<< Back to Dan's Bio Page

Promising pitcher Wright just wants to fine-tune style	Wright rights course in minors
Wright talks with ChicagoSports.com about his career so far	Hook, Line & Fastball
Wright's stuff lifts streaking Barons closer to top in West	ChiSox pick up Dan Wright, fans in Batesville

He may be the best pitching prospect in the Sox system. Wright talks with ChicagoSports.com about his career so far.

By Jimmy Greenfield
ChicagoSports.com
March 7, 2001

There's no urgency to this cloudy Arizona morning for Dan Wright, just more stretching and workouts hopefully to be followed by one fabulous career in the big leagues.

Here's the thing about Wright: He could be the best of the bunch. Better than Jon Garland, better than Kip Wells and, yes, better than Jon Rauch.

After spending three years at Arkansas, Wright was a second-round draft pick in 1999 but only pitched 24 innings after agreeing to terms with the Sox.

He began his first full professional season at Class A Winston-Salem where he was 9-8 with a 3.74 earned-run average before earning a promotion to Class AA Birmingham.

It took only seven starts and a 2.49 ERA with the Barons to elevate Wright to the upper tier of Sox prospects. In its most recent rankings, Baseball America rated Wright as having the best fastball and best breaking ball in the White Sox farm system.

ChicagoSports.com: How's camp going.

Wright: It's going good, going good. I'm having a good time, working hard.

CS.com: What's your average day like?

Wright: Average day? Oh, you're going to do, of course, you're running and throwing and quite a few ground balls. Go over a couple situations, bunt situations, something like that. Then have lunch and go to the game.

CS.com: There isn't a lot of meaning to the games, so you don't follow the games like you would when you were in college or in the minors. What are you doing during the games?

Wright: It's the opposite for a guy like me. I'm trying to see what's going on. I'm just enjoying being there and learning while I'm there. It's just fun to see older guys work and learn about the game from just listening to them and the coaches talk.

CS.com: Of the veteran pitchers, who are you learning from the most? Who goes about there business in the way that you respect the most?

Wright: I'll tell you what, Cal Eldred is a class guy. You know, he goes about his business in a way that I hope when I've been around that long I'd hope I handle things the way he does. He does a great job.

CS.com: Try to describe what he does that you would like to emulate.

Wright: He's got a good work ethic. He's still out there working hard and he keeps himself in good shape. He's got a plan when he goes out there.

CS.com: Were you a baseball and football prospect in high school?

Wright: I actually played all three (including basketball). I decided to play baseball in college. I had a couple offers in football but decided to play baseball.

CS.com: So baseball was always your best sport?

Wright: It could have been football but I separated my shoulder in my senior year (of high school) and I didn't want to lose baseball, too.

CS.com: Was that your pitching shoulder?

Wright: Uh huh.

CS.com: Did you pitch your senior year?

Wright: I did, but my velocity dropped quite a bit for that season and I slipped in the draft out of high school.

CS.com: Now, you were picked in the 19th round of the 1996 draft by Cleveland. Do you think if you had been picked higher you would have signed out of high school?

Wright: It's hard to say, hard to say. It depends on the situation and everything.

CS.com: Is that about where you expected to go?

Wright: Out of high school?

CS.com: Yeah.

Wright: Yeah, you never really know about the draft, but right around draft day I had a feeling it was going to be middle to late, somewhere around there. I didn't know exactly where or who but I had a pretty good idea about when I was going to go.

CS.com: So how close did you come to signing with Cleveland?

Wright: Pretty close, actually. Because the thing is they didn't come on real strong until the end of the summer because my velocity didn't come back until the end of the summer and that's when they came back and started going after me pretty hard.

I was actually already at school the night before classes when they made their final call and I told them 'no thanks'. I was pretty close. If that call had happened earlier in the summer I might have signed.

CS.com: Was the difference over money or that you were in school already and decided you wanted that experience?

Wright: It was more the fact that I was already moved in at school. I had class the next morning, I'm not a guy that's going to make a quick decision like that. The money was fine, it wasn't about the money it was more of the situation.

