not even performance wise.
VM: Then you think of the odds you overcame coming from Upstate NY to community college, D-II to getting drafted. You felt like you had an egg on your face. I’m sure your friends and family were asking and didn’t have a clear answer.
DW: My dad was devastated the whole time. He wanted an answer too. He got in touch with my advisor, the advisor got in touch with the team doctor. Finally we got an answer that the stuff in my elbow wouldn’t hold up through vigorous throwing every day and down the road I would tear my UCL. It’s a blessing to get it done now.
VM: You got [surgery] in September. Have you been progressing with your throwing program?
DW: I’m throwing at 90 feet. I’ve thrown 50 throws at 90 feet and next week I’ll probably be at 120 and then at June, pending with the virus, off the mound.
VM: Do you take solace in not missing any of the season, I mean you picked the right year to have Tommy John surgery?
DW: For the people I met in Arizona, I feel awful they are not playing. I feel awful for the high school and college players not playing. For me, it is kind of a blessing– I don’t know. It’s definitely a blessing for my side at least.
VM: Definitely. Everybody has a story and you are allowed to take a silver lining from this situation leading up to this point. What was your fastball velocity at?
DW: Senior year, I was around 88-92. I’m not a flamethrower, we had some guys like Josiah Gray throw 97 whenever they want. I relied on my changeup and curveball and stuff like that.
VM: And you mentioned Josiah, did you play against him in the summer?
DW: I actually played against him in high school and then, playing in the NE-10, I played against him when he became a shortstop, then an closer, then in his junior year a starting pitcher.
VM: He didn’t go from D-II to get drafted, he’s one of the top prospects for the Dodgers. Do you keep in touch with him?
DW: Here and there. One of my buddies went to high school with him. Wee keep in touch that way. He contacted me on my draft day too.
VM: Why did you make the decision to go to Pace?
DW: That’s kind of funny. I went to junior college and played summer ball in the NECBL in my freshman summer. Some of the guys I played with said look into Pace and they called one of the coaches who is not there anymore to watch me throw. It went on a visit and my dad said ‘Yeah I really want you to go here. You’re not leaving junior college early unless you go to Pace.” I didn’t want to be at junior college anymore.
DW: It’s pretty uplifting to see guys be seen from a small, D-II school in the Northeast whereas in the NFL Draft, 90 percent of these guys are in Power 5 conferences and the high end guys are from LSU and Ohio State. What would you tell our audience right now, seniors who are uncommitted or have no place to go?
DW: There is nothing wrong with going D-II, D-III, NIAA, or JUCO. Everyone wants the D-I label but if you are sitting on the bench at D-I there is no point. If you are able to preform at that level do it. I did well at the levels.
VM: Very few people get the chance to experience that perfect game in college. When you are warming up on a day like that, you are not thinking its going to happen, but do you feel like the best version of yourself warming up?
DW: I felt good warming up in the outfield but it was one of the worst bullpen warmups I’ve ever thrown. When I throw a bad bullpen pregame I throw better in-game and it gets all the bad stuff out. It rolled out into that result.
VM: During the game, at what point do you start noticing it?
DW: Usually I’m very talkative in the dugout. My roommate never spoke to me when I pitched, but when you noticed everyone is not talking to you, that’s when I noticed. It was in the fifth.
VM: Going into the seventh and eighth innings, did you fall behind any batters?
DW: The last batter of the game, I fell behind 2-0 and it was a little scary. That summer before, I had a no hitter going in the NECBL and my catcher broke it up in the bottom of the ninth. He was catching that day and the kid who hit out before hit a screamer to center. I fell, 2-0 and he came out and awkward silence and started laughing.
VM: How long do you ride the high from that?
DW: That thing yeah, I didn’t hear the end of it for two days. I tried keeping it out of my head, I’m big on going to the gym right after getting my arm taped on. I was local so I went out to eat and see my family. You want to stay focused.
VM: Who were some of the best hitters you faced in the NE-10?
DW: Andrew Taft (Le Moyne)- very big kid, if you put the ball down it is going a mile. My junior year, New Haven and Adelphi always had a great lineup. Steve Whithers, Brett Mahomes made solid contact.
VM: Were you considering other schools out of high school?
DW: I was actually a first baseman out of high school .One summer my coach at Perfect Game ran out of pitching and he goes ‘Dan we need you to pitch.’ I threw a seven inning shutout and it started getting me back into pitching. I went to junior college because offers were pretty late.
VM: Pregame hype music?
DW: It’s pretty strange. An hour before a game I go with country. In the locker room it is whatever on like hip hop or rap.
VM: What is your typical arm routine?
DW: My arm routine just follows my pitching program coming out of Tommy John. Before, it was a bunch of lightweight stuff, bands and running.
VM: Favorite actor?
DW: I’m an Adam Sandler kind of guy, he is hilarious.
