Baseball in Fort Wayne

Micheal Barrett has had a rough season. He suffered multiple facial fractures, including a broken nose that will require surgery, when he was struck by a ball off his bat Wednesday in Denver. The full extent of his injuries will take more time to evaluate, but he will undoubtedly miss time; which provides another opportunity for another former Wizards catcher. This time, Nick Hundley is the benefactor.

Triple-A Portland catcher, Nick Hundley, will join the Padres before tonight’s game in Phoenix.With both Josh Bard and Michael Barrett on the DL, Hundley will serve as the immediate backup backstop to another former Wizards catcher, Luke Carlin, who also made his debut earlier this season.

For those looking for information and fan takes on Hundley, here’s  some info:

How good is Nick Hundley as a prospect? I’m glad you asked! I like Nick quite a bit. When he was coming out of the University of Arizona, he was generally regarded as the second best defensive catcher available. And the Padres selected him in the second round. He has considerable power (20 HR last year in the Texas League and 11 so far in the Pacific Coast League), the question, is whether he will make enough contact to be a starter or if he’ll be relegated to a role as a solid back up. [source: Peter Friberg on June 26th at Padres RunDown]

Hundley spent parts of two different seasons with the Wizards in Fort Wayne. He saw ten games in 2005, and 57 in 2006 before being promoted to Lake Elsinore. In  2006, he hit 2.74 with 8 home runs and 44 RBI’s en route to being named to the Midwest League All-Star team. He was also MWL Player of the Week for the week of June 13, 2005.

He is not threat to steal a base and he does strike out a bit (about 21% of the time), but is power numbers are starting to come around. Last year, he swatted 20 dingers with Double-A San Antonio and has 12 on the season with Triple-A Portland.

If he debuts at the MLB level, Hundley will become the 67th former Wizards player to do so, and the fifth one this season (Luke Carlin, Jared Wells, Eddie Bonine and Leo Rosales are the others). If and when it happens, I’ll provide an update to this post.

Best of luck Nick!

Update #1: Nick Hundley is in the starting lineup for the Padres tonight, so he will almost certainly become the 67th former Wizard to appear at the MLB level. I’ll update after the game.

Other blog posts featuring information about Nick Hundley.
Note: Hundley is featured on pages 70 and 71 of Baseball in Fort Wayne. Photo by Chad Gramling, taken at Memorial Stadium in 2006.