Kyle Parker | |||
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![]() Parker during his tenure with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox, triple-A affiliates of the Rockies, in 2014
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Free agent | |||
Left fielder | |||
Born: Evans, Georgia |
September 30, 1989 |||
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MLB debut | |||
June 16, 2014, for the Colorado Rockies | |||
MLB statistics (through 2015 season) |
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Batting average | .182 | ||
Home runs | 3 | ||
Runs batted in | 12 | ||
Teams | |||
Kyle James Parker (born September 30, 1989) is an American professional baseball left fielder who is currently a free agent. Parker was highly regarded during his prep career as both a baseball and football player and chose to attend Clemson University to play both sports. After redshirting during his freshman season, Parker spent the 2009 and 2010 seasons as the starting quarterback for the Clemson Tigers football team. He was also an integral part of the school's baseball team. Parker was drafted by the Colorado Rockies as the 26th overall pick in the 2010 Major League Baseball Draft and made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut with them in 2014.
Parker attended Bartram Trail High School in St. Johns County, Florida. He played both baseball and football and was a highly regarded recruit in both sports. He came out of high school as the #34 overall player in the country and #4 quarterback in the country according to ESPN. Parker first started at quarterback the last five games of his sophomore season where he threw for 870 yards and rushed for 450. In his junior year he threw for 1,850 yards and rushed for 700 while accounting for 27 touchdowns. He was also invited to the Under Armour All-American game, where he threw the game winning touchdown pass. In baseball he was a first team all state and county selection his junior season. He did not play his senior season due to him enrolling at Clemson in January 2008 of his senior year.
After spending 2008 redshirting, Parker started all 14 of the Tigers' games at quarterback in 2009. He finished the season completing 205 of 369 passes for 2,526 yards with 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. The pass completions, passing yards and touchdowns were all Clemson freshman records. He was named a second-team freshman All-American by College Football News and a first-team freshman All-ACC by Sporting News. He guided Clemson to nine wins his freshman year with those numbers. One of those wins was against a top ten team on the road in Miami where he threw three touchdowns. He led the Tigers to 34 points in seven different games. Against N.C. State, Wake Forest and, Middle Tennessee State he was named the team's offensive player of the week. In the game against Miami he threw for 326 yards which is the second best ever for a Clemson quarterback and also threw four touchdowns in a game which is tied for the record. Also had a streak with at least one touchdown pass in seven straight games. He ended up throwing for over 200 yards in five games and had over 200 yards of total offense in seven. He ended the season in seventh in both passing yards and ratings at 180.4 and 124.4 respectively. In Clemson's bowl game he threw for 141 yards and a touchdown in a bowl win over Kentucky. He was the first freshman quarterback to take his team to a conference championship game. He was also the first Clemson freshman to start in a bowl win.