CS.com: So, what was college like? You played three years of college ball?

Wright: Yeah, it was a good experience. I didn't excel with my numbers and stuff in baseball. I grew up a ton as a person, as a player. But it was a fun time. I wouldn't do anything any other way.

CS.com: You were a first-round draft pick. Do you think they looked past your wins and losses?

Wright: I think they had to because my numbers were pretty bad.

CS.com: What was your record?

Wright: I was 5-3 my freshman year, 1-7 and 1-8 my sophomore and junior year.

CS.com: As a starter?

Wright: Well, I was a closer my junior year.

CS.com: So you were 1-8 as a junior but that was mostly relief losses?

Wright: Yeah, I probably started three or four games at the end of the year.

CS.com: How'd those go?

Wright: Well, I got the loss. I had trouble throwing the ball over the plate and when I did it was in a 2-0 count or something and they just teed off on it.

CS.com: How do you think you went from a guy who was going 1-7 and 1-8 to being a first-round pick by a team that has coveted pitchers?

Wright: I don't know. Obviously, they just looked through it and looked on down the road and thought they could help straighten me out. As far as stuff, that hasn't been the problem. It's always been getting the ball over the plate. I guess they just took a chance that they could help me straighten it out.

CS.com: Your fastball and breaking ball have been rated the best among all White Six minor leaguers. Which would say is your best pitch?

Wright: I'd say my fastball is my best pitch just because I'm going to throw that most of the time. Everything works off your fastball, so fastball's got to be my best pitch as far as that goes.

CS.com: Was the fastball your first good pitch? Was the breaking ball something you've picked up in the pros?

Wright: Well, I fiddled around with a slider in college some and I lost my breaking ball for a little while. I had a pretty decent breaking ball earlier in my career and then I fiddled with my slider and kind of lost the breaking ball. Then it came on really in pro ball.

CS.com: You're getting pretty close to making the Sox. Do you get the impression if it's not this year it could be next year?

Wright: Yeah, I'm just working hard and trying to get there no matter when it will happen, or if it'll happen. I think if I word hard it'll take care of itself.

Promising pitcher Wright just wants to fine-tune style

03/29/01
DOUG SEGREST

Dan Wright's goal is straightforward, simple, obvious. To get to the big leagues and stick.
In the interim, the former Arkansas Razorback has found Nirvana in the form of not-so cozy Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
"As a pitcher, you gotta love that stadium," Wright said. "You can make a mistake there and live to tell the tale."
The spacious Met, where the ball doesn't even travel well when the collegians armed with metal bats arrive in May for the SEC Tournament, is Wright's designated home for the start of the 21st century.
He's expected to be the ace of the Double-A Birmingham Barons' pitching staff after a brief, but successful, call-up last summer.
"Wherever I'm at, I just want to get better and fine tune things," said Wright, who pitched six innings this spring for the big club Chicago White Sox. "It was nice to see how you stack up and know you can compete there."
And how does Wright stack up?
"I've got to learn to throw the ball where I want to. That's the key. The biggest difference in making the move from (Single-A) Winston Salem to Birmingham last year was that mistakes go further. In the big leagues, those mistakes are amplified even more."
Wright pitched five innings Wednesday for the Barons in Tucson, taking command of the Diamondbacks' Double-A El Paso club until allowing a three-run homer at the end of the work day.
He has been on the fast track with the Sox since leaving Arkansas after the 1999 season. At 6-foot-5, 225 pounds and boasting a 96-mph fastball, he's got the tools that make him, according to Baseball America, Chicago's No. 5 prospect.
The Batesville, Ark., native has cruised through the ranks so far, compiling a respectable 13-12 mark in stops at rookie ball, Class A and the previous brief Barons stint.
But it's the 1960s-era earned run average that has the big club interested. Wright has an ERA of 3.29 in 112 professional seasons and sported a 2.49 mark in seven starts for the Barons a year ago.
And he's not likely to be the only top prospect headed here. Joe Borchard, who quarterbacked Stanford to the 2000 Rose Bowl and slugged the Cardinal to the 1999 College World Series title, is tentatively tagged for Baron duty.
Like Wright, Borchard saw minimal duty in Birmingham last summer - six games, 22 at bats, .227 average. Also, like Wright, he's already drawing raves from Baseball America, which has tabbed him as the organization's No. 2 prospect.

