Hunter Pence

Infobox MLB player
name=Hunter Pence

---

width=300
position=Right fielder
team=Houston Astros
number=9
bats=Right
throws=Right
birthdate=birth date and age|1983|4|13
debutdate=April 28
debutyear=2007
debutteam=Houston Astros
statyear=May 19, 2008
stat1label=Batting average
stat1value=.313
stat2label=Home runs| stat2value=21
stat3label=RBI
stat3value=92
stat6label=SLG
stat6value=.514
teams=
*Houston Astros (by|2007-present)

Hunter Andrew Pence (born April 13, 1983, in Arlington, Texas) is a major league outfielder with the Houston Astros. Pence is 6' 4" tall, and weighs 210 pounds. He bats and throws right handed.

Early Life

Pence attended Arlington High School in Arlington, Texas. He played shortstop and wore #8. He later made the transition to outfield in college.

Minor leagues

Pence was drafted in the second round of the 2004 draft by the Astros out of the University of Texas at Arlington. In 2006 with the AA Corpus Christi Hooks, Pence batted .283 and hit 28 home runs, with 95 RBI. He had 17 stolen bases, while being caught stealing only 4 times. [cite web| title=Hunter Pence Stats, Statistics, and Fantasy News - Rotowire.com| publication=Rotowire.com| url=http://www.rotowire.com/baseball/player.htm?id=8727| date=2007-06| accessdate=2007-06-20] Pence began the 2007 season as the AAA Round Rock Express' center fielder, [cite news| publication=Houston Chronicle| author=Richard Justice| title=SportsJustice: Hunter Pence sent to Minors. For Now.| url=http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/archives/2007/03/rockets_win_one.html| date=2007-03-21| accessdate=2007-06-20] though he made a serious run to make the big league club out of spring training. While in the Minor Leagues, Hunter Pence went by the nickname "Bam Bam", but before the 2007 season, he earned the nickname "The Natural".

Major leagues

2007 season

Pence made his major league debut as the Houston Astros center fielder on April 28, 2007, vs. the Milwaukee Brewers [cite news| publication=Associated Press| title=MLB = Milwaukee Brewers/Houston Astros Recap Saturday April 28, 2007 - Yahoo! Sports| url=http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=270428118| date=2007-04-28| accessdate=2007-04-29] and got his first major league hit and scored his first run. Pence's first home run in the majors was a grand slam, against the St. Louis Cardinals on May 5th. Pence hit a dramatic walk-off home run against Jose Mesa of the Philadelphia Phillies in the bottom of the 13th inning at Minute Maid Park on July 3rd in a 5-4 win. It was Mesa's only pitch of the game.

Throughout the first half of 2007 he was often referred to on ESPN's Baseball Tonight as "Rookie Phenom Hunter Pence" by analyst Steve Berthiaume.

On July 23rd, General Manager Tim Purpura announced that Pence would be out with a with a small chipped bone fracture in his right wrist. On August 21st, Pence was activated from the disabled list. At that point, despite having missed a month he was 4th among NL rookies in at bats.

Pence led NL rookies in triples (9), was 2nd to Ryan Braun in batting average (.322), on-base percentage (.360), slugging percentage (.539), and OPS (.899), 4th behind Braun, Troy Tulowitzki, and Chris Young in extra base hits (56) and total bases (246), 4th in RBIs (69; behind Tulowitzki, Braun, and Kevin Kouzmanoff), and 4th in at bats (behind Tulowitzki, Young, and Kousmanoff), tied for 5th in runs (57; behind Tulowitzki, Braun, Young, and Mark Reynolds), tied for 6th in home runs (17), and 7th in stolen bases (11).

Pence was a unanimous selection to the 2007 Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team. The selection was the result of the 49th annual Topps balloting of Major League managers. [ [http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20071126&content_id=2307272&vkey=pr_kc&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc "Topps announces the 49th annual Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team," KansasCity.Royals.mlb.com, 11/26/07, accessed 11/26/07] ]

Pence (15 points) came in third, and lost out to Braun (128 points) in the vote for the 2007 NL Sporting News Rookie of the Year Award by 488 major league players and 30 managers. [cite web| title=SN awards: A-Rod is player of the year| publication=Sporting News| url=http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=290147| date=2007-10-15 | accessdate=2008-01-05]

[cite web| title=Sporting News honors A-Rod - Third baseman earns magazine's Player of the Year award| publication=MLB.com| url=http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071015&content_id=2267061&vkey=ps2007news&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb| date=2007-10-15 | accessdate=2008-01-05] He also lost out to Braun in the competition for the 2007 Baseball America Rookie of the Year Award, [ [http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/majors/features/265033.html "Record-Setting Bat Propels Braun," Baseball America, 10/17/07, accessed 10/18/07] ] in the vote for the 2007 Players Choice NL Most Outstanding Rookie by their fellow major league players, [cite web| title=Major League Baseball Players Recognize Top Rookie in Each League| url=http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/48735746_sports_major_league_baseball_players_recognize_top_rookie_each_league| date=2007-10-26 | accessdate=2008-01-05] and in the Baseball Prospectus 2007 Internet Baseball NL Rookie of the Year Award, with 16 first place votes, versus 666 for Braun. [ [http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6897 "The 2007 Internet Baseball Awards; Results and Wrap-Up, Baseball Prospectus, 11/1/07, accessed 11/2/07] ]

Pence has also been called "The Pickle" in reference the BLT (Berkman, Lee, Tejada) core hitters in the Astros lineup.

2008 season

In his sophomore season, Hunter Pence set new career records in home runs (25), runs batted in (83), doubles (25), hits (160), and at bats (595). However, his batting average dipped to .269, his on-base percentage fell to .318, and his slugging percentage also fell to .466.Hunter Pence also established himself as a gold glove outfielder. He led the league in outfield assists with 16, committed 1 error, making his fielding percentage .997.

Awards

*2003 - Summer League First-Team All-American DH
*2003 - Southland Conference All-Star OF
*2004 - Southland Conference Player of the Year
*2004 - Southland Conference All-Star OF
*2004 - Southland Conference Hitter of the Year
*2005 - Low A All-Star OF
*2005 - Houston Astros Minor League Player of the Year
*2005 - South Atlantic League All-Star OF
*2005 - South Atlantic League Most Outstanding Prospect
*2006 - Future Games selection
*2006 - Baseball America Minor League All-Star
*2006 - Arizona Fall League All-Prospect Team
*2007 - National League Player of the Week along with Jose Valverde of the Arizona Diamondbacks. [cite web
url=http://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20070521&content_id=1977899&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb&partnered=rss_hou |title=Arizona's Valverde, Houston's Pence named co-winners of Bank of America Presents the National League Player of the Week |accessdate=2007-05-22 |date=2007-05-21 |publisher=MLB.com]
* 2007 - National League Rookie of the Month- for the month of May. [cite web
url=http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20070604&content_id=2005322&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb |title=Pedroia, Pence selected as Rookies of the Month |accessdate=2007-06-04 |date=2007-06-04 |publisher=MLB.com]

References

External links

* [http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=28687 ESPN]
* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/p/pencehu01.shtml Pence's statistics at Baseball-Reference.com]
* [http://thebaseballcube.com/players/P/Hunter-Pence.shtml Baseball Cube stats]
* [http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/HunterandHowiePenceNews/ Another Hunter Pence Fan Site]
* [http://houston.astros.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=452254 MLB player page]
* [http://www.insidetheballpark.com/ Inside the Ballpark with Hunter Pence Blog]

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