Pence is front page of SI.COM's MLB page... Sometime during today's Phillies-Astros game, Houston phenom Hunter Pence is likely to qualify for the National League batting race. He nearly qualified after Tuesday's game against Philly, which he won with a walk-off home run in the 13th inning, but as he awoke this morning he had 260 plate appearances, just shy of the 260.4 he needed (3.1 PAs per every team game played) to show up in your hometown paper's hit parade table. Upon reaching the number of PAs necessary, Pence is likely to debut in the No. 2 slot in the batting race with a .345 average. Colorado's Matt Holliday (.349) with Chicago's Derrek Lee (.339) in second. Just how rare is it for a rookie to win a league batting crown? It's only happened twice in baseball history and never in the National League: Ichiro in 2001 and Minnesota's Tony Oliva in 1964. (Oliva would win again in '65. The guy could hit a little.) The competition is stiff, but it would be unwise to discount Pence's chances. Though he doesn't have the vastness of the Coors Field outfield working for him the way Holliday does, or the friendly confines of Wrigley Field as Lee does, Pence has a right-handed hitter's haven of his own in Minute Maid Park, where he is hitting .372 in 137 at-bats this season. And despite his lack of walks so far (only 10), Pence's minor-league track record -- he walked 60 times in 523 Double-A at-bats last year -- shows he does have the ability to be patient at the plate. He's just too busy raking right now to bother. With the Craig Biggio 3,000 march over and the Rocket no longer on the club, at least Astros fans will have Pence to root for the rest of the season as he pursues the batting crown and the Rookie of the Year award, for which he is currently the runaway leader ahead of Milwaukee's Ryan Braun and Cincinnati's Josh Hamilton. UPDATE Pence went 2-for-5 with a solo home run on Wednesday against the Phillies, raising his average to .346. http://fannation.com/blogs/post/31132
Nice...Go Hunter and Go Astros. If, by the grace of G-d, the Astros get back in this thing and actaully get to the playoffs, Hunter at the elast deserves MVP votes. With Berkman's struggles, if they didn't have Pence, this team would easily lose 100+ games.
well if we do come back it's going to heavily involve a monster lance berkman, who has finally re-surfaced.
Hunter has a good future in the bigs. He has done things that couldn't imagine a rookie ever doing. Every time he comes to the plate you dont see any fear in his eyes... what you see is hunger... he is hungry to be the best to win. Future MVP? Maybe
Seriously, has 2001 been that long ago? It's awesome, it's rare, it's fun as heck, but it happens. See: Pujols, Albert.
I'd be more impressed if he ends up doing what Pujols or Ichiro did for their rookie years (and rest of career, respectively).
Exactly--not downplaying Pence at all, just pointing out that he isn't the only rookie beast in history. Pujols was only 6 years ago, for Pete's sake (Roy was the inarguable ROY until Pujols showed up and started mashing everything in sight like freaking Godzilla). Mark McGuire (sp?) had a pretty decent little rookie campaign back in the late 80s, too: 49 bombs. Here's hoping Pence is our own rookie Godzilla.
This very year, you have Ryan Braun who's doing similar things to Pence. And if you go to pitching, you had Liriano just last year that was a Cy-Young possibility pitcher if he hadn't gotten hurt.
Lincecum went through a rough stretch after his games against us. He has pitched really well in his last couple of outings, though.
