How underrated is Tim Hudson?
In Braves Country we talk a lot about pitchers. We like to discuss how Teheran, Delgado, and Vizcaino are developing and what their future roles could be. We like to marvel at Brandon Beachy’s 2011 season and look forward to a similar 2012. We like to think that this could finally be Tommy Hanson’s breakout ace-like seasonwith no injuries and a sick beard. And we especially like to analyze the mess out of Jair Jurrjens and argue about what we should be doing with him. But for some reason, we don’t like to talk about Tim Hudson.
Maybe it’s because we are obsessed with the youth movement that Frank Wren has brought in. Maybe it’s because Huddy has always and will always be the one consistent veteran presence in the rotation. I don’t know why it is but we talk about Tim Hudson less, and maybe because of this we—as well as the rest of the baseball world—think less of him than we actually should.
When you hear Tim Hudson do you think ‘ace’? He has been the Braves number 1 pitcher the past few years and has put up 16,11, 17, and 16 wins the past four out of the past five years (he had 2 in 09 because of an injury). Some of these years (including 2011) were made up of some really poor offenses. Since joining the Braves Tim Hudson has never lost more games than he has won. We can go back even further and say, since joining major league baseball Tim Hudson has never lost more games than he has won.
For his career Hudson has 181 wins, 97 losses, 2503.1 innings pitched, a 3.40 ERA, a 3.78 FIP, and amassed 49 fWAR.
Here are a few comparisons:
- Cliff Lee (3 less seasons)-119 wins, 69 losses, 1641.2 innings pitched, a 3.65 ERA, a 3.60 FIP, and amassed 36.8 fWAR
- Roy Halladay (2 more seasons)- 188 wins, 92 losses, 2531 innings pitched, a 3.23 ERA, 3.31 FIP, and amasses 69.8 fWAR
- CC Sabathia (2 less seasons)- 176 wins, 96 losses, 2364.1 innings pitched, a 3.51 ERA, 3.51 FIP, and amasses 57 fWAR
I would say that is some pretty good company for him. Most of the above pitchers are considered aces an we might want to start thinking of Tim Hudson as one as well.
In 2011, out of 94 qualified pitchers, Hudson ranked extremely well in all of the major pitching categories.
- Wins- 13th with 16
- ERA- 24th with 3.22
- FIP- 27th with 3.39
- SIERA- 20th with 2.44
- WHIP- 19th with 1.14
After looking at all of these things I feel pretty accurate when I say that Tim Hudson is in fact on of the more underrated pitchers in baseball right now. I will even admit to thinking less of him than I should have. He is one of baseball’s most successful active pitchers and he deserves some credit for the things he has accomplished.