On the afternoon of Nov. 25, 2013, the Orioles acquired right-hander Brad Brach from the San Diego Padres. Orioles fans everywhere will always remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.
OK, maybe not.
Brach's acquisition didn't exactly take baseball by storm. Most O's fans, if they even paid notice at all, considered Brach just another interchangeable relief arm to add to the stockpile of warm bodies in the bullpen. He was fringe roster filler, competing for a spot as the last man in the pen against the likes of Evan Meek, Josh Stinson and Edgmer Escalona -- pitchers who ended up with brief cups of coffee with the Orioles or never made it at all. Brach might've gone the way of countless mediocre middle relievers of years past, popping up from the minors every so often to trudge through some low-leverage innings, then returning from whence he came, unnoticed and quickly forgotten.