This story appeared in The Birmingham News.

BY RICK FIRES -
FAYETTEVILLE -- Dan Wright had an Arkansas baseball career that he wouldn't wish on anyone.

After going 5-2 as a freshman in 1997, Wright fell to 1-7 as a sophomore and 1-8 as a junior. He struggled so much that even Arkansas Coach Norm DeBriyn began feeling sorry for his pitcher.

"It got to be for Dan that whatever could go wrong, did go wrong," DeBriyn said. "He always had a tremendous arm, but he just couldn't put it all together. He had these weird little injuries, like a wart on his hand that bothered him, and he twisted his knee while riding home on a bus after his leg fell asleep.

"It was like, 'Golly, what's going to happen to this guy next?' "

It looks like Wright finally may have put his troubles behind him and is on a path to the big leagues. Wright of Batesville is playing in Birmingham, Ala., where he is the No. 1 starter for the Chicago White Sox's Class AA farm club.

"It's not a question of if Danny Wright will pitch in the big leagues, but when," Birmingham pitching coach Curt Hasler said. "You can't predict what's going to happen with the big club, but I know the White Sox organization is very high on him.

"Danny is a tremendously gifted player and a person with a good head on his shoulders. He just needs to keep working and doing what he's doing."

Despite a 7-17 record in college, the White Sox made Wright a second-round pick, the 64th overall selection, in the June 1999 draft. He was the second Arkansas player taken in the draft behind David Walling, who was a first-round draft pick, the 27th overall selection by the New York Yankees.

At 6-5, and with a fastball that has reached 96 mph, Wright certainly had the raw talent to warrant being such a high draft pick. Now he is turning that potential into results.

"Mechanically, nothing has really changed since I was pitching at Arkansas," Wright said. "I'm getting a lot more innings in the minors, and it's just a matter of going out there on a regular basis every five days and throwing.

"I wasn't winning at Arkansas and wasn't getting to pitch as much because of it. I was frustrated, but I never did get real down on myself.

"I wish things would've clicked a lot sooner for me and I could've won more games for the university. But better late than never, I guess."

Wright is 2-3 with a 3.38 ERA and leads the team in starts (10) and innings pitched (64). He also spent part of last season at Birmingham after being promoted from Class A Winston-Salem.

The Barons play at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, which is also the site of the SEC Tournament. Wright served notice to scouts in 1999 when he made a strong showing at the stadium in a 3-2 loss to Auburn in 11 innings.

"I really like pitching at the Met," Wright said. "It's a big, spacious ballpark, a pitcher's park. It's also close enough to Arkansas that my friends and family can come see me play. My parents [Roger and Jo Wright] made the trip before, and they'll be here again when they can arrange it."

Wright, who lost his last start, will pitch again this week against West Tennessee (Cubs) or Huntsville (Brewers).

"We give our starters the ball every five days, and they have to show what they can do," Hasler said. "Danny got banged around a little his last start, but he'd pitched exceptionally well before that.

"If we were about to enter a playoff game, he'd be the one I'd give the ball to."

Wright said he had heard about Walling, who became disenchanted with professional baseball and took a leave of absence from the Yankees, and understands the business aspect of the sport he plays.

"Professional baseball is definitely a business," said Wright, who lives in Fayetteville during the off-season. "It's not as team-oriented as college and high school baseball. You're kind of on your own.

"I look at it like I'm paying my dues to reach an ultimate goal. It's been a great experience, even the 10-hour bus rides to Orlando [Fla.]."

