By: Brian Frank
It’s easy to assume that a pitcher nicknamed “Cheese” earned the moniker from the slang term for a fastball – but Bisons starting pitcher Chad Dallas’s nickname has nothing to do with baseball. Instead, it's based on a favorite childhood cartoon character.
“It goes back to when I was anywhere from six to eight years old,” Dallas said in a recent interview with The Herd Chronicles. “It’s from ‘A Goofy Movie,’ where Pauly Shore voices over a character named Bobby – who I thought was the cool kid in the movie. He carried around a can of spray cheese and did this thing where he goes, ‘Cheddar, aoooo,’ and then sprays it down his mouth. I thought he was the cool kid, so I would do that around the house. It started out as Cheddar and then just slowly moved to Cheese. My parents don’t even call me Chad anymore. Cheese is all I hear and I’m used to it.”
Dallas grew up in Orange, Texas. He learned to play baseball in his backyard from his dad, along with his brother Jack, who’s currently a relief pitcher for the Jersey Shore Blue Claws, the High-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. Dallas chuckled when he recalled attending his first major league baseball game.
“I can’t remember which birthday it was, but it was a young birthday,” he smiled. “My dad and mom took me to an Astros game and convinced me that everyone in the stands came for my birthday. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. I believed it for a year or two and finally realized that was not the truth – but it was really cool at the time.”
Dallas grew up in Orange, Texas. Photo Credit: Brian Frank, The Herd Chronicles
Dallas starred for a powerful West Orange-Stark High School baseball team. He helped the team reach the state semifinals as a freshman. By his senior season, Dallas hit .410, only allowed four earned runs the entire season, and was named Orange County’s Most Valuable Player.
“We had a good group of guys freshman through senior year,” he remembered. “A couple of us are still playing ball, a set of twin brothers that are still in the Rangers organization – one actually was with the team that won the World Series last year (Grant Anderson), the other is still in the minors (Aidan Anderson) – and then my brother (Jack) is with the Phlilies, and we had another guy who is playing indy ball right now and is doing really well (Payton Robertson). A couple more buddies made it to college and that was really cool to see.”
After graduating, Dallas attended Panola College, a junior college in Carthage, Texas.
“It was truly my only offer to go and play baseball in college,” he said. “My dad also played at that same junior college when he was that age. I just didn’t want to stop playing. I thought I could at least make it past junior college. I just wanted to go there with an open mind and just give it my best shot. Everybody wants to play sports for as long as you can and that was my goal. It’s worked out so far and hopefully it will work out a little longer.”
He was completely dominant in his one season with the Ponies, going 5-0 with a 1.15 ERA while striking out 71 batters in just 39 innings pitched. His performance at Panola led to Division I offers. He eventually committed to the University of Tennessee.
“My dad and I went on a visit there,” he said. “Talking with the coaching staff and watching them play, there was just something different about it. You could feel the intensity. You could see the goals they had and you could see that they were putting in the work to get to those goals. It felt like home. I thought I had a chance to play, of course everybody wants to play when you get to a new school. My one concern as they were building to become the powerhouse that they are now was, what if I was the missing piece – and I’m not saying I was, but that was kind of my thought process – is what if I could help them get back. I hope I did my part as a player, just doing my job while I was there. But, yeah, that coaching staff got me there and it wasn’t that hard of a decision.”
“My dad and I got back from the visit,” he continued. “Some other schools were interested, but I called my dad not to long after that visit and said, ‘I think I need to go away from home and go to Tennessee.’ He said, ‘I was thinking the same thing.’ So we were both on the same page.”
The original plan was for Dallas to be a reliever at Tennessee, but an injury to a teammate before his first season turned into an opportunity for him.
“Garrett Crochet, now pitching for the Chicago White Sox, was supposed to be our guy,” Dallas explained. “He felt some discomfort in his arm about a week before the season. (It was) just kind of how things worked out with intersquads and stuff, that when it happened I just happened to be the guy who had the most rest and they trusted me with that role. I just tried to run with it. It was very shocking at the time, but I was really comfortable with the guys that were there to have my back if I didn’t do so well. It was a really good group of guys there that helped me along the way.”
Dallas has made 14 starts for the Herd. Photo Credit: Brian Frank, The Herd Chronicles
Dallas got off to a great start to his Division I career. He went 3-0 with a 2.53 ERA and 21 strikeouts in a team leading 21 1/3 innings pitched. However, after he'd made just four starts, the 2020 college baseball season was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I thought we had a really good team and I thought we were going to make some noise that season, then COVID shut it down pretty quick," he said. "But we had some good moments. We only lost two games that year before it got shut down.”
The Volunteers were an impressive 15-2 when the season came to its sudden end.
“One of my favorite moments from that year was going home to Texas for the Round Rock Classic and being able to pitch against Texas Tech,” Dallas said. “We ended up winning that game and then I think we swept that weekend. Since COVID ended up shutting it down, it was kind of like a crystal ball of what Tennessee could be and will be. That was a really fun time because a lot of family got to come to those games and it was really cool to have everybody there.”
