Minor League Baseball

St. Louis Cardinals Prospect Tink Hence Calls Out 'MLB The Show' For Glaring Omission

Tink Hence throws a fastball that can reach 98 miles per hour, but "MLB The Show 25" did not include the pitch in the St. Louis Cardinals prospect's repertoire.

Sam Connon

West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Tink Hence (72) delivers a pitch against the Houston Astros during the seventh inning at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches.
West Palm Beach, Florida, USA; St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Tink Hence (72) delivers a pitch against the Houston Astros during the seventh inning at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
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Early access to "MLB The Show 25" finally opened Friday, much to the delight of baseball and video game fans across the world.

St. Louis Cardinals pitching prospect Tink Hence, on the other hand, wasn't exactly ecstatic with what he found when he opened the game.

The 22-year-old right-hander is rated as a 68 overall to start the season. Unlike a lot of discontent players, though, Hence wasn't upset with his rating.

The virtual version of Hence was given a sinker, slider, curveball and changeup, notably excluding his fastball – or perhaps mischaracterizing it as a sinker. The pitch, which MLB Pipeline grades at a 60, typically sits between 92 and 96 miles per hour and can even approach 98.

Hence tagged the official MLB The Show account in his Instagram story, pointing out the omission while asking the developers to add his fastball into the game.

Hence went 4-3 with a 2.71 ERA, 1.067 WHIP and 12.3 strikeouts per nine innings in 20 Double-A starts last season. He earned an invitation to the Cardinals' spring training camp, only to go 0-1 with a 16.20 ERA and 2.700 WHIP across 3.1 innings of Grapefruit League action.

Per MLB Pipeline, Hence is still ranked as the No. 3 prospect in St. Louis' farm system and the No. 76 prospect in baseball.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon is a staff writer for “Minor League Baseball on SI’’ and other "On SI'' baseball sites. He previously covered UCLA Athletics for “UCLA on SI’’ and won awards from the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon also wrote for “New England Patriots on SI’’ and was on the Patriots and Boston Red Sox beats at Prime Time Sports Talk. Follow Sam on Twitter @SamConnon.

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