One of the arms in the pen in 2024 was Walter Pennington
With the 2024 regular season over, it is time for us to go back and take a look at the players who appeared for the Texas Rangers this season.
Today, we look at relief pitcher Walter Pennington.
Walter Pennington doesn’t sound like a baseball player name.
I’m not 100% sure what Walter Pennington is the name of, but it isn’t a baseball player.
I think Walter Pennington may have been the EPA guy in Ghostbusters played by William Atherton. Though really, Walter Pennington sounds like it would be the name of any character played by William Atherton in the 80s.
Chris Knight’s professor in Real Genius who manipulates him and Mitch into creating an assassination laser beam? I think his name was Walter Pennington.
The news reporter in Die Hard who gets punched by Holly McClain at the end of the movie? Pretty sure he was Walter Pennington.
Walter Pennington pitched four seasons for the Colorado School of Mines in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, and I bet you didn’t know that. Well, he pitched three-plus seasons, as his senior season was in 2020 and was cut short because, you know. And he was thusly signed by the Royals of Kansas City that August.
I learned today that the Colorado School of Mines athletic teams are known as the “Orediggers” which, yeah, I guess makes sense.
Walter Pennington is only the second major league player from the Colorado School of Mines. The other one is Roy Hartzell, who played just about every position for the Browns and Yankees in the 1900s and 1910s. Hartzell was born in Golden, Colorado, graduated from Golden High School, went to school at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, and died in Golden, Colorado. He is buried in Golden Cemetery. I will leave the city and state where the Golden Cemetery is located to your imagination.
Pennington, you may recall, was acquired from the Kansas City Royals for Michael Lorenzen at the trade deadline and pitched in the bullpen at various times over the final two months of the season. He had a 3.12 ERA for the Rangers in 17.1 IP, but with a 4.32 FIP and 5.42 xERA. He walked too many batters, didn’t strike out enough batters, and his slider, which is his best pitch, wasn’t terribly effective.
Pennington is lefthanded and has options remaining and so if he doesn’t get hurt or see the wheels come off he’ll likely stick around and get some major league innings in 2025. If he sharpens his command he could become a bullpen regular, maybe. Or he could end up being one of those guys who floats around, appearing in major league pens periodically and then disappearing again, your prototypical vagabond lefty.
Previously: