3:00pm: MLB.com's Bill Ladson talked to Adam Kennedy, who said the Nationals "basically let us know that they are kind of waiting on Orlando." Hudson earned about $7MM last year after incentives and seemingly isn't ready to accept the inevitable pay cut. He's not coming off an injury this time, but it may be difficult to top last year's $3.38MM guarantee.
9:04am: The Mariners "remain a long shot candidate" to sign free agent second baseman Orlando Hudson, reports Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. Morosi admits that some roster maneuvering would be necessary to accomodate Hudson, as the Ms already have Jose Lopez at second and a full slate of position players. I should add that whether Hudson is an upgrade over Lopez overall is an open question.
Morosi names the Nationals, Indians, and Twins as Hudson's other suitors. We learned yesterday that the Twins are serious, while the Rockies are out.
I wish the Cubs would consider him, though I doubt Hendry has any money left to spend. Going with Jeff Baker is a risky move, similar to last year when they went with a small sample size of success and determined that Mike Fontenot was their guy.
So the question is do the Twins spend more on the bigger name in Hudson, who lost his job last year, or take a chance on the resurgence of a 2-years-younger Felipe Lopez, whose greatest moments of career suck came as a Nat? As much as I like Hudson, plan B may be the better move.
I agree Felipe Lopez would be a great pickup by the Twins. He won’t cost any prospects and add some versatility. Although I think they also need to find a way to upgrade the rotation yet this off season if they want to claim the Central again.
Hudson isn’t going to cost a team any picks either.
HUDSON FOR THE CUBS!
im ready to start a petition…
Plenty of M’s fans want Hudson over Jose Lopez, but I don’t see it. Focus on the #3 starting pitcher unless someone wants to trade for Lopez.
Out of all of the teams in the hunt, Hudson could not be a better fit for the cubs. Not only is he a left handed bat to balance out the right handed dominate lineup, but he brings gold glove caliber defense oh yea and he can steal bases. So, not only is he a left handed hitter with speed with great defense he can also lead off. I think he would bring alot to a club that has alot of question marks for me going into the season.
He doesn’t really steal bases all that much. Good stick and good defense though, for sure.
Can’t figure out why teams don’t keep him long term, and with LA last year was bumped for Belliard of all people.
Odd.
Because his reputation exceeds his talent. I’m not saying I don’t want Hudson on the Twins; he’d be an upgrade over a Punto/Harris combo at 2B/3B… but the guy’s just not the elite player he’s made out to be.
“Gold Glove defense,” unfortunately, does not always mean good defense. Also, Hudson doesn’t really steal bases. He’s registered double digit steals exactly once in his career– 10 in 2007.
Jose Lopez and his 25 Homers in Safeco could be a monster in Minnesota, and O Dog would fit in well with Seattle’s current style of ball.That’s a lot of moving parts, but seems like a win-win if decent value can come back in a Minnesota swap.I wonder what it would take to pull off that deal with Minnesota. Of course, Ms fans will say Francisco Liriano, but I’m a little bit more realistic than that. Anyone on the Minnesota side have a guess?Would Lopez/ Jason Vargas for Liriano do it, or would you surmise more of a Lopez/ Michael Saunders type deal?
Or is Liriano a Twin with no prospect of moving?
With the pre-season hype that Liriano is getting, I don’t think the Twins could move him without giving him “One Last Chance” to become his old self. Unless, of course, all the hype is being generated artificially to inflate his value. š
The Twins do have a surplus of young pitching talent, however. I’m just not certain they’re willing to break the old rule of “don’t trade young arms.”
I like the philosophy of holding on to young pitching. It was kind of sad to see him so awful last year, because pre-injury he looked like a Lefty Felix. Some of the most exciting games I watched in 2008 (granted, 2008 sucked for Ms fans), were the Felix/Liriano matchups.
Felix and Liriano never faced each other in 2008.
