At age 37, after elbow surgery, back surgery and a bone spur or two, Braves pitcher Tim Hudson has evolved. He’s gone from being the undersized dude who got it done with guts and surprisingly nasty stuff to one who excels mostly on guts and guile.
But excel he continues to do.
Still no more than 170 pounds soaking wet, with an Alabama drawl as thick as the day he was drafted out of Auburn by the Oakland Athletics 16 years ago, the 170-pound veteran has become the guy Braves officials want young pitchers to emulate. The old cuss who works hard and finds a way to win.
Monday night against Philadelphia, Hudson makes his sixth-opening day start and first since 2008. It’ll be the third time he’s started a season opener for the Braves but the first at Turner Field. He called starting on opening day an honor and a privilege, especially for the Braves with their pitching tradition.
And particularly in a season when there is increased buzz around the team.
“I’m excited,” Hudson said. “I think if we go out there and just play baseball and do the little things right, we’re going to be tough to beat. We’re going to put up some runs, and I think our starting pitching is going to be good enough where we can hand a lead over to our bullpen and they can shut the door.
“This year there’s a lot of expectations and a lot of optimism. And I think this spring training has done nothing but heighten that a little bit, the play of some of the guys.
Hudson, the eldest Brave, starting the opener? Teammates wouldn’t have it any other way.
"I hope I'm pitching when I'm 37 years old," said Braves pitcher Kris Medlen, who went 9-0 with 0.97 ERA in 12 starts last season, and gets the Game 3 start Thursday. "Us (young pitchers) being here is awesome; we're living our dream. But he's lived the dream. He's signed big contracts, he's been around for a while, he's been in commercials – he has a SportsCenter commercial!
“He’s a dude that I wouldn’t mind modeling my career after. He likes to have fun, knows when to have fun and when to be serious.”
Hudson 1-0 with a 2.79 ERA in five opening day starts. In the 2008 opener at Washington, he allowed two runs and three hits in seven innings of a 3-2 loss. The Nationals got their runs in the first inning and didn’t have a baserunner in Hudson’s remaining six innings.
He’ll face Cole Hamels on Monday, with Paul Maholm facing the Phillies’ Roy Halladay on Wednesday in Game 2, and Medlen starting against Cliff Lee in the series finale Thursday.
Hudson needs three wins to reach 200 for his career and has a 105-65 record and 3.52 ERA in eight seasons with the Braves, including 16-7 with a 3.62 ERA in 2012. It was his third consecutive season with at least 16 wins, despite missing most of spring training and April recovering from lumbar-fusion surgery for a herniated disc.
Veteran Gerald Laird will catch Hudson’s opening-night start. Laird signed with the Braves over the winter and will split catching duties with rookie Evan Gattis until Brian McCann completes his recovery from shoulder surgery.
Laird observed Hudson from the other dugout for years.
“Gamer, hard-nosed No. 1 pitcher that’s been around a while,” Laird said. “He obviously knows he doesn’t have the velocity he once had, but he’s not intimated, he’s not scared of anything. He comes after you with that sinker, that’s his pitch, but he mixes it up and keeps you off-balance.”
And competitiveness? That’s the first thing most notice when they’re around Hudson.
“He just wants to win every time,” Laird said. “You can tell, even in spring training if he gets hit around a little bit he gets upset. If he doesn’t make a good pitch he gets upset. He wants to his best for the team. He’s definitely the guy I thought he was. It’s nice being on the other side of it, to be able to catch the sink and cut instead of having to hit off of it.”
Hudson is in the option year of his contract and can be a free agent after the season. He hopes to pitch several more years and wants to stay with the Braves, but knows they have a lot of young pitchers coming up through the minors.
There’s no guarantees he will be around to start another opener for the Braves, and you better believe there will be plenty of folks on hand Monday from his hometown of Phenix City, Ala., from Auburn, and from families and groups who’ve been helped by the Hudson Family Foundation, a pet project for Hudson and his wife, Kim.
“To me he’s a professional,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. “Class. Durable. Great for the clubhouse, great teammate, great for the city. For me, at the end of his career he can be talked about as guys like (Tom) Glavine, (Greg) Maddux, (John) Smoltz, as far as what they meant to the community and everything they’ve done on the field.”
Hudson has a 186-102 record since the beginning of the 2000 season, trailing only CC Sabathia (191-102) and Roy Halladay (190-93) in wins during that period. He leads baseball in fewest homers allowed per nine innings (0.71) since 2000 and ranks fourth in ERA at 3.43, behind Johan Santana (3.20), Halladay (3.28) and Roy Oswalt (3.28).
After missing part of 2008 and most of 2009 recovering from ligament-transplant elbow surgery, Hudson went 49-26 with a 3.19 ERA and .237 opponents’ average in 622-2/3 innings (95 starts) over the past three seasons. He made $9 million each of those seasons.
By comparison, here’s what Philadelphia’s high-priced starting trio did over the past three seasons:
– Halladay went 51-24 with a 2.91 ERA and .247 opponents' average in 640-2/3 innings (90 starts). Halladay, 35, made $55.75 million over three seasons including $20 million each of the past two. He has a $20 million salary in 2013 and $20 million vesting option for 2014.
– Hamels went 43-26 with a 2.97 ERA and .229 opponents' average in 640 innings (95 starts). Hamels, 28, made $31 million over three seasons and signed a new deal that pays him $19.5 million in 2013 and $22.5 million each of the five seasons beyond that.
– Lee went 35-26 with 2.89 ERA and .241 opponents' average in 656 innings (90 starts). Lee, 34, made $41.5 million over the past three seasons and has $25 million salaries each of the next three years, plus a $27.5 million vesting option for 2016.
