HUNTER PENCE

'Hunter Andrew Pence' (born April 13, 1983, in Fort Worth, 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.

Contents

Minor leagues

Major leagues

Houston Astros (2007)

Awards

References

External links

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.^[1] Pence began the 2007 season as the AAA Round Rock Express' center fielder,^[2] though he made a serious run to make the big league club out of spring training. Before the 2007 season started, he earned the nickname "The Natural."

Major leagues

Houston Astros (2007)

Pence made his major league debut as the Astros center fielder on April 28, 2007, vs. the Milwaukee Brewers^[3] 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 4-6 weeks, with a with a small chipped bone fracture in his right wrist. Before his injury Pence was one of the top contenders for the National League Rookie of the Year award. 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.
'NL Rookie of the Year Race'. As of September 5th, Pence was 2nd among NL rookies to Ryan Braun in batting average (.328), slugging percentage (.544), and obp (.365), 3rd in extra base hits (behind Chris Young and Braun), 4th in total bases (208) and runs (52), behind Troy Tulowitzki, Young, and Braun, and RBIs (46; behind Braun, Tulowitzki, and Kevin Kouzmanoff).

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.^[4]

★ 2007 - National League Rookie of the Month- for the month of May.^[5]

References

1. Hunter Pence Stats, Statistics, and Fantasy News - Rotowire.com
2. SportsJustice: Hunter Pence sent to Minors. For Now.
3. MLB = Milwaukee Brewers/Houston Astros Recap Saturday April 28, 2007 - Yahoo! Sports
4. Arizona's Valverde, Houston's Pence named co-winners of Bank of America Presents the National League Player of the Week
5. Pedroia, Pence selected as Rookies of the Month

External links

★ ESPN

★ HunterPence.net - The Official Hunter Pence website

★ Hunter Pence Fan-Site - Take notice the domain name was changed from HunterPence.com to PenceFan.com..

★ Pence's statistics at Baseball-Reference.com

★ Baseball Cube stats

★ Another Hunter Pence Fan Site