A Vote Against Orlando Hudson
January 5th, 2010 Posted in Curtis Granderson, Edwin Jackson, Orlando Hudson, Scott SizemoreI have always like Orland Hudson. He is a good player and has been for about a decade. Not only is he a solid player, he is rumored to be one of the best clubhouse guys in all of baseball. You’re hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn’t like the O-Dog. That being said, I hope the Tigers pass on him and let Scott Sizemore have the job.
Sizemore was damn good last year in the minors in both Erie (AA) and Toledo (AAA), hitting a combined .308 with 17 homers and 21 steals. The organization has not rushed him and let him work his way through each level of the minors and he appears to be ready. There isn’t much left for him to prove in the minors at the age of 25 (yesterday was his birthday).
Hudson on the other-hand is slopping the other direction. He’s always been a league-average hitter which looks a bit better considering he plays second base. Last season his OPS+ held steady, but his slugging and OBP numbers fell off, especially the slugging. His true value has always been in his fielding, but even that fell off last season. His overall performance fell off so much (not to say he was awful, he wasn’t), but he lost his job down the stretch to Ronnie Belliard. Nothing against Ronnie Belliard, but that certainly is not impressive.
My biggest beef here is that the Tigers apparently want to shed money. They shipped out two relatively young and fairly compensated players in Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson. If the Tigers brass turned around and spent that “saved” money on a guy like Hudson, it would tell me that the Tigers don’t have a real plan that they are dedicated to.
If the Tigers are going to rebuild, cool. I can roll with that, it could even be fun if you could look past the losing. If they want to go out and spend, that’s cool two…just don’t try to have it both ways.
2 Responses to “A Vote Against Orlando Hudson”
By Kenny on Jan 6, 2010
I agree completely with everything you said.
By stephen grosberg on Jan 12, 2010
Sizemore vs. anyone else, especially overpriced free agents or even trades is no contest when you have a potential star like Scott Sizemore. It becomes even more positive when you have backups like Ramon Santiago and Brent Dlugach. If they were smart, they’d move Brandon Douglas to Erie to see if he’s a hitter like I think he is. Brent Wyatt, who impresses me with is versatility as well as his BB vs. K. The key in all this is that you don’t look to overpay or overtrade when you have potential stars and backups too. Between you and JAYRC, you have a most informative site, which I greatly appreciate.