Baseball in Fort Wayne

Posts Tagged ‘Nick Hundley’

• Rosales provides flexibility in ‘pen (MLB.com): With the Brewers leading in a 5-0 game, former Wizard, Leo Rosales was called to work the top of the ninth inning. He held them scoreless and the D-backs scored six runs in the bottom half of the inning to win 6-5. It was Rosales’ first big league win.
• Hundley’s debut comes in right place (MLB.com): More coverage of Nick Hundley’s MLB debut. Having played three seasons in Tucson for the University of Arizona, it was fitting that he made his debut against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Hundley’s parents, his girlfriend and other family members were in attendance, while some friends rented the pool area beyond the fence in right-center field for the game.
• Soria heading to All-Star Game (MLB.com): Former Rule-5 draft pick, Joakim Soria is an All-Star in his second big league season. The closer has been near perfect, with 23 saves in 24 chances and a 1.22 ERA in 35 games. “Ironically, the July 15 Midsummer Classic will be played at Yankee Stadium, where on June 7 Soria suffered his only blown save and loss.”
• Padres touching lives of Little Leaguers (MLB.com): A great article that quotes former Wizard, Paul McAnulty, on his passion for the game and his little league memories to discuss the Padres’ initiative to revive little fields as “Little Padre Parks.”

 ”I can’t even remember when I fell in love with the sport, that’s how far back it was,” McAnulty said. “But ever since I was a little kid, even in Pampers, that’s all I did was play baseball.

It must be something about Big League debuts for former Wizards catchers this year. When Luke Carlin made his, he caught Greg Maddux’s 350th career win. Nick Hundley debut last night and he served as backstop for Cha Seung Baek’s 6 innings of no-hit ball. If you’re keeping score at home, Baek was acquired from the Seattle Mariners earlier in the season in a trade that sent former Wizards pitcher, Jared Wells, to Seattle.

But it was the work of Nick Hundley and other former Wizards that nearly stole the show. Hundley went 1-3 with a walk, a run and a strikeout while playing flawlessly at the plate.

Leading 2-0 in the sixth, Baek gave up a two-out double to Stephen Drew. Justin Upton followed with a single and it appeared likely Drew would reach home safely. But Hundley applied the tag following a perfect throw from Chase Headley that killed the would-be Arizona Rally.

Paul McAnulty, another former Wizard, entered the game in place of Brian Giles in the 8th. In the top of the ninth,with San Diego up 3-1, Hundley walked off of Leo Rosales (yet another former Wizard). Edgar Gonzales hit a sacrifice fly to score Hundley (who had advanced to third after a Tony Clark walk and a Jody Gerut single). McAnulty added two insurance runs with a single to center; which knocked Rosales from the game.

Having been passed over three three times, “Hundley, 24, said he stayed focused on performing better. He responded, raising his batting average from .189 as of May to .232 on Wednesday, when he got the news” [source: SignOnSanDiego].

Hundley was sporting a throwout rate of 38 percent in Portland, which would upgrade the Padres’ worst in MLB caught-stealing rate of 13 percent; which is well below the MLB average of 27 percent. If he brought the home run stick with him too (he had 12 in Portland), he’ll undoubtedly upgrade the Padres offense too. Gotta wonder what the future holds for Michael Barrett when he recovers. I’ve seen and heard it rumored that San Diego was trying to move him even before the injury, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Photo by David Kadlubowski/Associated Press.

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.

• South Bend Silverhawks (Diamondbacks) and Norwell standout Jarrod Parker earned his first professional win over the Beloit Snappers (Twins) 7-1. Parker allowed nine runs over his first three starts, but all but two were unearned. Parker righted the ship with this latest start though. He worked five innings and allowed just one run on two hits. [source: Baseball America]
• Former Wizards pitcher, Jack Cassel has been optioned to Round Rock, the Triple-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. Cassel, 27, was 1-0 with a 5.59 ERA over two starts. On Tuesday, Cassel threw 4 2/3 innings and gave up three runs on four hits to take a no-decision. The move comes as the Astros prepare to bring some players off the disabled list.
  

