Hunter Pence
Houston Astros — No. 9
Right fielder
Born: April 13, 1983 (1983-04-13) (age 26) Fort Worth, Texas
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
MLB debut
April 28, 2007 for the Houston Astros
Career statistics (through 2009 season)
Batting average	.289
Home runs	67
Runs batted in	224
Teams
Houston Astros (2007-present)
Career highlights and awards
1× All-Star selection (2009)

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.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Minor leagues 3 Major leagues 3.1 2007 season 3.2 2008 season 3.3 2009 season 4 Awards 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Pence attended Arlington High School in Arlington, Texas. He played shortstop and wore #8. He later made the transition to the outfield in college. He majored in finance at the University of Texas at Arlington, and was on the Dean's List.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 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 RBIs. 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. While in the minor leagues, Pence went by the nickname "Bam Bam", but before the 2007 season, he earned the nickname "The Natural".^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Major leagues

[edit] 2007 season

Pence made his major league debut as the Houston Astros center fielder on April 28, 2007, versus 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 5. 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 3 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 23, General Manager Tim Purpura announced that Pence would be out with a with a small chipped bone fracture in his right wrist. On August 21, 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.^[4]

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.^[5]

^[6] He also lost out to Braun in the competition for the 2007 Baseball America Rookie of the Year Award,^[7] in the vote for the 2007 Players Choice NL Most Outstanding Rookie by their fellow major league players,^[8] and in the Baseball Prospectus 2007 Internet Baseball NL Rookie of the Year Award, with 16 first place votes, versus 666 for Braun.^[9]

Pence has also been called "The Pickle" in reference the BLT (Berkman, Lee, Tejada) core hitters in the Astros lineup, in the 2008 season.

[edit] 2008 season

In his sophomore season, Pence set new personal single-season 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. Pence led the league in outfield assists with 16, committed 1 error, and had a fielding percentage of .997.

[edit] 2009 season

In his third season, Pence was named an All-Star for the first time.

[edit] 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.^[10]
• 2007 - National League Rookie of the Month- for the month of May.^[11]
• 2009 - National League All Star

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Another Hunter Pence Fan Site
• Inside the Ballpark with Hunter Pence Blog

Preceded by Josh Hamilton

National League Rookie of the Month May 2007

Succeeded by Ryan Braun

v • d • e Houston Astros current roster 40-man roster 3 Kazuo Matsui | 4 Jason Michaels | 9 Hunter Pence | 12 Tommy Manzella | 17 Lance Berkman | 18 Edwin Maysonet | 20 Brian Bogusevic | 20 Bud Norris | 21 Michael Bourn | 23 Chris Johnson | 27 Geoff Blum | 28 Jeff Keppinger | 30 Yordany Ramírez | 37 Brandon Lyon | 38 Brian Moehler | 39 Jeff Fulchino | 43 Chris Sampson | 44 Roy Oswalt | 45 Carlos Lee | 46 J. R. Towles | 48 Tim Byrdak | 50 Alberto Árias | 51 Wandy Rodríguez | 52 Felipe Paulino | 53 Wesley Wright | 55 Humberto Quintero | 58 Yorman Bazardo | 59 Wilton López | 63 Samuel Gervacio | 82 Polin Trinidad | -- Fernando Abad | -- Jason Bourgeois | -- Evan Englebrook | -- Pedro Feliz | -- Matt Lindstrom | -- Matt Nevarez | -- Wladimir Sutil | -- José G. Valdez | -- José Vallejo | -- Henry Villar Inactive roster Disabled list Coaching Staff Manager 2 Brad Mills | Bench Coach 76 Al Pedrique | 1st Base Coach -- Bobby Meacham | Hitting Coach 14 Sean Berry | Pitching Coach -- Brad Arnsberg | Bullpen Coach -- Jamie Quirk | 3rd Base Coach -- Vacant