David Hale

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David Edward Hale

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Biographical Information[edit]

David Hale made it to the major leagues in 2013.

Hale hit .546 as a high school junior and swatted 10 home runs as a senior. As a freshman at Princeton, he was 3-2 with a 4.71 ERA and went 11 for 55 with a home run. He had a 2-4, 5.04 record as a sophomore and fanned 47 in 44 2/3 IP. He hit .339/.350/.559. As a junior, he went 2-3 with a 4.43 ERA and 47 strikeouts in 40 2/3 innings; he produced at a .284/.342/.422 rate. The Atlanta Braves took him in the third round of the 2009 amateur draft; he was their second pick following Mike Minor in round one and the #87 overall pick. He was picked right after Chris Dominguez and right before Donnie Joseph. The scout was Kevin Barry.

Hale debuted as a pro with the 2009 Danville Braves, going 2-1 with a save, 1.12 ERA and .130 opponent average in 7 games (one start). He went 5-8 with 5 saves and a 4.13 ERA for the 2010 Rome Braves. Baseball America rated him as having the best slider in the Braves chain. In 2011, he was 4-6 with a 4.10 ERA for the Lynchburg Hillcats; his 10 hit batsmen tied Bobby Bundy for 8th in the Carolina League.

With the 2012 Mississippi Braves, David had a 8-4, 3.77 record with 124 K but 67 BB in 145 2/3 innings. The Ivy Leaguer was 4th in the Southern League in whiffs (behind Matt Magill, Kyle Lobstein and Daniel Corcino). He was third in the Atlanta chain in Ks behind Aaron Northcraft and Gus Schlosser. He spent most of 2013 with the Gwinnett Braves, going 6-9 with a 3.22 ERA. He tied for 10th in the 2013 IL in losses and would have been 6th in ERA had he qualified.

A September call-up to the Braves, he turned in a strong debut on September 13, 2013, striking out 9 in five shutout innings, with four hits and a walk. He struck out Will Venable, the first batter he faced in the majors, allowed singles to Chris Denorfia and Jedd Gyorko but recovered to whiff Chase Headley and Kyle Blanks. In the bottom of the 5th, Jose Constanza batted for him, with Atlanta up 3-0. Relievers Luis Ayala and Jordan Walden both allowed two runs, though, and cost Hale the win. He did win other start that year, 7-1 over the Philadelphia Phillies on September 26th, to finish the year at 1-0, 0.82. Thanks to a number of injuries among the Braves' presumptive starting pitchers in 2014 allowed him to start the year in the team's starting rotation. On April 26th, he pitched a great game, allowing only 2 hits over 8 innings to defeat the Cincinnati Reds, 4-1, for his first victory of the season. He ended up pitching 45 times for the Braves, including 6 starts. He totaled 87 1/3 innings and put up a record of 4-5, 3.30. He struck out 45 while walking 39.

On January 30, 2015, the Braves traded him to the Colorado Rockies along with P Gus Schlosser in return for two catching prospects, Jose Briceno and Chris O'Dowd. After starting the year in the minors, he joined the Rockies starting rotation in late May and started off well before losing 4 of 5 starts. He was sent down just before the All-Star break with a record of 3-4, 5.69, then came back a month later. On August 23rd, he set a Rockies team record by throwing four wild pitches in a 5-1 loss to the New York Mets. He was working with rookie catcher Dustin Garneau, who was playing only his third big league game, but according to Hale, the problem was not miscommunication, but just that his pitches were breaking too sharply. Two of the wild pitches came during the same at-bat in the 2nd, and both allowed a runner to score, but he did strike out 9 in 6 innings, matching his season high. He ended the season at 5-5, 6.09. In 2016, he made only two appearances in the majors, allowing 3 runs in 2 innings. he spent the bulk of the year in AAA, with the Albuquerque Isotopes and Norfolk Tides, going 4-8, 5.58. He ended up in Norfolk after being claimed off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles on April 25th.

He was again with two organizations in 2017, the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers, but did not appear in the majors. He was a combined 5-4, 4.08 in 15 games as a starter. In 2018, he moved around a lot, starting off with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders in the New York Yankees organization, and then making stops with the major league Yankees, then with the Minnesota Twins, then back with the Yankees and finally with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization. During that time, he was signed as a free agent three times and claimed off waivers once, then headed across the Pacific Ocean. In terms of results he had a 4.61 ERA in 14 2/3 innings in relief in the majors, was 3-2, 4.20 in 11 starts for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and 3-4, 4.34 in 12 starts for Hanwha. Things were simpler in 2019, as he spent all year in the Yankees system, going 3-2, 4.13 in 7 AAA starts, and 3-0, 3.11 with 2 saves in 20 relief outings with the big club. He was back with the Yankees at the start of 2020, but saw relatively little action in the early going, pitching for a deep club that was winning most of its games. He had an ERA of 3.00 in 6 innings when on August 21st he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in return for prospect Addison Russ, joining a team whose bullpen had been a disaster area thus far.

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