Oak Mountain (Birmingham, Ala.) senior outfielder
David Dahl was on third base in the season opener this spring. A teammate hit a popup near the dugout and the pitcher, third baseman and catcher converged on the ball. Most players would go back to third base and remain motionless when a defender caught the ball.
Dahl noticed that no one covered home plate, then tagged up. As soon as the ball was caught, Dahl, without any signal from his coach, took off and scored.
David Dahl, Oak Mountain
Photo courtesy of Kelli Dahl
One of the nation's top high school players and considered a first-round pick in June's amateur draft, Dahl has all the tools: tremendous speed, power and an arm that can throw a baseball more than 90 mph. However, it's his makeup and understanding of the game that most impresses scouts, his high school coach and even his own father, Mike.
"Just the way he handles himself," Mike said. "He doesn't let anything get to him. He has scouts at every game, every practice. I worry to death. Nothing seems to bother him. … Just real humble and laid back. I am just proud of the way he has handled the whole situation. Does a lot better than I do."
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound Dahl, who bats left-handed and throws right-handed, has already signed with Auburn University. He has thought little about the draft and his future. Oak Mountain coach Brian Breeze, who called Dahl the best high school player he has ever seen, had one conversation with his outfielder about the draft. Breeze has wanted to make Dahl's senior year "as normal as possible."
"I don't really worry about it," Dahl said. "I just go out and play and have fun. I usually just to try avoid (the draft), not think about it much, because you really don't know what's going to happen with that. It's March, you've still got a couple of months. Anything can happen."
Dahl's even-keel nature has helped him overcome several obstacles in the last two years, including a back injury that cost him nearly all of his sophomore season, and a bout of mononucleosis that flared up last summer. Dahl missed several weeks with the illness, but has had no lasting effects or problems.
National scouts and coaches consider the illness and injury a non-factor for the draft. Despite missing time in tryouts because of injury and illness, Dahl still made the 2011 USA Under-18 National Team that won a gold medal at the Junior Pan American Championships last November.
"David has a great understanding of the game," Team USA's 18-U National Team Director Brant Ust said. "He was a great teammate. It meant a lot to him to play for Team USA and he likes to keep things simple. You are not going to get a complicated roller coaster, up-and-down player. He plays at an even keel and in this game and in this sport, with the failure that you are going to face, that's the best temperament to have."
This spring, he is hitting around .450 for a 12-3 team. Dahl has worked with Willie Smith, a former Olympic sprinter, and improved his speed from the high 6 seconds to 6.49 seconds in the 60-yard dash.
"His knowledge and his savviness, that's the thing that is probably the most impressive. Everybody knows he has got a great arm and he can hit, but just his speed and just his knowledge of the game of baseball are the two things that I really think he is light years ahead of most kids his age," Breeze said.
Perfect Game National Director of Scouting David Rawnsley has called Dahl probably the best high school defensive outfielder in the country. In addition to his arm strength and speed, Dahl shows great instincts in the outfield.
"Usually I can tell if a guy is late," Dahl said. "I can move over a little bit. I will move my right fielder or my left fielder with me. I usually can read swings, too, that helps. I don't know how. I just can read it."
Rawnsley compares Dahl to Steve Finley, a longtime Major League player who was known for his defense and doubles power. Rawnsley said Dahl "definitely has all the tools," including a plus throwing arm that's accurate. Dahl is patient at the plate, a player who Rawnsley said is going to take a lot of walks.
"Very heady, very intelligent, very advanced," Rawnsley said. "He is a very smart player."
Dahl grew up around baseball. Mike Dahl played in high school, but never played in college. Instead, he played slow-pitch softball for many years. When David was little, he took a wiffle ball bat to the softball diamond.
"My teammates would just throw to him all the time," Mike said.
As David grew, Mike would pick him up from school and the two would go hit every day. Mike recalled father and son hitting four to six days a week, at least an hour a session. David practiced hitting the ball to the opposite field. In games, he could hit the ball to shortstop or third base and then beat out the throw.
