|
|
|
At his blog for ESPN.com, Buster Olney breaks down the potential teams that would fit free-agent 2B Orlando Hudson. 
As far as the Mets are concerned, Olney writes:
“It seems all but certain that the Mets will work to dump Luis Castillo, whose signing was a mistake, and Hudson would fit New York perfectly in so many ways. He would give the Mets tremendous defense at second, covering a lot of the ground on the right side that Carlos Delgado doesn’t cover, and as a switch-hitter, he would fit in perfectly between lead-off man Jose Reyes and those who follow. But beyond all the on-field pluses that he would provide, the chatty Hudson would give the Mets another guy who is comfortable with the media — and in this way, he would give relief to David Wright, Delgado and Carlos Beltran.
The guess here is that Hudson would really help the mercurial Reyes maintain a level of consistency, and help the whole team work through the cloud of doubt that will inevitably hover over the team next September, when questions about the 2007 and 2008 late-season failures will pop up.”
Other potential suitors listed by Olney include the White Sox, Indians, Angels, Cubs, Cardinals, Reds, Yankees and Diamondbacks.
Before dislocating his left wrist on August 9th, Hudson was hitting .305 with 41 RBI and 40 XBH.
 |
 |
 |
RSS 2.0 Both comments and pings are currently closed.
So, in other words - he would be a perfect fit.
Yes because he would be injured and overpriced. Perfect.
Look if he comes here for 4/32 then sure. But accounts have him looking for 5/60. No way.
couldn’t disagree with you more. this guy would be a great fit for the Mets and he is young and talented. have you watched him play? he is worth the investment. like Murphy but who says he can play 2nd. i understand in the arizona league he is mentioned as 1B anyway.
Need to get someone who can secure the position-we have been running guys in and out of there since Doug Flynn. hudson would be a great fit.
Agree to disagree. Hudson is not young anymore and is coming off 2 serious hand injuries. His production does not warrant the money he seeks. If Murphy can’t play 2nd then there are many things we can do but giving Hudson more than 4/32 should not be one of them.
but your missing the point..think about the money we would have to eat to unload castillo plus take on a 5/60 mil contract…thats alot of money we would waste on 2b when its not really a big priority over the bullpen and sp. You dont want to handcuff yourself by commiting to an area that doesnt really need help and impair your ability to address the areas that really need improving.
my comment was for metsfrenzy not real
Wow, I think you said it so right here, Dirty…..
The fact is that Hudson is at an age at which many second basemen significantly decline–or has everyone forgotten Roberto Alomar that quickly. Many people predicted Alomar’s drop-off as a Met, due to his age when we got him, and most people (myself included) ignored these warnings because of how well Alomar had done. He proceeded to stink up the joint and became a target for Mets fans’ hatred.
Face it, Jeff Kent is a freak of nature. Second base is a very physically demanding position which takes it toll on a player, with all the take-out slides and all. It did so with Alomar, Baerga, Sandberg, and countless others. And Hudson has a ‘headstart,” so to speak, since he missed most of the end of the last two seasons due to major injuries. And if he declines offensively, as we should expect him to do, all of his “clubhouse presence” will be useless, as light-hitting infielders will not garner much respect as leaders. See Julio Franco circa 2007 and Marlon Anderson circa 2008.
Great post Metsfan…..Castillo, Alomar, Matsui, Baerga, and Samuel….what a list.
2nd base is our Spinal Tap drummer position.
I think the Mets NEED Hudson. Looking back on this last season, it’s pretty clear. Hudson has a great fastball that can reach the upper 90’s and wicked off-speed stuff. I envision him getting 40 saves and being able to extend himself and get those tough 2 inning-saves when needed. Yes, the Mets will clearly sure up that big hole they have with Orlando Hudson.
No wonder there’s 6 posts a day about Orlando Hudson - WE NEED HIM. He’d solve all our bullpen woes.
and from time to time i guess he can play second or whatever….
ok, have seen the posts and I’m not totally disagreeing with the points raised. But he is going to be 32 - that’s not really that old for that position. I’m not saying through the bank at him - I’m just saying at least look into it. Who is going to play 2nd or are we saying we need to live with Castillo another 3 years-forget that. BTW-I did forget a mets second baseman who was decent in my earlioer post-Edgardo Alfonzo.