  “I knew I was limited in my time here pretty much, coming up on Wandy’s injury, and I know Wiggy’s down doing his rehab assignment, so essentially it was going to be a numbers game,” he said. “I was pleased with how I threw the ball in two outings and very happy that I was able to get that opportunity. I’ll go down and [have] the same plan — be the first guy they call” [source: MLB.com].

• Turns out, Chad Moeller wasn’t on the move at all. Literally. The 33-year-old veteran (an former Wizards) catcher “returned to the Yankees under a strange set of circumstances, passing through waivers before briefly becoming a free agent before the Yankees signed him to a Major League contract on Wednesday.” Moeller batted .350 (7-for-20) with one home run and three RBIs in six games for New York. [source: MLB.com].
• The Padres opened two spots on their 40-man roster on Tuesday. Infielder Oscar Robles was claimed off waivers by the Phillies and Mauro Zarate was outrighted to Portland. Might this mean spots for a couple former Wizards? Say . . .Headley? Antonelli? LeBlanc? Hundley?

• Former Wizard – the one who got away from the Padres – Joakim Soria finally showed signs of vulnerability. David Eckstein’s one-out single ended Soria’s streak of retiring 24 batters in a row. But he still has no ERA to accompany his six saves and 11 strikeouts.
• Matt Latos made his first start of the season for the Wizards and pitched very well. Some see him moving up to Lake Elsinore before the season is out. While I hope Latos pitches well (and I believe he will), I hope those folks are wrong.
• Wade LeBlanc picked up his first loss this year. He allowed seven earned runs on 10 hits and five walks over 3.1 innings. It was the worst outing of his career. It follows another bad start that saw him giving up six runs on eight hits. (hat tip to Denis Savage at MadFriars) Wonder what’s going on there. Speaking of LeBlanc, it appears that the Cubs had tried to get him in return for Matt Murton. As much as I would love to see Murton get a chance with a team willing to give him one, and as much as I would have loved to see LeBlanc with the Cubs, I don’t blame the Padres for turning that one down.
• Angel Mercado homered in his first game off the disabled list. Mercado had been out the last nine games but the hit extended his on-base streak to eight games. He also homered on Opening Night.
• It appears that Jake Peavy has pitched the idea of brining veteran outfielder, Kenny Loften, in to help shore up the Padres offense. But it seems that Padres’ GM, Kevin Towers would rather give some of the former Wizards now playing in Portland a shot.
  

  . . . some of the players Towers is most eager to promote would warrant demotion if judged solely on their Triple-A statistics. Chase Headley, the left fielder of tomorrow, is hitting a soft .236. Matt Antonelli, the heir to second base, has been hovering near the Mendoza line. Though Antonelli has drawn 12 walks in 16 games, his batting average is .212. Closest to a call-up, Towers said, is probably catcher Nick Hundley, who has hit four home runs in 11 games and whose arm would represent an improvement on Padres’ regular Josh Bard.

  “Hundley’s a guy I think our pitching staff felt fairly comfortable with in spring training,” Towers said. “He’s got a chance to be an offensive catcher and he’s somebody we feel comfortable enough to where we could put him back there (as much as 40 percent of the time) and not kill Bard.”

• Michael Cuddyer has returned to the Twins’ lineup.

The Padres’ Spring Training camp has a lot of players already. As one would expect given the length of San Diego’s player development contract with Fort Wayne, there are many former Wizards on hand. And, with the WBC looming, the Friars have called even more former Wizards into camp.

As Corey Brock reports:

infielder/outfielder Brett Dowdy and infielder Sean Kazmar — two players who are not on the 40-man roster — will join the team in case there is a need for bodies during spring games.

Both Dowdy and Kazmar are former Wizards. Also as expected, Kyle Blanks is going to get a lot of starts since Adrian Gonzalez is heading to the WBC:

“He’s going to get starts,” Black said. “He would have gotten starts on an alternating basis. Blanks isn’t going to play every day, he’s not going to be the Cal Ripken of Spring Training. He’s climbed the ladder to the point where he projects to go to Triple-A. He had a great year last year. He’s a guy who is approaching the Major Leagues.”

Former Wizards Drew Macias and Chad Huffman have also been working out at first and will see time there. Jose Lobaton, Colt Morton  will get looks at catcher as the team decides upon the backup to Nick Hundley, who seems to have secured the starting role. All three catchers are former Wizards.