Kenneth Jaden Hill (born December 22, 1999) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

in the

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...

organization. He played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

for the

LSU Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a ...

Amateur career

Hill attended

Ashdown High School Ashdown High School is a comprehensive public high school located in the town of Ashdown, Arkansas, United States. The school provides secondary education for students in grades 9 through 12. It is one of two public high schools in Little River ...

Ashdown, Arkansas Ashdown (formerly Turkey Flats and Keller) is a city in Little River County, Arkansas, United States. The community was incorporated in 1892 and has been the county seat since 1906. Located within the Arkansas Timberlands between the Little Riv ...

, where he played

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. In July 2017, he was invited and accepted an invitation to play in the

Under Armour All-American Game The Under Armour High School All-America Game is a high school football all-star game typically held in early January in the U.S. state of Florida created to spotlight the nation’s top high school seniors. The game was first played on January 5, ...

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Wh ...

. In 2018, his senior year, he went 7–0 with a 0.51

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) and batted .540 with 11 home runs, earning the title of Arkansas Gatorade Player of the Year. He was selected by the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals hav ...

in the 38th round of the

2018 Major League Baseball draft The 2018 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft began on June 4, 2018. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The draft order was determined based on the reverse order of the 2017 MLB season final standings. In a ...

, but did not sign, and instead enrolled at

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

to play

for the

. In 2019, Hill's freshman season at LSU, he made two starts and pitched two innings before undergoing surgery on his collarbone, forcing him to miss the remainder of the season. He was named the SEC Freshman of the Week after pitching five scoreless innings with eight strikeouts in his collegiate debut against the

Air Force Academy An air force academy or air academy is a national institution that provides initial officer training, possibly including undergraduate level education, to air force officer cadets who are preparing to be commissioned officers in a national air forc ...

. Prior to the 2020 season, he was named an All-American by ''

Collegiate Baseball Newspaper ''Collegiate Baseball Newspaper'' (also known as ''Collegiate Baseball Magazine'' and ''Collegiate Baseball'') is an American publication based in Arizona that considers itself the "voice of amateur baseball" which has been published for over 40 ...

.'' He returned healthy in 2020, and began pitching out of the bullpen. He threw scoreless innings before the season was ended early due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In April 2021, Hill suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow that required

Tommy John surgery Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, colloquially known as Tommy John surgery (TJS), is a surgical graft procedure where the ulnar collateral ligament in the medial elbow is replaced with either a tendon from elsewhere in the patient's bo ...

, and was ruled out for the remainder of the season. Over seven starts before the injury, he went 2-3 with a 6.67 ERA and 25 strikeouts over innings.

Professional career

Hill was selected by the

in the second round with the 44th overall selection of the

2021 Major League Baseball draft The 2021 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on July 11–13, 2021. In conjunction with the 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the draft was held in Denver. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The ...

. He signed with the Rockies for a $1.7 million

signing bonus A signing bonus or sign-on bonus is a sum of money paid to a new employee (including a professional sports person) by a company as an incentive to join that company. They are often given as a way of making a compensation package more attractive ...

. Hill returned to throwing live batting practice in mid-June. Hill made his professional debut in July 2022 with the Rookie-level

Arizona Complex League Rockies The Arizona Complex League Rockies are a professional baseball team competing as a Rookie-level affiliate of the Colorado Rockies in the Arizona Complex League of Minor League Baseball. The team plays its home games at Salt River Fields at Talki ...

and after seven starts was promoted to the

Fresno Grizzlies The Fresno Grizzlies are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies. They are located in Fresno, California, and play their home games at Chukchansi Park, which was opened in 2002 in do ...

of the

Single-A Class A, also known as Single-A and sometimes as Low-A, is the fourth-highest level of play in Minor League Baseball in the United States, below Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A, Double-A (baseball), Double-A, and High-A. There are 30 teams classif ...

California League The California League is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in California. Having been classified at various levels throughout its existence, it operated at Class A-Advanced from 1990 until its demotion to Single-A following Major Leag ...

. Over innings between the two teams, Hill posted a 3.06 ERA with 25 strikeouts and six walks.

References

External links

LSU Tigers bio
1999 births Living people African-American baseball players Baseball players from Arkansas Baseball pitchers LSU Tigers baseball players 21st-century African-American sportspeople Arizona Complex League Rockies players Fresno Grizzlies players {{US-baseball-pitcher-1990s-stub

Amateur career

Professional career

See also

References

External links