If there was one guy that I just kinda figured the Padres would let work things out, it was, for whatever crazy reason, Nick Hundley.
But now that the Padres have called up Yasmani Grandal, I find myself pleasantly surprised. We now get to see, in a big league uniform, the final penultimate piece of the Mat Latos trade (as we wait on Brad Boxburger) . If these three are productive at all at the big league level, I will consider us winners and Mat can rest assured that we didn't just move him for three four chumps.
In recent conversations we've had with other blogs and even just yesterday on Senor_Lumpy's Stupid America BlogTalkRadio show, I've figured that the Padres were just going to cash it in this season and that we wouldn't see another call up until after the All-Star Break.
But it wasn't to be.
For whatever reason, for as much as critics (including myself) were just completely done with Orlando Hudson and Jason Bartlett, I realize now that we've also been a little bit easy going on Nick Hundley.
Nick Hundley, incidentally, has been absolutely terrible and the Padres are pushing forward, either to:
A) Light a fire under him.
B) Salvage some sort of production out of the catching position
C) Continue with the plan that Nick Hundley's extension wasn't really to be a starter so much as a mentor to Yasmani Grandal and other catching prospects.
Part of me is impressed that we will see Grandal, who's been killing it, in the same lineup as a seemingly productive Carlos Quentin and the Doubles Machine Yonder Alonso. Another part of me is a little weirded out by how badly Nick Hundley has fallen off his game since last season. The last part of me is really surprised that I wasn't more irritated with just how completely terrible Hundley has been.
Personality goes a long way.