In 2021, Dallas ranked sixth in the nation in wins, going 11-2 and posting a 4.19 ERA in 17 starts. He also led the Volunteers with 122 strikeouts, which ranked sixth in the program’s long history.
His best game that season came in one of the biggest moments of the season. In the opening game of the Super Regional against LSU, Dallas struck out a career high 12 batters in six innings, to lead the Vols to a 4-2 win.
“I didn’t get any attention from LSU out of JUCO, maybe that was a chip on my shoulder going into those games against those guys," he said. "Anytime I put on the ‘Power T’ and put that uniform on, I was just trying to do my best for the guys and I know they were trying to do the same for me. Growing up so close to LSU, you look at schools like that, especially the ones that are close to you – it was nice to have a good game against those guys and pull out the win."
Tennessee advanced to the College World Series in Omaha, where Dallas started the opening game, a 6-0 loss to the Virginia Cavaliers.
“We ended up losing, but I don’t look back and hate on any of those days or those memories,” he said. “It happened. I still get to look back on those memories and smile.”
“It was a dream come true,” he said of pitching in the College World Series. “You grow up and when you’re really young you think you’re going to play there and end up being the number one pick overall in the draft. You know, just wild dreams. But getting to actually live out that dream of playing in that was really cool – and I got to do it with some of the best friends that I’ll ever have in my life. A good amount of guys came from Tennessee to my wedding last offseason. Those guys will be in my life for the rest of it and we’ll have those memories forever. It was really, really cool.”
He added with a smile, “Shout out to the Tennessee Volunteers, 2024 National Champs.”
Dallas enjoyed having the opportunity to pitch in the tough South Eastern Conference (S.E.C.).
“Everybody says it and it’s not cliché, it’s the truth, it’s a battle every weekend,” he said. “Whether somebody comes to your place or you go to theirs. There’s not a fan base in the S.E.C. that’s not loyal to their team and their fans are trying to beat you down just as much as your trying to beat their team. That’s just how it is. That’s how it’s supposed to be. But yeah, it’s really cool pitching in those environments and I think it helps with anytime you get to pitch in front of a big crowd – you’ve been there before. Getting to pitch against that kind of competition is really good as well. A lot of times you’ll see guys that you either played with in college or played against throughout the minor leagues.”
After his second season at Tennessee, Dallas was selected by the Blue Jays in the fourth round of the 2021 MLB June Amateur Draft.
“I was back home in Texas at my parents’ house,” he recalled of the moment he was drafted. “A lot of friends and family came over. We had a decent idea of when it was going to happen, so we invited some people over. I was surrounded by people who were happy for me that watched me grow up and helped me get to that point – and that was really cool, especially now looking back. At the moment, you’re kind of thinking oh my gosh what’s going on, but looking back on it now, all those people had played a part in how I got there. Actually, (Bisons reliever) Connor Cooke’s high school coach was at my house when it happened. My parents and his high school baseball coach grew up together and went to high school together. So I got to spend some time with him. It’s really cool looking back and thinking about that day because it’s a life changing day. You get to truly live out a dream. It was the start of my professional career and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Dallas headed to Dunedin after the draft for his first taste of professional baseball.
“Our whole draft class went down to Dunedin probably two or three days after the draft,” he said. “We had our draft camp, kind of a two-week process where you kind of get to know everybody, staff wise and player wise. Kind of a slow build up. Some guys got to go out and play that year. They held a couple of us back due to innings, or whatever it was. So I just did a slow build up and pitched in instructs that year – me, Ricky Tiedemann and Irv Carter. It was not a bad group to be surrounded by, that’s for sure.”
Dallas is in his third professional season. Photo Credit: Brian Frank, The Herd Chronicles
Dallas spent the 2021 season with the High-A Vancouver Canadians, who were playing their games at Ron Tonkin Field in Hillsboro, Oregon, due to the U.S.-Canada border being shutdown because of the ongoing pandemic. Dallas had a 4.16 ERA in 21 starts, striking out 86 batters in 88 innings pitched.
“It was a bit was a growing year,” he said of his first professional season. “I think I put a lot of pressure on myself, unnecessary pressure. I think that happens more often than people think. You put a certain amount of pressure on yourself, and sometimes you put too much. I think I just gave hitters too much credit. I'm telling myself I'm a professional pitcher as well, just like their professional hitters. I think I got away from who I really am as a pitcher. After that season, I kind of told myself that I'll have my moments where you start to sink into that doubt. I like to go back to that year when I do have moments like that. I kind of let myself know – hey, that's not how you do it. It's not how you get out of it. It's how you just go deeper in the hole. The coaching staff there helped me out a lot during the season throughout my struggles. It was a growing year.”
