Yesterday, the swift, black Hudson gently crashed into LA, salvaging the Dodgers' depressing winter while saving the club millions.
Arizona's best position player, three years running, just glided over to their arch nemesis, for chicken feed. We cant really blame the Diamondbacks for this foul departure. They offered Orlando Thill Hudson money - not a great deal at the time. They then offered the reasonable security of arbitration, in a dicey economy, that would've paid upwards of $8M a year. Dog declined both, right before seemingly everything in the world, but Sully, collapsed. But this is about more than money.
If healthy, Orlando not only buoys the Dodgers with a solid two way middle infielder, but slides Dewitt and Blake leftward on the defensive spectrum, displacing Pierre out of left field. Not as big an upgrade as Manny, of course, but this "Hudson Realignment" not only raises offensive and defensive boats - it markedly improves club leverage with the slippery Ramirez. Manny's no longer a must have. By jettisoning Andruw, Nomar, Kent, and effectively, Pierre, this younger, streamlined fleet can fly high, as is. Thanks to an historically weak economy, a Hudson in the desert started LA's fortuitous trickle down party. Now it's up to Ol' Manny River, not LA, how badly he wants to crash it.
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Song of the Day - After The Thrill is Gone (Eagles cover)
5 comments:
Nice "Hudson" link, but that is completely undone by "Ol' Manny River". For the love of God!!
On the Hudson deal, Nick Piercoro reports that Orlando wanted "a deal so unrealistic that it actually upset people with the Diamondbacks." Wasn't there similar claims with RJ? I don't have as strong issues as you have with the FO (does anybody?) but attempts to gloss over the loss of fan favorites by making them look greedy seems a little tacky.
// Nice "Hudson" link, but that is completely undone by "Ol' Manny River". For the love of God!! //
I was going to say exactly the same thing! And there were 0 comments on the blog before I got pulled away to a meeting I was ignoring 8)
Michael Norton
Some Clubhouse - It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere!
Thanks, guys. I guess I got carried away with:
glided
chicken feed
foul departure
buoys
displacing (my favorite)
raises boats
slippery
jettisoning
streamlined fleet
trickle down
attempts to gloss over the loss of fan favorites by making them look greedy seems a little tacky
I agree. Players sign and players go, but I think this FO has a tendency, maybe even a policy, to mislead the public on some of these vast gaps leading to "fan favorite" departures.
Gonzo - lowball "courtesy" contract would insult Gonzo, no contract offered
Clark - offer timeframe "misunderstood"
Johnson - 25% of market value offer, described by FO as "fair"
Hudson - unnamed source describes player's stance "upsetting"
Whether these guys signed or not isnt the issue - it's the scope and nature of these public gaps that consistently rings false.
Hudson's case differs from the other three, I think. Turns out he was unrealistic, in a broader sense, beyond this team's inbred PR machinations.
Maybe it's time the Dbacks change their unis to Dodger Blue. Seems about right.
In all fairness, Hudson has had hand and wrist injuries that cut short his 2007 and 2008 seasons (I'm concerned about paying a lot for guys with hand and wrist problems) and he and the D'Backs parted ways before the economy was THIS bad and before teams became aware they'd be able to get such bargains. Felipe Lopez isn't any good, but this was just bad timing for everyone.
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