This story appeared on June 3, 2001 in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

By Mike Capshaw

Sunday, July 8, 2001
The Morning News/NWAonline.net
Starting pitchers have it easy.
They work only once every five days.
But the time in between is what can be the toughest.
Kickin' back in the dugout, spittin' sunflower seeds and watchin' others play.
A routine which makes most starters nothing short of bored.
Dan Wright, a former Razorback and current starter for the Class AA Birmingham Barons, has found the cure.
Fishing, fishing and more fishing.
Wright, who helped the Razorbacks to the 1999 Southeastern Conference title and was drafted in the second round by the Chicago White Sox, said he knew he would have to find some way to kill time between starts and used his signing bonus to buy a boat.
Complete with trolling motor and a depth finder, Wright said he takes his black and silver-sparkled Nitro out on the water as often as possible.
"The Coosa River is near here," Wright said. "I've caught a few black bass there in the five-pound range, but since it's a river they don't get as big. But there are a lot of spotted bass which are a lot of fun to catch."
When he's not burning up the Coosa River in his bass boat, Wright is burning up catcher's mitts with a 98-mile per hour fastball.
Wright (6-foot-5, 235 pounds) turned in a magnificent performance in his last start by pitching eight scoreless innings and striking out 10 in a 2-0 victory against Mobile on Wednesday night.
"As far as the end result, that was probably my best outing," Wright said. "I had pretty good location with my fastball and had my curveball working, so I was able to get ahead of some guys."
The win in Wright's 17th start upped his record to 5-6 and lowered his ERA to 3.05. He has currently recorded 106 strikeouts against only 35 walks in 112 innings.
That's a switch from his days at Arkansas, where he struggled with his control.
"Things just didn't go my way at Arkansas," Wright said. "But I learned a lot from (pitching coaches) Jay Eddings and Tim Montez and matured a ton while I was there."
And he's learning more at ever level, which has already included stops at low-rookie Tucson, Ariz., advanced-rookie Bristol, Va., Class A Burlington, Iowa, and Class A Winston-Salem, N.C.
"It's tough to set number goals because it's hard to control them," Wright said. "I'm just trying to get better every time out."

Wright's stuff lifts streaking Barons closer to top in West

07/17/01
LOUIS MURO
For The Birmingham News

Pitcher Dan Wright struck out 12 and extended his scoreless innings streak to 23 as the surging Birmingham Barons pulled within two games of first-place Mobile with a 6-0 win over the BayBears Monday night at the Hoover Met.
Birmingham, 12-11 in the second half of the Southern League season, but 11-3 in its last 14 games, entered Monday's first game of a four-game series hoping to cool off an equally red hot BayBears team that had won seven of its previous nine.
The Barons did just that, outhitting Mobile 12 to 4 while winning for the 12th time in 18 games against their West Division rivals this season.
Darron Ingram had four hits a double and three singles to lead the Birmingham attack against Mobile starter and loser Johnny Hunter (1-3).
Wright, 7-6 on the year after picking up his third straight win, pitched eight innings, walked just two batters, and was never in trouble. The 23-year-old right-hander from the University of Arkansas also pitched eight innings of shutout ball against Mobile in a 2-0 Birmingham win on July 4.
"It's just coming together right now," Wright said. "I'm confident with all three of my pitches. But we've been playing great defense, making all the plays."
Birmingham manager Nick Capra said Wright has been consistent all season, despite his record. "His earned run average has been down all year," he said. Wright leads the Barons with a 2.69 ERA.
Capra said defense has been a major factor in his team's recent surge. "We led the league in errors in the first half and we've worked hard to eliminate mistakes," he said. "That has made the difference."
Left fielder Rick Prieto gave Birmingham a 2-0 lead in the second with a two-out single, followed by a heads-up base running play.
With Ingram on second and Miguel Olivo on first, Prieto lined a sharp single to right field. When Al Benjamin's throw to the plate was too late to get Ingram, Mobile catcher Tim DeCinces threw to second to try to get Prieto.
The throw gave Prieto a chance to get in a run-down between first and second that lasted long enough to allow Olivo to score the second Birmingham run.
Ingram led off the fourth with his second single, stole second, and went to third on an Eric Battersby single. Olivo then topped a swinging bunt that rolled between the pitcher's mound and third base, allowing Ingram to score. Hunter got out of further trouble by getting Danny Sandoval to hit into a double play.
Birmingham rallied for two more runs in the seventh. With two outs, Prieto singled and stole second. Aaron Miles followed with a home run to right field, his third of the season, to give the Barons a 5-0 lead. Miles' homer marked the ninth straight game that Birmingham has hit at least one home run.
Ingram's fourth hit of the night, an RBI double, gave the Barons a 6-0 lead in the eighth.
BARONS NOTES: Mario Valenzuela, the Barons' leading hitter, has been promoted to Triple-A Charlotte. Valenzuela was hitting .290 with 12 home runs and 53 RBIs. He ranked eighth in the Southern League in hitting and was fourth on the RBI list.
Birmingham has acquired left-handed pitcher Wade Parrish from the Jacksonville Suns in a trade for McKay Christensen. Parrish, a 23-year-old from Othello, Wash., was 1-1 with a 5.14 ERA in four games with Jacksonville. Parrish started the season at Vero Beach and was 4-1 with six saves in 23 relief appearances.
Two left-handers will face each other in tonight's second game of the series at 7. Josh Stewart (0-4, 10.87 ERA) will pitch for Birmingham against Mobile's Mike Bynum (2-5, 4.61 ERA).

By Paul Glover, Guard Sports Editor

The Chicago White Sox just picked up a bunch of new fans.

Dan Wright, the 23-year-old son of Jo and Roger Wright, and the former Batesville Pioneer and Arkansas Razorback, was called up by the American League club Thursday night. He left the Birmingham Barons, the Class AA White Sox club, today to join the big league club in Boston. The White Sox are playing the Red Sox in a 3-game series starting tonight.

"Dan called us at about 9:30 last night," Jo Wright said this morning. "They (the Barons) were playing in Chattanooga (Tenn.), and, basically, Dan was just told to catch an 8 a.m. flight this morning to Boston. That flight was canceled, so he had to take a later one today and he's expected in Boston by 3 this afternoon."

The White Sox defeated the Cleveland Indians on Thursday night. The game tonight in Boston is scheduled to start at 6:05.

"Dan was very excited. So excited he could hardly talk," his mom said. "The first thing he said was, 'I'm going to Chicago.'"

Mom and dad thought about flying to Boston to join their son and the White Sox, too, but then they read the Chicago papers on-line.

"I read four Chicago papers this morning, and they're reporting that Dan will be used as a starter, or they may also use him as a closer. The next starting slot that's open in their rotation is Tuesday or Wednesday, when the White Sox are back home (against Kansas City)," Jo Wright said. "So we'll try to get to Chicago then, unless we find out something else."

According to the standings and schedule in the Associated Press , Kip Wells and Mark Buehrle will start tonight and Saturday, respectively.

According to an article in today's Chicago Tribune, the Sox starting rotation for the "rest of the year is likely to feature four young pitchers: Kip Wells (24), Mark Buehrle (21), Jon Garland (21) and Wright (23), along with 30-year-old Sean Lowe. Gone are David Wells, 38, and Cal Eldred, 33, both with season-ending injuries."

Gone, too, is James Baldwin, which opened up a spot for Wright.

"The 30-year-old right-hander was dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday for three mid-level prospects and cash in a decision based almost entirely on economics," according to Tribune writer Paul Sullivan.

"None of the three minor-leaguers - pitchers Onan Masaoka and Gary Majewski, and 32-year-old outfielder Jeff Barry - are expected to help the Sox pursue a playoff spot this year. Baldwin knew he was a goner when the Sox didn't offer him a multi-year deal last winter and had told friends privately in May that he expected to wind up in Los Angeles," Sullivan wrote.

The Sox are currently third in the Central Division, nine games behind the Minnesota Twins, with a 50-50 record. The Twins are 60-42. The Cleveland Indians are 58-42 and second in the standings, eight games ahead of the White Sox.

Wright's record in Birmingham was a middling 7-7, but his other numbers for the Barons are impressive. His earned-run average is 2.82, with 128 strikeouts and 41 walks.

July 27, 2001 Batesville Guard Online