Last year, Dallas began the season at Vancouver, where he dominated with a 2.03 ERA in five starts, before being promoted to Double-A New Hampshire. He made 18 starts for the Fisher Cats, throwing 96 2/3 innings while recording a 4.10 ERA.
“I give a lot of credit from last year to the 2022 season because I told myself in that offseason that you're not sinking down into that hole again,” he explained. “You’re not going to run away from barrels. You're going to throw strikes – and if they hit it, they hit it. It comes with the job – giving up runs and walking people. You just try to limit it. So, last year the goal was just limit walks and just try to compete for as long as you can until the coach pulls you. Things worked out last year, thanks to good teammates and good coaches. It was a really fun year. I’m just trying to build off of that one.”
Dallas's pitching arsenal consists of a four-seam fastball, cutter, slider, curveball, an occasional changeup – and a sinker, which he just added this spring.
“I think it has helped a lot with, especially righties,” he said of his new sinker. “Just getting some to go into a righty or maybe even away from the lefty since the changeup has been somewhat of a struggle. I’ve been using it (the sinker) a decent amount. It's definitely not my go to pitch, but it's something to get into a hitter’s head. When you throw it for strikes, it's something that they have to respect. So that's kind of the plan we had for it was just give a hitter something else to think about. I think it's definitely helped me out.”
He considers his slider and cutter to be his best two pitches. He developed his slider while at Tennessee.
“I learned it right before Christmas break in my junior year of college from my pitching coach, Frank Anderson," Dallas explained. "He has a son (former Bison) Brett Anderson who pitched in the big leagues for a really long time. We took his grip, even though he's a lefty, and just switched it around. We took his cutter grip. When I was trying to learn a cutter, I was getting around a little too much and turned into a slider. I stuck with that grip until (recently). It just slowly started to not be as good – whether I lost the feel of it or whatever it was. But we switched to a different slider grip, which now feels pretty comfortable. It's kind of the shape that it once was. But that's how pitching works. You're not going to keep the same pitch grips or even the same pitches your whole career. I guess that's the name of baseball is adjustment. So this one is a little bit different, but it feels really good right now and we're just going to see if we can keep building on it.”
Dallas recently added a sinker to his arsenal. Photo Credit: Brian Frank, The Herd Chronicles
He credits Bisons catcher Phil Clarke with helping him develop his cutter in Double-A last season.
“We tried to get it going into spring training last year, but couldn't really figure it out,” Dallas said. “Then, in my second start in New Hampshire, my fastball just wasn't in the zone. That happens. You lose the feel for it sometimes. Thanks to Phil Clarke – he called it (his cutter), because in my bullpen that week, it was working a little bit. So we were like, you know what, the fastball isn’t working, we might as well try something else. He kept calling (the cutter) over and over and over again. It slowly started to become a consistent pitch where we could use it whenever. I always mess with him and say he changed my career with that. But he just kept calling it and it turned into a good pitch for me. So thanks to Phil Clarke, I get to use my cutter.”
“My changeup is still iffy,” he added. “I'm still working on it. It's a process. I'm willing to keep trying it because I know how good of a pitch a changeup is and I'd love to have one. If it happens, it'd be awesome. If not, then we'll just try to keep sharpening up the pitches I do have.”
Dallas has made 14 starts for the Bisons this season. He missed some time in late May and early June with a shoulder injury. The 24-year-old, currently rated by MLB Pipeline as the Blue Jays 15th ranked prospect, has looked strong in his most recent starts.
“I think at the beginning of this season, I might have put a little too much pressure on myself, making the adjustment from Double-A to Triple-A and giving these hitters maybe a little too much credit,” he said. “But I also think I was a little out of my mechanics. So I called my time on the injured list a blessing in disguise because as I built back up I could kind of feel my body move a little better and realized that I wasn't really getting into my legs as much. So that's kind of been a focus. For me, if I dumb things down, I usually do better.”
“The past couple starts I’ve been trying to make sure I get into my legs and throw strikes. If they hit it, they hit it. It’s just cost of doing business if they do. I think when I'm on a roll, it's just me attacking. If I'm not attacking, if I'm not throwing strikes, it's not going to be good. So really my only goals are just pound the zone and then if I get into a strikeout count, take my chance – and if that one doesn't work out, just get back in the zone. You’ve got a lot of guys behind you that can play really good defense, so you’ve just got to trust those guys to make the plays.”
Although the Bisons are off to a slow start in the second half, Dallas is confident the team can turn things around and have a strong second half.
“I think we have a really good group,” he said. “I think we've shown that throughout the first half. It's all about consistency and adjustments in this game. You can do good things, but if you can't do them consistently, then it's not the same. I think with this group of guys, we can pitch, we can hit, and play defense. You’ve just got to put it all together. I know we can as a team. I've seen these guys play. Most of these guys I've played with my whole career, if not almost all of them, and I've seen them grow just as much as me. It's really cool to be coming up through the system with the same guys. As long as we play our game and stay cool, calm, and collected, then I think we’ll be fine
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