Steve Pearce
From BR Bullpen
Steven Wayne Pearce
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 5' 11", Weight 209 lb.
- Schools University of South Carolina, Indian River Community College
- High School Lakeland (FL) High School
- Debut September 1, 2007
- Born April 13, 1983 in Lakeland, FL USA
Steve Pearce joined the Pittsburgh Pirates as a September call-up in 2007. He drew notice when he led the minor leagues in home runs in April of 2007.
Pearce hit .400 in high school. After his second year in community college (he hit 17 homers and led the team in average both years at Indian River), he was picked by the Minnesota Twins in the 45th round of the 2003 amateur draft but did not sign. He transferred to USC and batted .346/?/.703 as a corner infielder in his junior year. The team was ranked third in the nation by Baseball America and Pearce led the team in homers (21), average and RBI (70). He tied for 4th in NCAA Division I in home runs and then starred in the 2004 College World Series, in which USC finished in the final four. Pearce hit .571/?/.762 and had the best batting average in the College World Series that year. He made the All-Tournament team at first base. He was error-free at first base in 438 chances, a school record for fielding percentage. The Boston Red Sox took him in the 10th round of the 2004 amateur draft. He played for the Cotuit Kettlers that summer and hit .277/?/.361 while playing catcher primarily. His poor performance made him decide not to sign with Boston and opt for another year at college.
Steve hit .358/~.417/.703 as a senior at USC. He tied Brian Pettway for 9th in NCAA Division I with 21 home runs and was the second team Baseball America All-American for Division I at first base, the highest senior selected. Unfortunately, the first-team first baseman was a fellow Southeastern Conference player, Matt LaPorta, costing Pearce a shot at the All-Conference team. The Pittsburgh Pirates drafted Pearce in the 8th round of the 2005 amateur draft.
Pearce was assigned to the Williamsport Crosscutters and hit .301/.381/.474 in 2005, with 26 doubles, 48 runs and 52 RBI in 72 games. His plate discipline was improved over what he had shown in college. He led the New York-Penn League in doubles and led the league's first basemen in putouts (651), assists (58) and double plays (65) while tying Mark Ori for the lead in errors (9).
In 2006, Pearce led Pirates farmhands in slugging (.523), extra-base hits (68), homers (26), doubles (40) and total bases (255). He batted .288/.363/.606 in 41 games for the Hickory Crawdads and .265/.348/.482 in 90 games for the Lynchburg Hillcats. He led Carolina League first basemen with 10 errors.
Pearce began 2007 with a bang, hitting .347/.412/.867 for Lynchburg with 19 runs, 24 RBI and 11 home runs in 19 games. In his last 10 games with the team, he went 18 for 41 with 10 homers and 22 RBI, bringing up shades of what Brad Eldred had done with the team several years earlier. Steve led the US-based minor leagues in home runs in April and was promoted to the Altoona Curve.
He was named to the USA team roster for the 2007 Futures Game. He started at first base for the US, hitting 5th, and went 0 for 1 with a walk.
In 81 games in Altoona, Pearce batted .334/.400/.596 with 57 runs and 72 RBI. He tied Ronny Paulino's team record by reaching base in 33 straight games in June and July. On July 29, he was promoted to the Indianapolis Indians. At the time, he was leading all of the affiliated minor leagues with 96 RBI.
Pearce remained hot in AAA, hitting .320/.366/.557 in 34 games. Overall, in 134 minor league games in 2007, Steve batted .333/.394/.622 with 94 runs, 40 doubles, 31 homers, 113 RBI and 14 steals in 16 tries. Baseball America called it the 10th-best minor league season of 2007. This led to a September call-up to Pittsburgh. While management said they did not intend to play him much (after all, the team was certain to finish below .500 and did not need to try out any prospects, instead able to play their mediocrities), Pearce started his first day up because Xavier Nady was injured. Pearce hit sixth and played right field.
In his first major league at-bat, Pearce faced David Bush with two on and two out in the first inning. He hit a hard drive to the warning track but Bill Hall made a diving catch. Steve singled against Bush three innings later and finished the day 2 for 4. By the next day, he was back on the bench, where Pittsburgh was used to keeping prospects. With Nady and Ryan Doumit continuing to be hurt, Pearce would play regularly for a while. He hit .294/.342/.397 for the 2007 Pirates, with a surprising zero home runs in 68 AB and a 91 OPS+ due to the disappointing power outage.
Overall in 2007, Pearce finished third in the affiliated minors in total bases (303) behind Craig Brazell and Jay Bruce, fourth in RBI, fifth in extra-base hits (75), second in slugging behind Geovany Soto, tied for 7th in average and tied for 7th in home runs. Minor League Baseball named him the offensive player of the year.
Pearce joined Team USA for the 2007 Baseball World Cup but hit only .212/.257/.333 despite being used frequently in the cleanup slot. The only less productive member of the team was Brian Bixler, a fellow Pirate minor leaguer. The US still won its first Gold Medal in a Baseball World Cup in over 30 years.
Sources: Altoona Curve site, 2004-2007 Baseball Almanacs, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
