| Jason Jennings | |
|---|---|
 Jennings with the Texas Rangers | |
| Pitcher | |
| Born: (1978-07-17)July 17, 1978 (age 47) Dallas,Texas, U.S. | |
Batted: Left Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| August 23, 2001, for the Colorado Rockies | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| August 26, 2009, for the Texas Rangers | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Win–loss record | 62–74 |
| Earned run average | 4.95 |
| Strikeouts | 749 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Jason Ryan Jennings (born July 17, 1978) is an American former professionalbaseballpitcher. He pitched inMajor League Baseball with theColorado Rockies (2001-2006),Houston Astros (2007) andTexas Rangers (2008-2009). Jennings won the 2002National LeagueRookie of the Year Award.
Jennings attendedPoteet High School inMesquite, Texas, and was a standout in bothfootball andbaseball. In football, he won All-District honors at bothkicker andpunter. In baseball, as a senior, he was named the DistrictMVP and posted a .410batting average, hit sevenhome runs, and pitched his way to a 10–3 record and a 0.92ERA with 132strikeouts.
After graduating from Poteet, he attendedBaylor University, where he played baseball from1997 to1999. Following his junior season at Baylor, Jennings was named by both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball as the 1999 National Player of the Year. In what would be his final season at Baylor, he struck out 172 hitters in 146.2 innings and hit .382 with 17 homers and 68RBIs. He also won the Golden Spikes Award, the Dick Howser Trophy, his second consecutiveBig 12 Player of the Year, consensusAll-America honors, the Outstanding Player on the 1999 Big 12 All Tournament Team, and a spot on the 1999 All-Big 12 Academic First Team.
As a member of theColorado Rockies, Jason posted impressive numbers in the2002 season when he won theMajor League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award in theNational League, beating outBrad Wilkerson andAustin Kearns. In his major league debut, on August 23, 2001, Jennings hit a home run and tossed acomplete gameshutout, becoming the first major leaguer to accomplish that feat.[1]
On May 8, 2004, Jennings became the only pitcher in history to hit a home run off of Hall of Fame pitcherGreg Maddux.[2]
From2003 to2005, Jennings had three losing seasons and posted an ERA above 5 each year. In2006, Jennings pitched much better, ending the season with a 3.78 ERA, but had only a 9–13 record due to a lack of run support that ranked near the bottom of the league. From May 29 to the end of the season, Jennings had a 3.17 ERA, which was 4th in the Majors and 2nd in the NL behindRoy Oswalt. He also finished with over 200 innings pitched. He ended his career with the Rockies as the franchise's all-time winningest pitcher.[3] He was surpassed in wins by a Rockies pitcher on June 23, 2009 by former teammateAaron Cook.
On December 12, 2006 the Rockies traded Jennings, along withMiguel Asencio, to theHouston Astros forWilly Taveras,Taylor Buchholz andJason Hirsh.[4] The deal seemed to work in favor of the 2007 Rockies, who made it to the2007 World Series with Taveras at the top of the order. Both Buchholz and Hirsh pitched decently in their first season with the Rockies.
2007 was a lackluster year with the Astros for Jennings. In a game against thePadres, he gave up 11earned runs on 8hits in two-thirds of an inning with threewalks and no strikeouts.[5] In doing so, he set the record for the most earned runs allowed by a starting pitcher in a game while pitching less than one inning.[6]
On January 17,2008, he signed a one-year contract with the Texas Rangers. Jennings ended up going on theDL after just six starts, all in April (missing the rest of the season), in which he struggled mightily. He went 0–5 with an 8.56 ERA, allowing eight home runs in 271⁄3 innings of work, and he made it past the fifth inning only once.
On February 6,2009, he re-signed with the Rangers to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training.[7]
On August 27, 2009, Jennings was designated for assignment, then given his outright release by the Rangers.
During the 2009–2010 MLB offseason, Jennings was signed by theOakland Athletics to a minor-league contract with an invite tospring training.[8]
On May 25, 2011, theGrand Prairie AirHogs of theAmerican Association of Independent Professional Baseball signed Jennings to a contract for the remainder of their season. On September 12, 2011, Jennings started Game 5 of the AA Championship and pitched 62⁄3 innings to pick up the win and help lead the AirHogs to their first American Association Championship - his first championship at any level.[9]
Jennings officially retired in 2012.
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