Orlando Hudson Wants $15MM Per Year?

That is just insane. Good luck Hudson, because you're not worth that ever.

actually, he's onto something.

next time i'm up for a review, i'm gonna tell my boss to give me a 200k raise because 44k just doesn't cut it anymore. i mean, my pedestrian performance metrics are every bit the same worth as the engineering department manager who brings in 5 times what i do on an annual basis.

Cardinals have Kennedy signed for next year. Let's them out unless they trade him or eat salary. Plus there are a couple of prospects available also.

I hope the Dodgers don't sign either Hudson or Ellis. Kent is gone after this year. Dodgers have Hu, Abreu, Young and DeWitt that can probably handle 2B and will be a heck of a lot cheaper options than both free agents. They should go after Sabbathia and/or Sheets. I can totally see the White Sox go after Hudson in the off-season.

How about LA trades for Brian Roberts?

(I kinda miss hearing his name 'round here. :p )

I think that the Cardinals will go after a shortstop hard this winter. They can get away with having a mediocre second baseman like Kennedy, but Izturis simply can't cut it at short. I think that you'll see either Raffy Furcal or Orlando Cabrera in a Cardinals uniform in 2009.

And honestly, what is going through Hudson's head? I understand that he's probably a top 5 second baseman, because he's offensively above average for the position and is arguably the best defense second baseman in baseball. But $15M a year is reserved for the elitest of second baseman, not exactly a money position, and Hudson is simply very good. Considering that he'll be 31 when he signs this contract, he really just doesn't deserve that kind of money.

I think that something like 5/55 or 4/48 would be a reasonable contract for him, even though a five year deal would take him through his age 36 season.

Yeah I've discussed Furcal to the Cards before. I just think it makes so much sense since most of their hitters aren't top of the order types. In fact really none of their hitters are top of the order types. Adding Furcal would be ideal, but its true that he's gonna get some decent attention from a lot of teams. O-Cab will be St. Louis' fallback plan, although he's a pretty good one.

I think that the Cardinals are going to make some wholesale changes to their roster soon, because they need to build the team around Pujols, Rasmus and Adam Wainwright

The only ones that are high are yall because the man has won 3 gold gloves in a row while still almost becoming the NL starter last year based on his hitting numbers. Hes off to a slow start but last year he was the best hitter in baseball in April. I bet he is probably the best defensive second baseman in baseball plus his hitting is starting to really develop and he is going to put up major offensive numbers, hes a late bloomer because he is the youngest of 7 children. Just watch yall, when October gets here and we see what his regular season stats were and then we see him produce in the playoffs because he missed out last yr with his injury. He will be getting something close to Chase Utley money.

To be the best defender at 2B alone is worth 10 million a year. Do you realize the runs he saves? Theres a reason why Arizona has great pitching despite pitching at the second highest elevation in baseball.

Plus, What did I tell yall about Jason Kendall, whos laughing now. We had a major discussion about where he should hit, I said 2nd and everyone else said 8th. 9th is a great comprimise because he leads off the top of the order in most situations but eventually he should move to 2nd so he can be there in the 1st inning.

Tell me again, like you did in February, how I dont know nothing about baseball, its only a matter of time before he and his MLB leading BA are hitting second. And I also called Corey Patterson signing with the Reds well before anybody else on this site considered it, and almost three weeks before it actually happened. As soon as Dusty mentioned that he talked to Corey and Kenny I knew theyd choose Corey and now hes going to have an All Star season. I also called the Brewers being better than the Cubs as they proved in the opening day series. The Cubs do not and will never have the pitching to make it past the first round if they can even make it that far. Lilly and Rich Hill and even Zambrano all give up too many HR in Wrigley. It ends up becoming a predetermined self fullfilling prophecy. They need me to become GM and then I would take Ted Lillys contract and tear it up and release him. He should be pitching in Oakland still or SF or LAD or SD or SEA

I know this site is mostly Cubs fans so that why I mention it. How about those D'Backs! Mark Reynolds can mash. I think its safe to say we can see them in October.

By the way I think the Reds will go down to the wire with the Brewers for the division.

If the D'Backs go to the World Series and he is a big part of it, I think the team will give him at least 11 million a year. I think thats what Eric Byrnes is getting. I think he signed a 3 year 33 million dollar deal.

I guarantee he has two seasons where he averages .315BA during his upcoming 3 year contract. This is the time to sign him y'all.

"Hudson isn't even in the same category as B. Phillips."

Yes he is. Plus he does not have a history of being a headcase. I love PHillips, dont sleep on O-Dogg though.

"I think Hudson (and Ellis to a lesser extent) will be the Mets biggest regret in signing Castillo (and the Astros signing Matsui) to their FA contracts."

Couldnt agree more, though I could also see the Mets just eating half of Castillo's contract after the year because I am sure there is some team who would take Castillo for 3 years and 9 million, even with knee problems. Agreed though, I would love to see either of those guys playing in Citi Field next year. Castillo is solid, but drives me crazy with his 3-1 bluffing the bunt garbage and his inability to drive in runners from 3rd with less then 2 outs because he can only hit the ball like 140 feet.

dbacks2007, did you seriously make like 8 posts in 20 minutes? Thats impressive I didn't know someone ever had so much to say about something so unexciting. And you say yall like 800 times, who the hell are you talking about?

"Hudson isn't even in the same category as B. Phillips."

But this is just wrong. Phillips is a stud with the bat who brings power and speed, and is a good fielder. But Hudson is an equally as good hitter who is just slower and has less power, but somewhat makes up for it with better plate discipline. When you add in that he's arguably the best defensive second baseman in baseball, you have to admit that Hudson is a top second baseman.

