Oriole #978- Nick Hundley

This past Saturday, the Orioles pulled off a trade with the Padres sending lefty reliever Troy Patton to San Diego in return for catcher Nick Hundley. Troy had pitched for the O's off and on since 2010 and was a player who I enjoyed watching in the minors at AA Bowie. But this past off-season produced the second failed drug test of his career and a subsequent 25 game suspension that seemed to place him in Buck Showalter's doghouse and on the chopping block. His name had been dangled as trade bait once he came of the restricted list, and he was especially vulnerable as the O's bullpen had four lefties in it at one point earlier this season.

So the O's made the deal to acquire Hundley from the Padres, a transaction that might also speak volumes about Matt Wieters' future with the O's for the rest of the 2014 season, but hopefully I'm jumping to conclusions.

(Disclaimer- I know that I will call Nick "Todd" at various points. I already had to fix the title of this post. Todd Hundley was also a MLB catcher who played in the Majors from 1990-2003, and someone whom I was much more familiar with until this past weekend.)

Anyway, Nick was drafted in the second round of the 2005 draft by the Padres and made his MLB debut for them in 2008. He appeared in 510 games for Friars over the past seven seasons, and was mainly used as back-up/platoon catcher over that time. None of this stats particularly jump out at me, but it does solidify the O's current catching situation.

He made his Orioles debut on Memorial Day, and it looked like it would be a forgettable one, as he was 0-4 with a strikeout and also committed a nearly game-ending error over the first nine innings of the game. But luckily the Brewers couldn't capitalize on his throwing mistake, and he came to bat in the tenth inning and promptly singled in J.J. Hardy who scored the go-ahead and eventually game-winning run for the O's. So his debut went from horrible to awesome with a single swing of the bat.

I do not have Todd's Nick's autograph in my collection, and it doesn't look like he has any certified autographs out there. But luckily, a few online sites are littered with cheap autographs of his, so I should be able to add one to my collection for only a few bucks. Eventually, I would like to have a signed, personalized Old Man Card too, but we will see how things work out.

Good luck with the O's Nick!