Chisox Farmhand Dan Black Works Hard, Waits for Big League Break

July 28, 2014

By Pete Cava
PBR Indiana Correspondent

The way Jose Abreu’s been hitting this year, White Sox minor league first basemen are drawing less attention than Whistler’s father.

Abreu, a former Cuban national team star who signed with Chicago last autumn, started for the American League in the All-Star Game. At the break, he had a .292 batting average with 73 runs batted in and 29 home runs, tops in the Major Leagues.

What effect does Abreu’s breakout season have on White Sox first sackers prospects? “It means that they’ve got someone for the next few years who’s really good, and that we’ll all have to keep working harder to make it to Chicago,” said Dan Black.

Black, a former Carmel High School and Purdue University star, plays first base for the Charlotte Knights of the Triple-A International League. The 27-year-old Indianapolis native was back in town during the Knights’ four-game series at Victory Field, July 21-24.

He’s not ruling out a position change. “I’ve caught, I’ve played first, I’ve DHed,” said Black. ‘They’re always looking for the next great idea out of a player, so I’m sure I’ll change again before it’s all said and done.”

Playing for Eric Lentz at Carmel, Black was a catcher and corner infielder. He hit .429 as a senior and was named Player of the Year by the Indianapolis Star. He won All-State honors and received honorable mention from Collegiate Baseball as a Louisville Slugger High School All-American. “My senior year was just the culmination of hard work,” he said, “and people took notice.”

Purdue, IU, Butler, Valparaiso, Evansville and several other local colleges offered scholarships. So did out-of-state schools like Mississippi, South Alabama, Clemson and Furman. “I wanted to go South,” said Black, “so that’s why I tried to go to Ole Miss.”

On a visit to Mississippi, Black reunited with an old teammate – Lance Lynn, currently a starting pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. Lynn, who played with Black on the Indiana Bulls travel squad, had been a Brownsburg High School standout from 2002 to 2005. “Me and Lance have been friends for a long time,” said Dan. “We trained at the same facility (Roundtripper Academy) in the offseason. He showed me around on my recruiting trip.”

In the fall of 2006 Black enrolled at Ole Miss. He left after one semester without playing a game for the Rebels. “Once I got down there, it wasn’t going to be a good fit,” he said. The recruiting coordinator, Dan McDonnell (now head coach at Louisville), had left and the hitting coordinator had left. I had no one in my corner pulling for me.”

Black transferred to Purdue prior to the 2007 season. “Purdue was a good fit for me,” said Dan. “It was close to home. They had space on their team and a scholarship to offer. Playing time was the most important, and they had openings for a freshman. That was a big reason why I went there.”

While Ole Miss wanted Black to catch and play first, the Boilermakers used him at third base through his first two seasons. He batted .306 in 2007 as a freshman, followed by .320 with a team-high 18 homers as a sophomore in 2008. In that year’s Big Ten Tournament he went 7-for-14, setting a tourney record with five homers – including three in a win over Indiana that sent the Boilermakers to the title game.

Black saw action as a catcher-first baseman in 2009, his junior season, and hit .310 with 15 home runs and 51 RBI. The following year, Purdue’s recruiting class included freshmen like catcher Kevin Plawecki (Carmel), third baseman Cameron Perkins (Southport) and pitcher Nick Wittgren (McCutcheon), who helped the Boilermakers win their first conference title in 103 years.

“I like to think that me and my class helped influence those guys to come to Purdue,” Black said. “We finished in the top five in the Big Ten for the three years I was there. I feel like that was a big reason that Purdue actually gained a little bit more baseball recognition amongst the state.”

Selected by the White Sox in the 14^th round of the June 2009 draft, Black batted .333 that summer in three games with Bristol, Va. (rookie Appalachian) and .209 with one homer in 57 contests for Kannapolis, N.C. (low-A South Atlantic).

Back with Bristol in 2010, he came into his own with a .288 average in 57 games.

“Bristol was rookie ball, so it’s tough to deal with all of the struggles and all the living arrangements, and the travel and the food and the money,” he said. “But it was a nice taste of pro ball.”

An 18-homer, 98 RBI, 286 performance at Kannapolis in 2011 earned Black a berth on the South Atlantic League All-Star team. “I was more acclimated to the professional lifestyle,” he said. “I had made friends, so it was a lot easier living with some of your buddies, playing and traveling and experiencing new places.”

With Winston-Salem in 2012, Black was the Carolina League MVP with a 17-88-.315 season. “Everything seemed to align for me that year,” he said. “I really liked the staff, with [manager] Tommy Thompson and [coach] Gary Ward and all my teammates.”

Baseball America cited Black’s ability to control the strike zone. “He manages to draw walks and limit his strikeouts to a reasonable degree despite a big, long swing,” the magazine noted.

“Walks are a huge part of the game,” said the 6-foot-5, 240-pound switch-hitter. “They cut down the number of outs you can get. It shows the pitchers you’re patient, and you’re not going to chase out of the zone, so they’ve got to bring the ball closer. It gives you a better chance to hit

it hard and get it through for a hit.”

Black continued to shine in 2013 with a 17-83-.283 season at Birmingham, Ala. that helped the Barons win the Double-A Southern League title. “That season will remain special for me,” he said. “Everything wound up good for me, personally, and for the team. I made a lot of good connections in the city of Birmingham and I’ve got a lot of friends there now, people I care for.”

After playing winter ball for the Aguilas Cibaenas of the Dominican Winter League – “A lot of culture shock, but it was really good baseball,” according to Black – he returned to Alabama to teach hitting lessons at Birmingham-Southern College. “They let me come out there and work out with their college team,” he said.

In the meantime, Black continued to work on a degree in business communications. “I’m finishing it as we speak,” he added.

Assigned to Charlotte for the 2014 season, Black was batting .343 when he was injured during a game with Columbus on May 29. “I had three home runs that game,” he said. “I swung, reaching for an outside pitch, and pulled my oblique. I was out of commission for the next three-and-and-half weeks.

After a rehab assignment with Birmingham, Black rejoined the Knights and homered in his first game back on July 19. Heading into the Indianapolis series, he was batting .257 with six homers and 16 RBI after 40 games.

“If you would have told me three years ago that Blackie has a chance to be in the big leagues, I would have probably put maybe 20 percent on it,” Chicago assistant general manager Buddy Bell told Scot Gregor of the Chicago Daily Herald. “Now it’s more like 70 percent. He’s a guy that just keeps putting numbers up.”

Black, who is eligible for free agency after the 2015 season, said Bell’s comments “made me feel good, but there’s still hard work to be done. And moving up the board doesn’t mean you’re in the big leagues. I‘m sure they’ve got a plan for me, and I can’t wait to find out what it is.”

Black is one of four Indiana natives currently on Charlotte’s roster. Two others, catcher Josh Phegley and second baseman Micah Johnson, played for Indiana, while Jarrett Casey pitched for the Hoosiers before transferring to Northern Kentucky.

Does that make for much ribbing about IU-Purdue in the Knights clubhouse? “Oh, not really,” said Black. “We’ve all kind of turned the page. We’ve moved on in our careers, and now it’s all about making it to the Major Leagues.”