Mason Black was born in Pennsylvania. Black was selected by the San Francisco Giants in the third round after attending Lehigh University. He was born in Scranton. He is one of the Giants’ best pitching prospects, and his professional career has been successful thus far. In a large sample size at Triple-A, he shown strong pitching, and he might be able to enter the starting rotation as early as May of the next season.
Black spent about equal amounts of time with the Double-A and Triple-A affiliates of the Giants. With 63 innings pitched, a 3.57 ERA, 3.23 FIP, and 1.05 WHIP, he started the season with the Giants’ Double-A squad. Black combined a strong 8.3% walk rate with a strikeout rate of 32.7%, which he used to strike out over a third of opponents. Additionally, the prospect who pitches right-handed recorded a decent 1.00 HR/9 rate.
At Triple-A, Black had a 3.86 ERA, 5.35 FIP, and 1.36 WHIP after being promoted. The right-hander prevailed in his battle against the hard pitching environment of the PCL. Black’s walk rate of 12% and HR/9 rate of 1.34 were about league average. However, his strikeout percentage of 27.9% was 6.1% higher than the PCL norm. Additionally, he had to become used to the ABS system in the middle of the season because Double-A did not use it while playing. At Triple-A, he pitched 60.2 innings, almost exactly the same as he did at Double-A.
Black has four pitches in his toolbox. The first is his most common pitch, a four-seam fastball. His fastball plays up despite the pitch’s average spin and 93–95 mph velocity thanks to his low arm slot. In addition, he will toss a sinker with a little less spin and velocity. Black can throw a sweeper as well as a slider. The sweeper has an RPM of more than 2500 and breaks balls in the low 80s. With less spin and at a rate closer to 2400 RPM, he tosses his slider with greater velocity, hovering in the mid-80s.
