Oriole #776- Corey Patterson

I've written about Corey Patterson a time or two over the years, but never much in depth, so today I figured I would dig a little deeper about his time in baseball.

As many of you likely know, Corey was the Cubs' 1st round draft pick (3rd overall) in the 1998 and was long regarded as one of the best prospects in baseball, but never really lived up to the early hype. He played with the Cubs from 2000-05 before being traded to the Orioles for two minor leaguers on January 9, 2006.

He made his Orioles debut on Opening Day April 3, 2006 to become the 776th players in Orioles history, and would spend the next two seasons patrolling the O's outfield. He was a solid fielder but an inconsistent hitter and wasn't resigned after the 2007 season. He would then spend the 2008-11 seasons bouncing from Cincinnati, to Washington, to Milwaukee, back to Baltimore for 90 games in 2010, to Toronto and finally St. Louis.

Corey never really latched on anywhere, and for all his potential, just never seemed to have had things click on a sustained basis at the MLB level. Overall, Corey played in 357 games for the Orioles, hitting .272 with 32 homers.

I was lucky enough to get Corey's autograph a few times during his time in Baltimore and a friend in the Northwest was able to get this personalized card for me last season during his time with the AAA Tacoma Rainiers. He doesn't seem to have signed with any team for the 2014 season, so it's possible that Corey's baseball career could be over, but he's only 34, so who knows?