Jason Hirsh

Jason Michael Hirsh (born February 20, 1982) is an American former starting pitcher in Major League Baseball.

In his career, he pitched for the Houston Astros and the Colorado Rockies.

He stands at 6' 8" and weighs 250 lb. He batted and threw right-handed. He threw a two-seam fastball, a four-seam fastball, a slider, and a changeup.

He went undrafted when he graduated in 2000, and no NCAA Division I programs wanted him, so he wound up at Division III California Lutheran University, which was only 40 minutes from his house.

Hirsh attended and played baseball at California Lutheran, where he was a 3-year starter, and flashed a 97 mi/h fastball and a mid-80s slider.

His record was 26–6, he had a 2.96 earned run average (ERA), and he struck out 238 batters in 258.1 innings pitched.

Hirsh was not highly recruited out of high school, but after attending California Lutheran University, he was drafted by the Houston Astros in the second round of the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft.

He was a First-Team All-SCIAC twice, as well as an ABCA All-West Region First-Team selection in 2003.

He was drafted by the Houston Astros with their top pick in the second round (59th overall) of the 2003 amateur entry draft, and signed for a $625,000 signing bonus.

In his pro debut, Hirsh went 3–1 for the 2003 Tri-City ValleyCats, with a 1.95 ERA, limiting batters to a .175 average, and striking out 33 hitters in 32 1⁄3 innings of work.

Following the season, he was rated the No. 8 prospect in the organization by Baseball America.

Although Hirsh left college after his junior year, he went back after his first minor league season, e-mailing his assignments in from his laptop when he was in the minors to earn a BA in multimedia in 2004.

In 2004, he recorded 11 victories with the Single-A advanced Salem Avalanche.

From 2005–06, Hirsh won the Double-A Texas League Pitcher of the Year Award and the Triple-A Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year Award in successive seasons, as he went a combined 26–10 with 283 strikeouts.

The Astros drafted and signed Hirsh's younger brother Matt (6 ft 5 in; 235 lbs.), another Cal Lutheran right-handed pitcher, in the 30th round in 2005.

Matt went 1–2, 5.61, in 2005 at Rookie-level Greeneville.

For a week in January 2005 he worked with Nolan Ryan at Ryan's off-season pitching camp in Houston.

Hirsh said: "The biggest thing I got out of it was the confidence ... [having Astros manager] Phil Garner and Nolan Ryan sit there and tell you that you've got the stuff to be in the big leagues."

Playing for the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks in 2005, Hirsh pitched two perfect innings for the Texas League's West All Star team in the league All Star Game.

He was the Texas League Pitcher of the Week three times.

For the season, he went 13–8 with a league-best 165 strikeouts while walking only 42, finishing second in the league with 13 wins and second in ERA (2.87) and innings (172.1), and was named 2005 Texas League Pitcher of the Year, team MVP, and Baseball America Double-A All Star.

He also earned Texas League post-season All Star honors.

In 2006, he was called up to the major leagues for the first time, and he appeared in nine games with the Astros.

During the offseason, he was traded to the Colorado Rockies.

Released by the Astros on June 12, 2006, Matt signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in September 2006.

He was named to the Rockies' starting rotation in 2007 and made a career-high 19 starts before injuries curtailed his season.

He never pitched in the Cardinals' organization and finished his career with two independent league teams in 2007.

Hirsh is Jewish, and he keeps track of all the Jewish players in major league baseball.

In 2007, the Rockies had a strong Christian influence in their clubhouse; The New York Times said, "Christianity rocks in Colorado's clubhouse."

On this, Hirsh said, "There are guys who are religious, sure, but they don’t impress it upon anybody. It’s not like they hung a cross in my locker or anything. They’ve accepted me for who I am, and what I believe in."

He married Pamela Clark in 2007.

In 2008, he was limited to four games with the Rockies due to injuries; as it turned out, those would be his last game in the major leagues.

He spent the next two season in the minors, getting traded to the New York Yankees (whom he never played in the major leagues with) in 2009.

Hirsh was born in Santa Monica, California.

His father is Michael Hirsch.

On November 5, 2009, Hirsh and his wife had a baby boy, Brady Antoine Hirsh.

Hirsh was only 5' 11" as a freshman in high school, and failed to make the basketball team, whereupon he decided to focus on baseball. "Baseball was it for me," said Hirsh. "High school turned out to be one big growth spurt....

All of a sudden I'm 6-foot-8, and people are like, 'What happened to you?'"

Despite his size by the end of high school, Hirsh drew little interest from scouts out of St. Francis High School of La Cañada, California, because he then threw just 86–88 mph.

As of 2013, he is tied for first at the university in career wins (26) and holds the record for the most strikeouts in a game (18).