WHY I THINK TIM HUDSON SHOULD BE IN COOPERSTOWN
By- Damien
Tim Hudson was the epitome of a crafty righthander. He didn’t overpower hitters; instead he kept them off balance with a variety of breaking balls. Primarily a sinkerballer, Hudson induced a lot of ground balls, but he also struck out over 2,000 batters. Most of all, he was a big winner, pitching to a 222-133 lifetime record, good for an astronomical winning percentage of .625. He fell off the Hall of Fame ballot this year, and this seems ridiculous to me. Usually a player similar to Hudson would start out slow (maybe 10% of the vote or something) and steadily rise until he eventually made it to Cooperstown. In that case, why not Hudson? What did he do wrong? At any rate, I wrote about the last two Hall of Fame ballots and “voted” for Hudson each time. I wrote -
Hudson had a terrific 222-133 (.625) lifetime record. He led the AL in wins and winning percentage in 2000 and was a two time league shutout champion. Wielding a fastball and four different breaking balls, Hudson recorded a 3.49 ERA, 2,080 strikeouts, and four all-star selections.
Tim Hudson started his career with the Oakland A’s in 1999, striking out 11 batters on his MLB debut and finishing the year at 11-2. He was the runner up for the AL Cy Young Award in 2000, leading the league with a 20-6 record (i.e., led the league in both wins and winning percentage). Hudson continued to improve, shaving his ERA by 77 points in 2001, another 39 points in 2002, and still another 18 points in 2003, but never captured an ERA Title despite the big hitting environment. Hudson was traded to the Braves after the 2004 season, gave them an ace caliber season in 2005, but slipped to 13-12, 4.86 ERA in 2006. Hudson proved this to be a fluke season, as he went 16-10 with a 3.33 ERA in 2007 and stayed near the top of the Braves’ starting rotation until 2013. Hudson came over to San Francisco in 2014 and had a rewarding season, making the NL all-star team and helping the Giants to their third World Series Championship in five years. He played one last season in 2015, going 8-9, before retiring. Tim Hudson was a great pitcher, a consistent winner, and one of the best sinkerballers the game has ever seen. He’s a Hall of Famer.
LIFETIME STATISTICS
Games Pitched career: 482 season high: 35 in 2001 and 2006
Starts career: 479 season high: 35 in 2001 and 2006 led AL: 35 in 2001 led NL: 35 in 2006
Complete Games career: 26 season high: 4 in 2002
Shutouts career: 13 season high: 2 in 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2004 led AL: 2 in 2003 and 2004
Games Finished career: 0
Wins career: 222 season high: 20 in 2000 led AL: 20 in 2000
Losses career: 133 season high: 13 in 2014
Winning Percentage career: .625 season high: .769 in 2000 led AL: .769 in 2000
ERA career: 3.49 season low: 2.70 in 2003
WHIP career: 1.239 season low: 1.075 in 2003
Innings Pitched career: 3,126 ⅔ season high: 240 in 2003
Strikeouts career: 2,080 season high: 181 in 2001
Strikeouts Per Nine Innings career: 6.0 season high: 7.5 in 2000
Walks career: 917 (84 intentional) season high: 82 in 2000
Strikeouts Per Walk career: 2.27 season high: 3.53 in 2014
Saves career: 0
Fielding Percentage career: .969 season high: 1.000 in 2002, 2006, 2007, 2009, and 2015 led AL P: 1.000 in 2002 led NL P: 1.000 in 2006 and 2007
Double Plays career: 35 season high: 4 in 2005, 2011, and 2015
Putouts career: 258 season high: 27 in 2005 and 2007 led AL P: 26 in 2002 led NL P: 27 in 2005 and 2007
Assists career: 492 season high: 57 in 2010 led AL P: 54 in 2003 led NL P: 57 in 2010
Caught Stealing Percentage career: .315 season high: .714 in 2012
Pickoffs career: 19 season high: 3 in 2003 and 2010
DID YOU KNOW?
-was the 2010 NL Comeback Player of the Year (17-9, 2.83 ERA after having been limited to just seven starts in 2009)
-won the 2010 Hutch Award
-finished 15th in the AL MVP Award voting in 2000
-also finished fourth in the Cy Young Award voting in 2003 (AL) and 2010 (NL) and sixth in 2001 (AL)
-finished fifth in the 1999 AL Rookie of the Year Award voting
-won two career Pitcher of the Month awards and four Player of the Week awards
-had a career ERA of 0.00 in all-star play
-started the two longest postseason games in history
-was the oldest pitcher ever to start Game 7 of the World Series (2014)
-was the 15th pitcher to win a game against every MLB team
-was the winning pitcher of the Braves’ 10,000th victory in franchise history (July 15, 2011)
-hit a home run in the same game as his 200th Big League win
-retired as the winningest pitcher in the MLB
-finished second in the AL ERA race in 2003
-allowed the fewest home runs per nine innings in the Majors in 2004 (0.4)
-had a 1-4 record, 3.69 ERA, and 53 strikeouts in 75 ⅔ career postseason innings
-batted .333/.429/.583 in 2009
-had 67 career sacrifice hits, including 14 in 2006
-had a career batting average of .333 in postseason play
-also played three games as a DH, one as a pinch hitter, and six as a pinch runner
pitchers differentiate between rh and lh
disclaimer as to why i’m using era+, etc when i don’t like advanced stats (speak their language)
This is a pretty good post. I know I'm a year and a half late for this one but I wanted to ask you to write a post about Cliff Lee. He was pretty similar to Tim Hudson, and even though his counting stats weren't as good and therefore he may not be a Hall of Famer, I would still like to hear what you would say about him.
ReplyDelete