And yes, I realize he is not solving our bullpen - and 2nd is not necessarily a priority. But face it, we do have a problem there and we may not be able to get all the pieces filled.
he is 30 right now……please look up these guys info before bringing up points.
Dear sherlock:
he was born on 12/12/77 so that will make him 31 before he plays next year-if we sign him he will be going on 32. maybe you should check your reference points before posting remarks!
if he stays off the DL
Are comments getting blocked?
All the time.
So many times I’ve written long, flowery, extremely thought-out comments only to have them not post for no obvious reason. I don’t know if it’s because certain letters are placed beside other letters or what. I don’t understand the algorithm. I wish there were error messages to point out what exactly is wrong with the post.
that would be great…so tired of trying to dissect a post word by word to try and find the offending combination
The mercurial Reyes?
Oh please.
I agree with some of his sentiment but the talking to media stuff is way overblown.
Thanks Wagner!
Hurt down the stretch 2 years in a row, virtually the same injury if I remember. no thanks, he have Murph and other more pressing needs. Lets not just sign a guy because he “is comfortable with the media”.
He was hurt down the stretch two years in a row, but if I remember correctly, it was wrist injuries both times. Kind of a freak coincidence, not some habitual injury that you’d worry about (hammy, knee, back, etc.).
Coincidence or not you have a guy that has had season ending injuries to his wrist 2 years in a row. Also, his defense has declined during that time. Not to mention the fact that he wants 12-15 million a year.
Like shea_guevara said, Hudson’s injuries aren’t of the nagging sort that tend to recur, like a hamstring. That being said, his “not likely to recur” injury happened two years in a row–and down the stretch each time. And in 2007, he opted for season-ending surgery, rather than attempting to rehab and come back in time for the playoffs, which is a *big* “black mark” on his record that, for some reason, is not getting mentioned.
He went out on Sept 5th of ‘07. Highly unlikely that any rehab would have had him back in time for the playoffs. So no, it’s not a *big* black mark at all.
Well, “Dr. Slob,” while I would love to hear the basis for your comment, the news at the time was quite different. Not that anybody ever said that he could definitely get back in time for the playoffs by rehabbing, but it was expected that he would try. And then, all of a sudden, he announced he was undergoing season-ending surgery, deciding only a few days after the injury to not even try rehab.
Keep in mind, nobody thought Kent would be able to play again this year, and he made it back–after surgery, no less.
Kent stunk this year. He significantly dropped off.
And who cares if they are non-recurring type injuries? They are still injuries to his wrists, which hurts your ability to hit. Ask Carlos Delgado. I love Hudson, but no thank you.
The 2007 injury apparently didn’t hurt Hudson since his 2008 ops+ was the highest of his career.
supposidly he has a great clubhouse demeanor..at least thats what has been reported on this site. He would be more of a sure thing at 2b than murphy (defensive wise).
Obviously, but he would cost about 10 times as much.
agreed…I mean people are not even taking into cosideration we will have to eat alot of castillos contract to get rid of him. Then to add more payroll on top of that….
I’m not sure why people are so crazy about signing a free agent 2b like that was the reason we didn’t win.
Exactly like Odog’s production alone over Castillo’s next season would magically make us that much better. Take a look at their REAL production using 2007 as a guide for Castillo. Castillo scored more runs in 2007 than Hudson ever has.
I don’t want to go with Castillo either but thinking that Hudson is worth the buyout of Castillo AND the 12-15 million a year is insane.
runs scored is more about who hits behind you, and last time i checked hudson has never had THREE 100 RBI guys behind him.
I just dont know. I mean if he comes relitivly cheap omar should press the trigger but then i feel like we are wasting our time with murphy…..
I guess IF you could get him for 8-10 million a year and leave Murphy in LF or trade Delgado and sign a LF then it works. To me it’s just not necessary the way so many make it out to be.
what part is not necessary?
Hudson at 2B.
agreed. Kingman has a pretty good layout of the plan with murphy should be. Have murph start and replace him if needed for defensive purposes with easley. Of course the mets need to address other issues first but i guess we will see. Omar as you said real shouldnt go nuts with odog
Not necessarily. Murphy/Evans make for an excellent LF platoon. The offense actually started to go downhill when Jerry inexplicably switched gears and stopped running platoons out there in both corners.
