Tommy Pham

Thomas James Pham (born March 8, 1988) is an American professional baseball outfielder who is a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, and Boston Red Sox. He stands tall, and weighs .

Pham was selected by the Cardinals in the 16th round of the 2006 MLB draft. He overcame a number of injuries and a vision impairment in 2008 related to keratoconus (which he overcame the following year with contact lenses that give him 20/15 vision in both eyes) to make his major league debut nine seasons after being drafted. In 2017, Pham became the first Cardinals batter since 1900 to record at least a .300 batting average, 20 home runs, 20 doubles, and 20 stolen bases in the same season.

Early life and amateur career

Pham was born in Las Vegas, Nevada, to Tawana (age 17) and Anhtuan (age 19). His twin sister Brittany was born two minutes later. At the time, his father was incarcerated, as he would be for most of their lives. His father was born in Vietnam to a Vietnamese mother and an African American father, and moved to the United States with his mother, brother, and sister. Pham's father was gifted in American football, but became entangled in drugs and street crime for decades.

Pham’s mother’s parents helped her raise her twins on the condition that she work. She had not finished high school, and took on jobs as a busser, a casino waitress, and at a bakery, and raised the twins in Spring Valley, Nevada. Between the ages of two years and years, Pham wore leg braces; his pediatrician feared that he had contracted rickets. Because his mother worked so much, Pham said he "can count on one hand" the number of his games that she attended throughout his life. When he was five years old, his mother married an electrician named Fred Polk, and they had a daughter named Mercedes. Pham "has had issues" with his stepfather, and says that once when Pham was 25 years old and in a fight with him, his stepfather stabbed him.

Pham attended Gorman High School, Centennial High School, and then Durango High School in Spring Valley, where he played baseball as a pitcher and infielder. As a senior, Pham was named the Class 4A All-State Player of the Year by the ''Reno Gazette-Journal'' and a second team All-American, after batting .581. With a fastball in the range, he drew some interest as a pitching prospect, but did not like to pitch and rarely pitched his senior year. He originally committed to play college baseball at Arizona, and then switched his commitment to Cal State Fullerton, though he did not attend Cal State either. Ultimately, after the St. Louis Cardinals selected him in the 16th round of the 2006 amateur draft, Pham opted for professional baseball over college. He received a $325,000 signing bonus, higher than most players drafted as late as the 16th round.

Professional career

Minor leagues

Pham began his minor league career in 2006 batting .231/.340/.324 with one home run in 216 plate appearances, with the Rookie League Johnson City Cardinals. He played shortstop, and made 22 errors in 37 games, for an .849 fielding percentage. In 2007 he was then shifted to the outfield, and batted .188/.272/.277 with two home runs in 303 plate appearances for the Class A- Batavia Muckdogs and Class A Swing of the Quad Cities.

In 2008 he hit .203/.272/.396 with a career-high 156 strikeouts in 438 plate appearances for Class A Quad Cities and the Class A+ Palm Beach Cardinals. In 2009 he batted .232/.313/.378 in 380 plate appearances in Class A+. In 2010 he suffered a small fracture in his wrist. In a June 2011 game, he tore a wrist ligament. He played 40 games and batted .294.

In early 2012, he suffered a torn left shoulder labrum, costing him most of the season. For the 2012 season, he batted .154 in 43 plate appearances for the AA Springfield Cardinals. After promotion to AAA Memphis Redbirds of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) in 2013, he tore his other labrum. He returned to Springfield after rehabilitation. He batted .264 for Memphis in 30 games, and .301 for Springfield in 45 games. Pham played most of the 2014 season for Memphis, appearing in 104 games, and batted .324/.395/.491, with 63 runs scored, 16 doubles, six triples, 10 home runs and 44 runs batted in (RBI). In 2014-15 he played for Leones del Caracas in the Venezuelan Winter League, batting .143 in 63 plate appearances.

St. Louis Cardinals

Pham was called up to the major leagues with the Cardinals for the first time on September 7, 2014. In 2014, he struck out in both of his only two plate appearances.

2015

Pham opened the next season with Memphis, but missed the first two months with a strained left quadriceps. On June 9, Pham hit two home runs and a career-high five RBI against the Iowa Cubs. In his first 24 games after returning from the disabled list, he batted .338. Pham later was named the best defensive outfielder of the PCL for 2015 by ''Baseball America''.

The Cardinals recalled Pham to the major league club on July 3, 2015, and in a 2–1 victory over the San Diego Padres the next day, he doubled for his first major league hit, then later in the game pilfered his first stolen base and scored the winning run, his first major league run. On July 5, Pham hit his first major league home run, hit another double, and drove in all three of the Cardinals' runs – his first three major league RBI – as the Cardinals again defeated the Padres, 3–1.

On September 16, Pham tripled and had his first multi-home run game, against the Milwaukee Brewers in a 5–4 victory. He had homered in three consecutive plate appearances spanning his last at bat previous to the game, September 13 against the Cincinnati Reds. In the next game against the Brewers, Pham doubled and tripled, giving him six hits and eight RBI in consecutive games against Milwaukee. The Cardinals won the National League Central division. Pham made his major league postseason debut as a pinch hitter during the bottom of the eighth inning of Game 1 of the 2015 National League Division Series (NLDS) against the Cubs, and hit his first career home run against Jon Lester.

2016

The Cardinals selected Pham for the Opening Day roster in 2016. He injured his left oblique during batting practice on Opening Day. He was the first player following the start of the regular season to be placed on the DL. The club reactivated him from the DL on May 17, and optioned him back to Memphis.

In 2016, he batted .226/.324/.440 in 183 plate appearances over 78 games. For the season, he had the highest strikeout percentage against left-handed pitchers (41.7%).

2017

Pham did not make the 2017 Opening Day roster out of spring training, and began the season at Memphis. After batting .283/.371/.500 at Memphis with four home runs and 19 RBIs in 25 games, he was recalled to the Cardinals on May 5.

On May 7, 2017, Pham homered twice versus the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park among a season-high four hits. His second home run provided the deciding runs in a 6−4, 14-inning victory. Pham eventually became the starting right fielder. He finished the season batting .306/.411/.520 with 23 home runs, 73 RBIs, 22 doubles, and 25 stolen bases in 128 games. He became the first Cardinals batter since 1900 to record at least a .300 average, 20 home runs, 20 doubles, and 20 stolen bases in the same season. He also was 3rd in the league in power-speed number (24.0). On the bases, he led the major leagues by being picked off six times, the most by a Cardinal in 29 years. Pham placed tenth in the majors in Fangraphs' Wins Above Replacement (WAR). He ranked 11th in the National League Most Valuable Player Award (NL MVP) voting, the only Cardinals player to receive votes.

Pham's at-times dominant performance led to the portmanteau

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