Hawpe has been tasked with slugging for Colorado
(AP Photo-Chris Carlson)
Matt Holliday now calls Oakland home (for the time being) and the Rockies need a big bat to fill those big shoes that Holliday left behind. Someone who can drive in 120 runs, hit 35 home runs and bat .320 on the season. OK, so that guy isn’t here and there aren’t too many who could fill those shoes but Bradley Bonte Hawpe is going to give it his best shot.
Hawpe was born on June 22nd, 1979 in Fort Worth Texas. He attended Boswell High School in Fort Worth and played first base and pitcher. At Boswell he won the Texas 4A State Championship and then went on to play at Louisiana State University where he won the 2000 College World Series with the Tigers. On the team at LSU was the current middle infield in Chicago; Mike Fontenot and Ryan Theriot.
Hawpe was originally drafted in 1998 by the Toronto Blue Jays but he opted to play for LSU instead. In 2000 he was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 11th round. 2001 was his first full season of professional baseball and he finished with 22 home runs for Asheville in A ball.
In 2002 Hawpe had one of the finest seasons ever by a Rockies minor leaguer en route to earning the Doug Million Award as organizational player of the year. He was also named the Carolina League MVP; just the fifth player in franchise history to garner league MVP honors and Baseball America named Hawpe a first-team Minor League All-Star following the season and also selected him to its High A All-Star squad. Hawpe came within two weeks of becoming the second player ever-and first since 1951-to win the triple crown in the Carolina League as he led in all three categories as late as August 17th (.345-21-83). He did win the league batting title, hitting .347, the second highest average in all of minor league baseball and wound up finishing third in home runs (22) and second in RBI (97).
2003 was looking to be another banner season for Hawpe and then it came to a halt on July 14th as he suffered a separated right shoulder while diving for a ball. At the time he was leading Tulsa in nearly every offensive category. Hawpe missed the next six weeks before returning for the Tusla Drillers' final five games in late August. 2003 was when Hawpe began to make the switch to outfield as he played 49 games in right field, 18 at first base and 22 as DH.
Hawpe has a sweet lefty swing (AP Photo-David Zalubowski)
In 2004 Hawpe spent the majority of the season at Colorado Springs but also had a pair of month-long stints in the big leagues. With the Sky Sox, Brad hit .322 with 31 homers and 86 RBI. Hawpe's 31 homers tied for fourth in the Pacific Coast League. He was first recalled on April 30th and Hawpe made his major league debut in a May 1st doubleheader vs Atlanta, going a combined 4-for-5 in the twin bill with 2 runs, a triple, a homer and 2 RBI. He got his first career start in the evening affair and went 3-for-4 with a 2-run homer off John Thomson in the sixth inning (also first 2 RBI). In 42 games overall with the parent organization, Brad hit .248 with 3 HR and 9 RBI. After slowing down with the Rockies he spent the next three months in the PCL and earned his way back to the majors thanks to a monster August in which he was named Organizational Player of the Month. Hawpe belted 14 of his 31 home runs in a 27-game stretch during the month of August. He rejoined the Rockies on September 7th. Hawpe hit .229 with 2 homers and 6 RBI in his second stint with the club.
Hawpe spent his first full season in the Major Leagues in 2005, but was slowed by a hamstring injury that sidelined him for a month and a half toward the end of the year. He batted .262 with nine home runs and 47 RBI in 101 games. He started 79 games, all in right field and led the team with 10 outfield assists, most ever by a Rockies rookie.
In his first Major League season not involving DL time, Hawpe established career highs in every category as the club's everyday right fielder for most of the 2006 season. He batted .293 with 22 home runs, 84 RBI, 33 doubles and 67 runs in 150 games. He became just the fourth left-handed batter to surpass 20 home runs for the Rockies, joining Todd Helton, Larry Walker, and Jeromy Burnitz. He also had 16 outfield assists, the second-highest total in the Major Leagues behind only Washington's Alfonso Soriano. Hawpe hit home runs in four consecutive games April 9th-13th, matching the third-longest HR streak in team history as he joined Larry Walker and Vinny Castilla as the only players to accomplish the feat exclusively in road games.
Hawpe shifted to the outfield n 2003 and shows off his gun from time to time
(AP Photo/Ross D Franklin)
In just his second full season in the Major Leagues in 2007, Hawpe batted .291 with 29 home runs and 116 RBI in 152 games for Colorado as he established career highs in home runs, RBI, walks (81), runs (80), on base percentage (.387) and slugging (.539). He had a club-record 66 RBI with two outs, surpassing the previous mark of Dante Bichette (59 RBI in 1998) and Andres Galarraga (59 RBI in 1996). On the season he ranked among team leaders in home runs (2nd), RBI (2nd), walks (2nd), and doubles (T4th, 33). Hawpe hit far better in the seventh inning and later (.341) than he did over the first six innings of a game (.265).
In 2008 Hawpe batted .283 with 25 home runs and 85 RBI and he led club with 76 walks and posted a .381 on base percentage. Hawpe performed well in the clutch as he led all Rockies with 23 go-ahead RBI and 13 of his 25 home runs either tied the game or gave the Rockies the lead.
As of May 5th Hawpe was batting .314 with three home runs and 17 RBI and a .422 on base percentage. Hawpe is a career .283 batter with a career .377 on base percentage. While he is on pace to hit around 18 home runs, his plate discipline is much better thus far in 2009 than in years past. If he can pick up the power numbers and sustain the .300 plus batting average the fans in Colorado will forget about Holliday in no time.
2009 Update: Hawpe made his first All-Star team in 2009. His first half stats were very impressive: .320/.396/.577 with 15 home runs and 59 RBIs. All of those put Hawpe not only on a career pace but to exceed his career averages by a lot. Unfortunately most players regress to the mean during a year and Hawpe did just that in the second half: .240/.370/.442 with nine home runs and 27 RBI. By the end of the year Seth Smith was getting big at-bats while Hawpe was on the bench.
The Rockies still say that Hawpe is their man in right field but one cannot help to feel like Hawpe is this year’s version of Garret Atkins. The player the organization stands behind because he is the veteran, but there is a hot younger player waiting to take his spot. We will see if Hawpe can hold off Seth Smith in 2010 or if Smith will be starting most games in the outfield over Hawpe by May.
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