Evans v. LHP: 79 PA, .319/.380/.514/.894
Murphy v. RHP: 138 PA, .306/.391/.455/.846
Yea i know but they are a defensive liability out there. They got murph playing in 2b for what i guess is my point if they are not even going to use him there and sign odog?
They are just inexperienced. Both are athletic enough to play an average LF at least.
I dunno. If possible i would like some stability next year. I want daniel playing against L pitching and i want evans available to PH(since he kills L).
I am ok with Murphy playing every day, too. But we don’t know that he will hit major league LH pitching consistently. There needs to be a platoon fallback plan in place.
agreed and like we have said evans is available if dan cant handle it…although something tells me he wont have too much of a problem. Theres just seriously SOOOOOOOOOO many options its rediculous going into the offseason……….
Yep, Omar has a lot of different things he can do.
Do you really want a fulltime platoon? Is that really what is best for Murphy and Evans? Does that protect the lineup from a Delgado decline? Too many if’s.
Did you see what our production was out of LF last year before the Murphy/Evans platoon?
It is a SEVERE upgrade from what we got from the position last year. Severe.
tatis did pretty good….
Tatis did most of his damage playing RF. We had Marlon, Endy, Angel Pagan and various other losers playing LF after Alou got hurt and before the rookie platoon.
We were getting about 40% below the league average offensively from those guys. That is horrendus.
If the Mets are serious about courting 2nd-basemen, they wouldn’t be trying to get Murphy to learn 2B. I think they would much rather put Murph at 2B and go for a LF and pitching options. We can’t sign or trade for everything we are missing.
I hope you are right. As long as Murphy can handle 2B (and the early reports from his limited playing time there in the minors suggested he can), there is no reason to go after Hudson when there are so many other needs, all of which are much more pressing.
I just do not get the obsession with this guy.
Hudson is going to be 31 in 2009, and is coming off two pretty big injuries.
He is a 3-time Gold Glove winner and has good “clutch” hitting stats, but there is absolutely nothing else in his career that ranges above the pretty good, in any category. And he has never played in the postseason. And his career has been spent in the very un-New York-like environs of Toronto and Cleveland.
Why would we spend tens of millions on an over-30, possibly now injury prone, pretty good 2nd baseman?
I know that we need change, but why not spend the money on pitching? Murphy is playing second right now, and while it is indeed very tough to learn to play 2nd and turn the double play, why not give him a shot with Easley as insurance?
Oops, meant Toronto and Arizona of course…must have been thinking about Robbie Alomar…..
“Murphy is playing second right now, and while it is indeed very tough to learn to play 2nd and turn the double play, why not give him a shot with Easley as insurance”
-If the mets plan to go with murph that would have to be the plan right there.
that screws us for the “defensive” replacement late in games. Both players would be sub-par defensively.
true but easley while not the best defensive 2b is better than evans and i would prefer having easleys bat in the 2 hole than awful reyes….
better than murphy*
I get this point but Omar certainly values defense at 2b so I would wonder if Easley is the back-up
yea…maybe he can find a better option on the market as we could use an upgrade on our bench….
Although I have no problem with Easley, I would not be surpised to see him gone next year, which would mean Omar would definitely need to find a replacement for him on the bench. Whether he does so with a solid righthanded bat, or a defensive-minded middle infielder remain to be seen. With Evans around, though, I would go for the defensive-minded middle infielder (of course, he would have to be able to hit some, or else we could go with Argenis Reyes).
Hudson never played for Cleveland
Yes, thank you, as I immediately posted below my original post, I know he was in Toronto. Even the folks who can correctly evaluate Hudson’s career and worth can make mistakes…..
Isn’t Hudson pretty much Castillo except with a bad wrist 2 years in a row instead of bad knees?
Kinda. He hits for more power but has no production to show for it. He K’s more times than he has Runs or RBI’s.
Is not playing in the post season supposed to mean something?
I’m starting to think I wouldn’t mind if the Mets used next year as a tweener. Meaning: no crazy FA signings this winter, keeping our picks and pick