Bradley Wayne Penny (born May 24, 1978) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Penny played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Florida / Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, and Detroit Tigers, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He was an All Star in 2006 and 2007.
Penny was born in Blackwell, Oklahoma. He graduated from Broken Arrow Senior High, where he was an All-State selection and Frontier Conference Pitcher of the Year.
Penny was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the fifth round (155th overall) of the 1996 MLB draft, and signed with the Diamondbacks on June 4, 1996.
He was immediately assigned to the Arizona Summer League, where he ranked fourth in the league in ERA (2.36) and was named Arizona's Organizational Pitcher of the Month in August. With the South Bend Silver Hawks in 1997, he was 10–5 with an ERA of 2.73 in 25 starts.
In 1998, with the High Desert Mavericks, he went 14–5 with a 2.96 ERA in 28 starts and was named to Baseball America's first team Minor League All-Stars, the California League Pitcher of the Year, California League Most Valuable Player, Arizona Diamondbacks Minor League Player of the Year and "A" Level Player of the Year.
In 1999, he started the year with the El Paso Diablos at the Diamondbacks Double-A level, and had a 2–7 record with a 4.80 ERA when he was traded to the Florida Marlins.
On July 8, 1999, Penny was traded to the Florida Marlins along with Abraham Núñez and Vladimir Núñez in exchange for relief pitcher Matt Mantei. The Marlins assigned him to their Double-A affiliate, the Portland Sea Dogs. In his first game in the Marlins organization on August 8, Penny combined with Luis Arroyo for the first no-hitter in Portland history.
After a good spring, Penny made the Marlins starting rotation in 2000. He made his first MLB appearance in a start on April 7, 2000, against the Colorado Rockies. Penny pitched seven innings, giving up only one run, to get his first MLB win in the Marlins' 4–3 victory. At the end of the season, he ranked second among NL rookies in winning percentage (.533), third in wins, tied for fourth with 22 games started and was sixth in both innings pitched (119+2⁄3) and strikeouts (80).
In 2001, Penny pitched 205 innings for the Marlins. He finished 10–10 in 31 starts. In 2002, due to injuries and ineffectiveness, Penny's ERA rose from 3.69 in 2001 to 4.66 in 2002.
In 2003, Penny bounced back, finishing the season with 14 wins for the Marlins and helping them reach the playoffs. Penny collected the win in Florida's NLCS clinching victory over the Chicago Cubs and in the World Series against the New York Yankees he went 2–0 with a 2.19 ERA in his two starts.
Penny started the 2004 season with an 8–8 record with a 3.15 ERA in 21 starts for the Marlins.
On July 30, 2004, Penny was traded with Hee-Seop Choi and pitching prospect Bill Murphy to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Guillermo Mota, Juan Encarnación, and Paul Lo Duca. However, in the first inning of his second start with the Dodgers he suffered a serious arm injury and went on the disabled list (DL). He returned in September but reinjured himself after three innings in his first start off the DL. He began the following season on the disabled list, still recovering from the injury, but he rejoined the Dodgers on April 24, 2005, and had a solid season.
On June 12, 2005, Penny signed a three-year contract extension worth a guaranteed $25 million and a team option for the 2009 season.
Penny was named by Houston Astros manager Phil Garner as the National League's starting pitcher in the 2006 All-Star Game. He pitched two innings, allowing a home run to Vladimir Guerrero after striking out the side (Ichiro Suzuki, Derek Jeter, and David Ortiz) in the first inning.
On September 23, 2006, against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Penny joined the small club of pitchers who have struck out four batters in one inning. Due to the uncaught third strike rule, Penny was credited with striking out Chad Tracy, but because catcher Russell Martin failed to catch the ball cleanly, Tracy was allowed to attempt to run to first base, and made it there before he could be thrown out. Despite giving up three runs in the inning, Penny recorded three more strikeouts to complete the four-strikeout inning.
He also threw the fastest fastball of all NL starters in 2006, averaging 93.9 miles per hour.
Penny had a strong start to 2007 that continued throughout the season, with an ERA of 3.03 for the season and was the first Dodger pitcher to start out with a 12–1 record since Phil Regan went 14–1 in 1966. Penny was selected to the All-Star game for a second consecutive year. Penny had several memorable outings in 2007, including on May 7, 2007, against his former team, the Florida Marlins. Penny struck out a career-high 14 batters that day in a 6–1 Dodger win. Another memorable performance was against the San Diego Padres in a pitcher's duel against All-Star teammate Jake Peavy just before the All-Star break. The match ended in a draw with both pitchers going seven innings giving up one earned run on five hits. Penny struck out seven, while Peavy struck out six. The Padres would eventually win the game 3–1 in 12 innings. He also threw the fastest fastball of all NL starters in 2007, averaging 93.4 miles per hour.
Besides being a hard throwing pitcher, Penny developed into a good hitting pitcher since being traded to the Dodgers. In 2006, his batting average was .185, but was above .200 for most of the season and was as high as .240 before Penny ended the year in an 0-for-12 slump. He batted .246 in 2007. Penny also had six doubles, seven RBI, and seven runs scored.