Smith, Black Added To 40-Man Rosters
11/25/2014 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
PITTSBURGH - Last week a pair of former Pitt baseball players were added to their teams' 40-man rosters, protecting them from December's Rule 5 Draft.
Catcher Kevan Smith and pitcher Ray Black, both members of the 2011 draft class, were inked to 40-man rosters by the teams that initially drafted them three years ago. Smith was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the seventh round with the 231st pick and Black was taken that same round and six spots later by the San Francisco Giants. The Giants are the reigning World Series champions. The duo stands as the seventh and eighth highest draft picks in Pitt history.
"I could not be more pleased for Kevan and Ray to make their respective MLB 40-man rosters," said Pitt head coach Joe Jordano. "Both are extremely hard workers and have an undeniable passion for the game. Our program works hard to develop players, and these are two more examples of players with great talent and desire. They're very close to reaching their goal of playing MLB Baseball following their playing careers in our program."
In his senior season with the Panthers, Smith led the team with a .397 batting average, a .675 slugging percentage, 59 runs, 83 hits and 17 doubles. He also added 11 homers and 56 runs batted in, both of which were second on the team. He was a two-time All-BIG EAST first-team selection and named to the ABCA All-East Region team following the campaign.
Playing in his fourth professional season, Smith spent the entire year with the Birmingham Barons of Double-A. In 106 games, Smith had a .290 batting average with 10 homers, 48 RBIs, 21 doubles and throw out 33-percent of attempted base-stealers. For his efforts, he was named a Southern League midseason all-star. It was Smith's highest batting average in a season since his debut in the Rookie League. Overall in four years at the minor league level, Smith is batting .296 with 41 homers, 252 RBIs and 99 doubles.
Smith will be a contender for a spot on the big league roster come spring training as the other three catchers on the White Sox 40-man roster have combined to play just 443 big league games, with Tyler Flowers eating up 319 games of those by himself.
Black spent three seasons with the Pitt baseball team before turning pro. During his final season, Black made 18 relief appearances and recorded four saves while going 1-1 with 33 strikeouts in 20 innings. In his two playing years, Black accumulated five saves, which ranked eighth all-time in the Pitt record books when he departed.
Since being drafted in 2011, Black missed all of 2012 and 2013 due to an injury, but came back even stronger. In his first professional campaign, where he split time between the Augusta GreenJackets and the San Jose Giants of both of class A, the hard-throwing Black went 2-3 with a 3.57 earned run average in 37 relief appearances with one save. In just 35.1 innings, he fanned 71 batters and allowed opposing hitters to bat just .140. Black's strikeout-to-walk ratio was 4.44 while his strikeouts per nine innings was 2.02.
Following the surgery, Black is consistently reaching triple digits and hitting 100 miles per hour on the radar gun. Talking with his hometown paper the Citizen Voice, Black said of being added to the 40-man roster, "It's exciting. Baseball has been a bumpy road with the setbacks and injuries. I got the call from the assistant GM and I was speechless at first."