The Atlanta Braves aren't worried about Tim Hudson. The other 29 MLB teams should be.The Terrible* Tomahawks have just signed the aging hurler to a 3-year deal after deciding that exercising his option for one more year wasn't enough. You'll recall, unless you stopped watching baseball in September as I did, that Hudson returned from shoulder surgery late this past season to start 7 games for the Braves after missing almost 14 months. He was good, too.
If he really is going to stay healthy, Hudson can be counted on. Of his four full seasons in Atlanta (2005-2008), three were rock solid. In 2006, he blew up with a 4.86 ERA. But the new contract speaks volumes about whether or not the Braves expect that to ever happen again.
This year, with Hudson missing almost the whole time, the Braves compiled a 3.57 ERA, good for 3rd place in the bigs. And that was with Kenshin "Someone stop me" Kawakami tossing underhand for 156.1 long, painful innings.
Kawakami will probably still be pitching in Atlanta this spring, but he'll be a little bit more seasoned. With him or without him, here's a look at the remaining absurd starting pitching depth the Braves could have with a healthy Tim Hudson.
2. Javier Vazquez, RHP, 332008: 15-10, 219.1 IP, 2.87 ERA
Alas, the dominant, innings-eating, K/BB machine that the Yankees thought they were getting in 2004, the Diamondbacks thought they were getting in 2005, and the White Sox thought they were getting in 2006, 2007 and 2008 finally arrived in 2009! Do the Braves know something everyone else doesn't? Javy has one more year left on his contract, and his name has popped up in trade rumors yet again, but when you look at his erratic history pitching for different clubs, you have to think "If it ain't broke, don't trade it." (Because if you do trade it, it will surely become broke -- perhaps to the tune of a 4.91 ERA again.)
3. Tommy Hanson, RHP, 232008: 11-4, 127.2 IP, 2.89 ERA
This guy should win the NL Rookie of the Year award for 2009 despite some good competition from the likes of J.A. Happ and Chris Coghlan. A strikeout machine, he's only going to get better in a full season at the major league level. And the upside is there: in 5 of his 21 starts in 2009, he pitched 6 or more innings and didn't allow a single run. Um, wow.
4. Jair Jurrjens, RHP, 242008: 14-10, 215.0 IP, 2.60 ERA
This talented dude finally put it altogether in 2009 after an up-and-down performance in 2008. He went 9-1 against NL East foes, so it wasn't his fault the Braves didn't make the playoffs, and his 2.24 ERA after the All-Star Break was scintillating. How do you pronounce his name? Just go with "sir."**
5. Derek Lowe, RHP, 362008: 15-10, 194.2 IP, 4.67 ERA
Red Sox fans who saw Derek Lowe still pitching in Atlanta in 2009 and being serviceable felt about the same way they would if they saw Mo Vaughn tearing it up for the Rockies or Curt Schilling for the Blue Jays (or Pedro Martinez pitching in the World Series for the Phillies at Yankee Stadium, something equally absurd and impossible). That is to say, we wish Derek Lowe well, but we don't understand why he is not retired -- just like '04 teammate Manny Ramirez is, for example.
6. Kenshin Kawakami, RHP, 342008: 7-12, 156.1 IP, 3.86 ERA
You have to think the Braves are hoping they get better mileage out of Kawakami than the Red Sox have with their Japanese import, Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Camry to the Braves' Corolla. But if Kawakami followed Dice-K's path, that wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen to Atlanta. Following a mediocre rookie season, Matsuzaka was lights out in his sophomore '08 campaign. In 2009, of course, he was paid like a Saudi prince to "rehab" at a "facility" in "Fort Myers, Florida," a.k.a. to head to the frigid mountains of Nagano to wrestle a bear and throw 2,000 pitches a day in disciplined preparation for the Japanese national team's next World Baseball Classic game in 2013, by which time he will DEFINITELY be ready to pitch his heart out again, we're all sure.
7. Jo-Jo Reyes, LHP, 252008: 0-2, 27.0 IP, 7.00 ERA (AAA Gwinnett: 4-2, 66.0 IP, 2.86 ERA)
No, Jo-Jo wasn't good in 2009, and wasn't good in more innings in 2008, either. But he's still young, and he's the only lefty the Braves have. They'll want to give him every chance to win a starting spot for that reason alone.
8. Kris Medlen, RHP, 243-5, 67.2 IP, 4.26 ERA (AAA Gwinnett: 5-0, 37.2 IP, 1.19 ERA)
The poor man's Tommy Hanson, Medlen looked for a moment like he was even better than T.H., getting the call-up before him in May and showing at least one flash of brilliance (6.0 IP, 1 ER, 9K, 1BB @ARI on May 31). Of course, he's not as good as Hanson, but he'll be solid if he can crack this rotation.
*In light of the Braves' tepid but nevertheless respectable 86-76, it's totally unclear whether "terrible" is really best understood in the sense of "awful; pitiable" or "terrifying; threatening," isn't it? Well, it's called poetic ambiguity.
**Actual answer: pronounce all the J's like J's and emphasize the latter half of the ai dipthong in "Jair." Thus, Jah-YEER JUHR-jens.
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