7/10/2018 baseball Edit

Report: Indiana Baseball Hires Dan Held Hires As Recruiting Coordinator

Stu Jackson • TheHoosier

Staff Writer

Stu Jackson covers Indiana University basketball, football and recruiting for TheHoosier.com. He also hosts Heard on The Hoosier, the site's official podcast.

Don't miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball and recruiting coverage. Click here to get your 30-day free trial!

According to D1Baseball.com's Kendall Rogers, new IU baseball head coach Jeff Mercer will hire Indiana Bulls executive director Dan Held as the Hoosiers' recruiting coordinator.

Held was a 42nd round pick out of Waukesha County Technical College by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1993 MLB Draft. Following a nine-year career in minor league and independent ball, Held was hired as the Batavia (Ill.) Muckdogs - the Class A Short-Season affiliate of the New York Yankees - in 2001, according to a 2009 story from the Neosho (Mo.) Daily News and 2016 story from the Indianapolis Star.

After his stint with the Batavia Muckdogs, Held spent five seasons as an assistant bullpen coach for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2003-2007, culminated by the Cardinals winning the World Series in 2006 and appearing in the 2004 World Series.

According to details from those same two stories, frequent travel resulted in Held stepping down from his position with the Cardinals in order to spend more time with his young family. That decision was made following the 2007 season and led to Held being hired as the Indiana Bulls' executive director, a position he held for nearly a decade. Under Held's watch, the Bulls organization more than tripled in size from seven teams to 23 and secured Indiana-based LIDS as a corporate sponsor.

Held's hire would be the second for Mercer, who also reportedly added Central Florida assistant coach Justin Parker to his staff last week. Parker served UCF's pitching coach across the last two seasons after six seasons on Mercer's staff at Wright State.