Brad Penny

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Brad Penny

Los Angeles Dodgers — No. 31
Starting Pitcher
Born: May 24, 1978 (1978-05-24) (age 30) Blackwell, Oklahoma
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
Major League Baseball debut
April 7, 2000 for the Florida Marlins
Selected MLB statistics (through June 5, 2008)
Win-Loss	93-73
Earned Run Average	3.98
Strikeouts	1023
Teams
Florida Marlins (2000-2004) Los Angeles Dodgers (2004-present)

Bradley Wayne Penny (born May 24, 1978 in Blackwell, Oklahoma)^[1] is a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers.^{[2] [3]}

[edit] Early career

Penny graduated from Broken Arrow High School where he was an All-State selection and Frontier Conference Pitcher of the Year.

He was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 5th round of the 1996 MLB Draft and signed with the Diamondbacks on June 4, 1996.

He was immediately sent to the Arizona Summer League where he ranked fourth in the league in ERA (2.36) and was named Arizona's Organizational Pitcher of the Month in August. With the South Bend Silver Hawks in 1997 he was 10-5 with an ERA of 2.73 in 25 starts.

In 1998, with the High Desert Mavericks, he went 14-5 with a 2.96 ERA in 28 starts and was named to Baseball America's first team Minor League All-Stars, the California League Pitcher of the Year, California League Most Valuable Player, Arizona Diamondbacks Minor League Player of the Year and "A" Level Player of the Year.

In 1999, he started the year with the El Paso Diablos in the Diamondbacks "AA" system, and had a 2-7 record with a 4.80 ERA when he was traded to the Florida Marlins along with Abraham Nunez and Vladimir Nunez in exchange for relief pitcher Matt Mantei. The Marlins assigned him to their "AA" team in Portland. Penny combined with Luis Arroyo for the first no-hitter in Portland history in his first game in the Marlins' organization on August 8.

[edit] Major League Career

After a good spring, he made the Marlins starting rotation in 2000. He made his first major league appearance and first start on April 7, 2000 against the Colorado Rockies. Penny pitched 7 innings, giving up only one run, to get his first victory in the Marlins' 4-3 victory. At the end of the season he ranked second among NL rookies in winning percentage (.533), third in wins, tied for fourth with 22 games started and was sixth in both innings pitched (119.2) and strikeouts (80). ^[4]

In 2003, Penny collected the win in Florida's NLCS clinching victory over the Chicago Cubs and in the World Series against the New York Yankees he went 2-0 with a 2.19 ERA in his two starts.

On July 30, 2004 Penny was traded along with Hee-Seop Choi and pitching prospect Bill Murphy to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for Guillermo Mota, Juan Encarnacion and Paul Lo Duca. However, in the first inning of his second start with the Dodgers he suffered a serious arm injury and went on the disabled list. He returned in September, only to promptly reinjure himself after three innings in his first start off the DL.

His recovery time from his injury caused him to begin the following season on the disabled list, but he rejoined the Dodgers on April 24, 2005 and proceeded to have a solid season.

Penny was named by Houston Astros manager Phil Garner as the National League's starting pitcher in the 2006 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. He hurled two innings, allowing one home run to Vladimir Guerrero, striking out the side (Ichiro Suzuki, Derek Jeter, and David Ortiz) in the first inning, and receiving a no-decision.^[5]

On September 23, 2006 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Penny joined the very rare group of pitchers who have struck out four batters in one inning. Due to the dropped third strike rule, Penny was credited with striking out Chad Tracy, but because catcher Russell Martin failed to catch the ball cleanly, Tracy was allowed to attempt to run to first base, and made it there before he could be thrown out. Despite giving up three runs in the inning, Penny recorded three more strikeouts to complete the four-strikeout inning.

[edit] 2007 Season

Brad Penny has had a strong start to the 2007 season, with an ERA (as of July 21, 2007) of 2.42 and is the first Dodger pitcher to start out with a 12-1 record since Phil Regan went 14-1 in 1966. Penny was selected to the All-star game for a second consecutive year. Penny has had several memorable outings in 2007, including on May 7, 2007 against his former team, the Florida Marlins, Penny struck out a career-high 14 in a Dodger 6-1 win. Another memorable performance was against the San Diego Padres in a pitchers duel against All-Star teammate Jake Peavy just before the all-star break. The match ended in a draw with both pitchers going seven innings giving up one earned run on five hits. Penny struck out seven, while Peavy struck out six. The Padres would eventually win the game 3-1 in twelve innings.

Besides being a hard throwing pitcher, Penny has developed into a good hitting pitcher since being traded to the Dodgers. In 2006 his batting average was .185, but was above .200 for most of the season and was as high as .240 before Penny ended the year in an 0 for 12 slump. As of September 25th, 2007, he was batting .254. Penny also has six doubles, seven RBI, seven runs scored, and has struck out 37% of the time.

[edit] 2008 Season

For the 2008 season, Penny was selected as opening day starter against the San Francisco Giants, shutting them out over seven innings.

Dodgers pitcher Brad Penny during spring training action in Arizona, 2008.
Photo by Craig Y. Fujii

[edit] See also

• List of Major League Baseball wins champions
• Florida Marlins all-time roster

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• BradPenny.com - Official Website
• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or The Baseball Cube
• Four Strikeouts in one inning