"I just loved to hit," David said. "He just liked to watch me hit and throw to me."
When David was 10 years old, he started playing travel baseball and always performed well at top-tier tournaments. At age 12, he realized he could go "pretty far" in baseball after he hit three homers in a game – and eight homers in some tournaments – on several occasions. At 14, David played on the Under-14 Alabama team that won the USSSA Elite 24 tournament. He earned tournament MVP honors.
The next year, David was invited to play in NorCal, a program that has produced Major Leaguer stars like Jimmy Rollins, Pat Burrell and Dontrelle Willis. He ended up staying the entire summer, an experience that helped him for showcases and on Team USA.
"Good for him to play with some different guys and some different coaches," Mike said. "Every night he would call and give us updates. I thought he learned a lot just being able to live on his own. I thought that helped him with the future."
David, though, had a setback his sophomore year. In weight training class, he and other students were maxing out. David squatted 425 pounds, but felt tight afterwards, and the next day, his back started hurting. He knew something was wrong, but tried to play through the injury. He played part of his high school season, but the pain was too great. He had to take six months off.
"That was really hard, because in those six months, I really couldn't do anything," he said. "I just could only sit around and watch TV. I couldn't work out."
David was released just a few weeks before his junior year started. He helped Oak Mountain finish 19-14 and hit .449 with three triples and two homers, leading to All-State and All-Metro honors and was named Shelby County Hitter of the Year.
In his basement, David has developed strength through work with medicine balls, bands and dumbbells. In addition, he has two shoulder workouts he does every day in the offseason and two to three times a week in season.
"He probably has got a lot more strength in him because we haven't done the really heavy weight," Mike said.
Last summer, though, David had his second setback. He traveled down to Mississippi for a tryout in 100-degree heat and he went out to the Perfect Game Showcase before developing migraines and losing his apetite. He felt really tired and believed he was dehydrated from the Mississippi tryout.
David went home before he went to USA Baseball's Tournament of Stars in June in Cary, N.C. He led all hitters in the tournament with a .714 average after two days, but his throat started hurting and he couldn't eat or drink. He had to head home and missed several weeks with mono. Still, his talent left an impact with Team USA.
"He offers a complete package," Ust said. "He is a great athlete with a great awareness in the outfield with a plus arm. He can make all the throws, gets to a lot of baseballs, can play all three outfield positions. He batted leadoff for us on the national team and was able to work counts, he was selective up there, get favorable counts for himself, but was also able to provide a little pop, a little power."
The organization tracked David in his recovery and performance in events once he became healthy.
"It was crazy," Ust said. "He just picked up from where he left off it seemed. For us, it was a no-brainer to invite him back to be part of the national team process."
David called playing for the national team his best experience as a baseball player. In November, Team USA traveled to Cartegena, Colombia, and won a gold medal in the Junior Pan American Championships. Not only did David enjoy winning, but came back home with a greater appreciation for his quality of life.
"Just made you realize how good it is to play in America with all of the things that we have and playing against all of those teams, some of them just didn't really have much, and all the stuff we had, everybody was eyeing it," he said. "It's just amazing – playing with the group of guys that we played with. Our team, we were just loaded with talent."
This season, David has continued to put up big numbers – and show his advanced intelligence in front of dozens of scouts.
Breeze, in his second year as Oak Mountain's head coach, will always see David come out quickly from the batter's box and think extra bases. Several days ago, he hit a routine single to left-center field.
"The left fielder was thinking, ‘Hey, this is just a single, it's routine,'" Breeze said. "He just sort of nonchalant comes up and the next thing you know, David is sliding into second base and it's a double. Honestly, other than the balls that he hits into the gaps or hits off the fence, he stretches a lot of those into doubles because of hard-nosed play. Again, I think that's the difference between David and most kids. He is coming out of the box every single time. That's the saaviness that he brings, just that hard-nosed, grit attitude."