I would consider Utley the completely obvious #1 2B, but behind him there is a pretty big group of guys where no one stands out. Phillips, Cano, Hudson, Roberts, Hill, Kinsler, Uggla, Ellis, Kendrick, Weeks, Kent, Kelly Johnson, Cabrera and Polanco are all very good second baseman, but none of them is clearly far and away better than any other one. The guys with the bigger bats (Cano, Uggla, Kent, Weeks) aren't as good with the glove as guys like Ellis, Hill, Cabrera and Polanco.

"To be honest OPS should only be viewed in relation to OPS against the pitcher. Orlando has yet to strike out this season, that is a major indicator as far as im concerned."

What the hell are you talking about? You say that OPS, a very helpful stat in determining the offensive production of players, is essentially meaningless. Then you harp about how because Hudson has yet to strikeout, therefore he's playing well. Strikeouts mean nothing, they mean the same as a laser to the warning track that gets caught. If Hudson had a 1000 OPS, but struck out 180 times, you'd get rid of him, but you'd lock him in long term if he had a 600 OPS but struck out like 30 times?

If you honestly believe that strikeouts are a better indicator than OPS, then you simply should NEVER EVER EVER use statistics to back up your arguments. Because you have no idea how to use them.

Scribbletone, this is not your own personal forum despite the fact that you spend your whole life posting on here. I havent been on this site in two months and you are the same creepy angry little child you were two months ago when you said the SAME EXACT THING ABOUT MY JASON KENDALL COMMENTS and now Kendall once again went 2-3 today and is still leading the whole entire professional major leagues in batting average. You all laughed when I said how good he was still, and how he will be a league leader in p/pa and will have a high batting average, that he rarely strikes out and makes contact and Hudson and Kendall are actually very similar hitters they always produce a good at bat and dont strike out much. We are 1/18th through the season and Kendall is hitting .540. Orlando hasnt struck out so thats going to be an average of about 20 strikeouts on the season which pretty much puts him elite status. Strikeouts are a great indicator if you understand baseball because a players main purpose at the plate is to produce a good at bat. If a player always puts the ball in play that means that pitchers arent getting the best of him and it is likely that he is going to start getting alot of hits very soon. Another stat is his p/pa is probably at least very respectable because hes putting wood on the ball. So yes strikeouts, or a lack thereof , is a great indicator of near term production. OPS is overrated , I have said it over and over and will continue to. Players like Kendall and Hudson cannot be evaluated based on OPS , OPS is for people who draw a ton of walks and if they are reaching base its usually either an extra base hit or a walk. If someone doesnt have a high OPS they can still be good because you need to look at their p/pa and basically just look at the number of runs they are producing. Guys at the top of the order get the most ab in a game, common knowledge so therefore you put your players who have the best p/pa at the top. That stat is always led by cleanup hitters and top of the order hitters. Now scribbletone should I go back and copy and paste all the trash you talked about Kendall two months ago when you said he was done?

kab21 is a very informed blogger. He should post more and scribbletone should post less.

Scribbletone just says "what the hell are you talking about" like hes on his own private website or something. You need to keep your rude comments to yourself or go get your own website to say things like that on.

And Kendall will have streaks where he hits well and hits like a sucker. His defense is mediocre. There's a reason that in the playoff stretch for the Cubs he was benched for a rookie with better plate production and better defensive skills. There's a reason he was benched in the playoffs.

He may have a .900 ops right now or whatever, but he will come back to earth.

Just like Steve Stone always said... "Todd Walker is hitting .415 into the month of May, he is a career .300 hitter, he'll be that at the end of the season." meaning all established players will come back to earth with what they've done............

Congrats to you on being a vulgar person. Im sure Tim can consider you an asset to his website.

Let me ask you a question, when the game is being played in real time do you think anybody in the dugout is concerned about WARP and OPS?

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

The game is about being clutch and that starts with Defense and the teams who sign Orlando and Kendall are very pleased with them from that standpoint so you can take your WARP and OPS and go crawl up into your Baseball Prospectus. Youll never be a member of a front office. Youll be sitting on MLBTR.com posting all day long. In three days ill get burnt out from this and move on to something else and come back in a month and youll still be posting on here all day long. You keep backing up your arguments trying to play both sides of the coin, theres an inverse way to look at every stat and you keep using both ways trying to argue the other when they are not related. I am not talking about Ryan Howard striking out 130 times. Im talking about the lack of strikeouts of a contact hitter at the top of the order. Do you realize that? Youre a kindergartner looking at the back of a baseball card. Of course you can find a way to argue me when your using both sides of the statistic. Youre like a little fat kid. Its so annoying.

I came on this site for the first time in February and my first post was how Kendall should hit second and this guy and the Aduncaroos and Arodsucksatlife and maximumpotential ,jrfukudome, they all laughed and and told me how I dont know anything about baseball like this was their own private site for Cubs fans. That just because "kendall got benched by a rookie" last year means hes finished. You dont realize that means absolutely nothing. He simply did not belong on the Cubs. WHat are you trying to say that its his fault the Cubs go crushed by the DBacks? Id say it was Ted Lillys fault and all the HR he gives up.

So now look 1/16th of the way through the season Kendall is hitting .550 and has the best batting average in baseball so I think I probably have a bit more knowledge than all you Cubs fans who think that if a player doesnt produce for the Cubs then he sucks. Well Mark Grace had to leave Chicago to win a World Series. Andre Dawson should have done the same thing.

"Let me ask you a question, when the game is being played in real time do you think anybody in the dugout is concerned about WARP and OPS?"

Actually yes, many managers say they look at all those stats as well as go with their gut.