2009 FBS Breakout Player: Hunter Pence

Team: Houston Astros

Bats: Right

Position: OF

Hunter Pence has been on the breakout radar for a year or 2 now. He is a player who turns 26 and is clearly in his prime. Last year Pence disappointed us a little with a drastic drop in average do to a tremendous slump early last season. Pence is capable of being a stud. We think his 2009 year will be the year he earns that title. Last season proved why we think this. Pence was mired in 3 terrible slumps last year and managed to jump out of them each time. That is the kind of play you want to see out of your young players. In the last three months of the season, Pence hit 15 homeruns and hit nearly .300 two of the months. Hunter Pence won't achieve the .322 average he did in 2007, but we expect him to shorten the length of his slumps and also the number of slumps he will fall into. Confidence is a big issue with this guy, so that is the key. We would have rated him a higher breakout, but he has already had great seasons, this is as high as we could rank him.

The True Guru Projections: 24 Hrs, 96 RBI, 87 Runs, .298 Avg, 15 SB

We feel he will achieve these projections through our formula based on our secret formula of 11 herbs and spices (its locked at Fort Knox). Of course we are assuming he stays relatively healthy for the entire season.
Check out the rest of our breakouts here

To get more from The True Guru and the other guru's Ryan Hallam and RC Rizza catch our weekly podcast at www.blogtalkradio.com/the_true_guru. Listen to us LIVE every Wednesday at 10pm EST.