Where Are They Now? Dan Jennings
Valley High School: 2005
August 12, 2009
Dan Jennings was 5 feet 2 inches tall after his sophomore year of high school. That’s when he was throwing 75 miles-per-hour and looking at division three colleges to play baseball.
Two years later he was 6 feet 3 inches tall, throwing 89 miles-per-hour, and University of Nebraska-bound. Lincoln was his destination, thanks in large part to his dad.
After his junior season at Valley, Jennings plans were to head to Central College to be a diamond in the rough on the mound for the Dutch. He was unaware though that his dad was sending out letters to area division-one schools. Those letters spoke of his great size, his great left arm and his interest in engineering.
Nebraska took the bait and brought the tall left-hander to Lincoln for a visit.
“I went out there and took a visit and my eyes were as wide as can be,” Jennings said. “To imagine that it would be possible for me to play there was like dream come true.”
The Huskers offered Jennings a partial scholarship and he accepted on the spot.
He then returned home to West Des Moines and led his team to a second straight state title. And for the record, the kid could do more than pitch. He left Valley in 2005 as the career batting average leader at .482.
As you could imagine, the transition from the CIML Iowa Conference to the Big 12 wasn’t a very smooth one, as it rarely is for anyone.
“I just didn’t have a very good freshman season at all,” Jennings said. “You need at least two pitches to be able to pitch effectively in college, and I really only had one.”
After his less-than-stellar freshman season at Nebraska ended, he played summer ball in Waterloo and continued to struggle.
“I was getting shelled every time I pitched for the first half of the season,” Jennings said. “I just wanted to hang it up and never play again.”
Lucky for him and for the Huskers he didn’t hang it up. Instead he took some advice from his summer league coach and learned a slider and started throwing every pitch with all his might. That advice worked swimmingly for Jennings and that’s when his career began to soar.
He didn’t get a lot of action his sophomore year during the regular season, but in the post season he thrived and he said that’s when he really started to gain a lot of the ever-important self-confidence. That success continued into the summer.
“After my sophomore season I played summer ball again in Waterloo and just had a blowout summer,” Jennings said. “I was top 10 in strike outs, E.R.A., complete games and shut-outs. I really slated myself for a good spot in the rotation back at school.”
He continued to impress and evolve during his junior season at Nebraska, and at one point he pitched 30 and two-thirds innings without giving up a run. That is the second longest streak in Husker history. That flash of brilliance undoubtedly caught the attention of the Florida Marlins, who drafted Jennings less than a week after his junior season in the ninth round of the 2008 MLB draft.
And now he was at a crossroads. Does he stay in college for one more season and possibly improve his draft status for the 2009 draft? Or does he sign with the Marlins and begin his journey to the big leagues.
It wasn’t easy, but Jennings chose to be a fish.
“To be honest there was a lot that factored in to my decision you know. There’s long bus trips, endless nights in hotels, overnight bus trips, playing 140 games in a year. You’re leaving all your friends and everything you know to pack up two suitcases of your clothes and go play where they want you to play. But I still get to play baseball everyday and that’s the bottom line. I’m very happy with my decision,” Jennings said.
He started his professional career in Jamestown, New York, and stayed there for the entire 2008 season, and had an interesting stay to say the least. And just like anything else in life, you have to pay your dues.
“It’s a really small town with no one around and I lived in a house with 11 guys and no furniture,” Jennings said. “I slept on an air mattress every night.”
Jennings ended his debut season in Jamestown with a good 3.53 E.R.A. and was excited to move up in the Marlins farm system. However there was a slight bump in the road. He had to have an emergency appendix removal at the end of Spring Training last March.
That appendix may have been holding Jennings back, because he came back from a two week rehab and was amazing for the single-A Greensboro Grasshoppers. He threw 18 scoreless innings to start the season.
“Basically I was going out there and just using my frustration of being shelved for two weeks and just knowing I have to perform,” Jennings said. “I knew what I had to do, and only the strongest will survive at this point.”
Jennings is being used primarily as a relief pitcher now and he’s fine with that, it seems to be working out quite well for him too.
“About a week ago I got a call from the Marlins saying I was getting promoted to advanced A-ball down here in West Palm, Florida,” Jennings said.
Last week he closed out a game for Anibal Sanchez, who pitched a no-hitter for the Marlins in 2006 and is making rehab starts in West Palm. Also last week he was pitching head-to-head against Mets star-reliever Billy Wagner, who was rehabbing as well.
Barring a trade, the next step for Jennings is AA baseball for the Jacksonville Suns. And according to him the Marlins tend to pull players straight to the big leagues from AA often. It may not be too long before this young man is pitching at Dolphin Stadium. Time will tell.
TJ Rushing, High School Playbook
P.S.
Jennings on being a relief pitcher: “I’m fairly sure I’ll be a bullpen guy for the rest of my career which is better for me because I can throw a lot harder out of the bullpen and my stuff works a lot better being only a two-pitcher guy.”
Jennings comparing the stadium he played at in single-A Greensboro to Principal Park: “The stadium is just as good if not better, just not as many seats, which is good because it looks like it’s packed all the time. But the facilities and atmosphere and fans and everything, I’d say it’s just as good.”
Jennings on playing at Valley: "The only reason I’m here where I am now is because I wasn’t just handed anything. I had to fight for every spot I got on that team and had to wait my turn.”
Jennings told me he has tentative plans to return to the University of Nebraska in the fall to continue and work on his degree, which he's 45 credits shy of aquiring. He started out studying to be an engineer, but the wotkload was too heavy when baseball was factored in. He is now striving for a business degree.
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