Jason Hirsch

Jason Michael Hirsch is a professional baseball player from the United States of America and is a starting pitcher. Hirsch was a strong and big lad since high school but despite his large frame, his throwing arm was rather weak. At the St. Francis High School, Hirsch drew more attention for his size rather than his 86-88 mph pitches. His poor performances meant that he was unwanted at any of the NCAA Division I schools. So he had to retire to fate and went to the California Lutheran University in Division III.

At the college level, Hirsch bettered his pitching skills and took his fast ball upto 97 mph with a slider in the mid-80s. He was a starter in all 3 of his seasons at the college level and had a 26-6 record over the three years. Pitching at a 2.96 ERA, Hirsch struck out 238 batters in 258.1 innings in those three years to tie for the top position in career wins for the college. With 18 strikeouts in a single game, Hirsch created a new college record for most strikeouts in a single game and was named to the first team All-SCIAC twice. In 2003, Hirsch was also named to the ABCA All-West Region first team.

Hirsch decided to forego his final year at California Lutheran and declared for the 2003 MLB Amateur Draft. The Houston Astros picked him up in the second round and paid him a $625,000 signing amount.

Assigned to the minor leagues, Hirsch went 3-1 in the New York-Penn League while playing for the Tri-City ValleyCats. Hirsch had a 1.95 ERA and struck out 33 batters in 32.1 innings, restricting them to just .175 on their batting averages against him. In 2004, he was placed directly into the Advanced A-League with the Salem Avalanche where he notched up 11 wins simply by working hard on his secondary pitches.

In 2005, he moved up to the Corpus Christi Hooks and had a 13-8 season with a 2.87 ERA. Hirsch led the league in strikeouts with 165 and was also named as the Texas League Pitcher of the Year. He was ranked second in the ERA list as well as on the Innings Pitched list (with 172.1). He was named to the Texas League post season All-Star team and was crowned Pitcher of the Week thrice while being named as the Team MVP.

In 2006, Hirsch was described as having the “Best Control” in the entire Astros’ minor league affiliates and was also termed as the top prospect for the Astros, by Baseball America.

Hirsch started 2006 with the AAA-League affiliates, the Round Rock Express. His career was just heading in one direction – up, as he created an Express record with 12 consecutive wins on his way to a 13-2 win-loss record. He led the league in strikeouts and ERA with 118 and 2.10 respectively and was also named as the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year.

At the 2006 MLB All-Stars Futures game, Hirsch was named as the starting pitcher and was also named to the AAA-League All Star team. Hirsch got his first Major League call up in August, 2006. Playing 9 games for the Astros, Hirsch won 3. At the end of 2006, the Astros decided to trade Hirsch out to the Colorado Rockies and Hirsch took up the fourth position in the starting rotation.

Despite breaking his shin off a line drive that came right back and hit him, Hirsch pitched six innings and earned a win before going onto the disabled list on August 7th. He had 27 starts in his first full season with the Rockies and with a 5-7 record, had a 4.81 ERA. Due to his injury, he missed playing in the World Series.

2008 started, for Hirsch, on the disabled list and on his return, he started off in the AAA-League. Pitching with a 4-4 record, Hirsch had an ERA of 5.80 in 99.1 innings. He returned to the MLB roster but after pitching just under 9 innings, he went back onto the disabled list with a rotator cuff inflammation.