I stand corrected. I meant 06
lopez for cassila/perkins
Jose Lopez’s undisciplined approach at the plate and mediocre glovework doesn’t really fit in with what Jack Z is trying to build in Seattle but I doubt he’ll be moved this year. The M’s are hoping that Dustin Ackley will be ready to take over at 2B in 2011 so Lopez will probably stay where he is for now.
im starting to think ackley won’t be a second baseman for long. it sounds like they see him as more of a first baseman or corner outfielder. at least i think that’s what they said on ‘mlb network’s top 50 prospects’ and some other sources (if i remember correctly).
either way, i agree that lopez will be the 2b for the near future. figgins, wilson and kotchman are all very good defensively and lopez has some pop that they really need in the lineup. if they got hudson or felipe lopez in addition to ichiro, figgins and wilson, they would have so many 1,2 type of hitters. possible lineup with hudson:
1. ichiro rf
2. figgins 3b
3. gutierrez cf
4. bradley lf
5. griffey jr. dh
6. hudson 2b
7. kotchman 1b
8. wilson ss
9. moore c
with how great the infield defense is right now, i think keeping lopez for his power potential is more important.
All that I’ve read states the opposite regarding Ackley. At first they were cautious and saying that the Ackley to 2B move is just an expiriment, but lately it sounds like he’s going full speed ahead at second.
If he’s strong defensively to start the year, his bat is ready for the bigs. He’ll be fast-tracked and Lopez will become very expendable.
I think Lopez is better suited for the 6 spot in the lineup because of his 20hr or so power, if thats where he will be batting that is, Hudson is more of a 2 spot hitter in my opinion…defensively they are about the same and Lopez is a lot younger if he has a big year they can trade him next offseason and call up Ackley…no point in signing Hudson, I would rather see the Twins or Nationals sign him.
oh i definitely agree that hudson is a two hitter, i just dont think he would hit there in seattle because of ichiro and figgins. and if lopez were in the lineup above i would have him in the five spot and griffey in the six spot. i was just trying to figure out where hudson would bat in seattle’s lineup.
any other ideas where he would fit in their batting order?
John Paul Morosi naming the Indians as being in on Hudson makes as much sense as the Twins trading Francisco Liriano for Jose Lopez.. none..
If (and that is a BIG if in my opinion) the Twins were to trade for Lopez, there is absolutely no chance that Liriano goes to Seattle. Next to the Mauer negotiations, it was pretty clear at TwinsFest this past weekend that the reports they are getting on Liriano’s performance in Venezuela are so good, there’s no chance they deal him. If the Mariners want starting pitching back, the Twins would probably offer Perkins off the major leaguer roster or an A or AA ball medium prospect in return. I suspect that the Twins have a dollar figure out there and if any of the free agent infielders they like accept it, they get signed. The Twins are not going to offer Hudson anything near what he is asking so if the money is most important, he’ll take the Washington offer. I’d guess the Twins offer to Hudson would be one year at $2.5 million or so guaranteed with some incentives tossed in. Only with some MLBTR posters and in Hudson’s mind is he considered an elite player. Major league teams don’t leave high value free agents to wind up the February bargain bin.
I’ve always gotten the impression that fans over-value Hudson. And this off-season, I’ve increasingly gotten the impression he over-values himself as well…
well if the twins offer is in the area of the indians and nationals, is it even a contest? why would you pick those two over a real chance to compete? he’d be batting 2nd in front of mauer, morneau, and kubel, let alone batting after on-base machine span. do i dare even type the names of the players on the other teams?
Dont underestimate the nationals this year…they will be a sneaky team and should be taken seriously unlike previous years, they probably had their best offseason since moving to DC.
The Nats are improving, sure, but playoff talk at this point is just unrealistic. Best case scenario would be a third-place finish within their own division. When Jason Marquis and John Lannan are your two most reliable starters (and I’m not counting Strasburg yet), that doesn’t bode well. Marquis and Lannan are serviceable, but they’re #4, maybe #3 starters in a good year.
“Orlando Hudson, paging Mr. Orlando Hudson. Reality is on line 1 for you”.
I think getting benched cost Hudson a million dollars. So I would guess Hudson’s saying to hell with a incentive based contract..
As much as i would really like Hudson on the nationals. i actually wouldnt mind adamn kennedy as a place holder. If Hudson signs else where that is.
Twins should either grab felipe lopez right now on the cheap or sign hudson to a 1yr/team option
I like Hudson don’t get me wrong. But I personally think that the M’s trying to move Lopez is bull. I really don’t buy it for some reason. Lopez has two plus defenders on either side of him now unlike in years past. I think a lot of the negative that was attributed to Lopez was he had to deal with Branyan for example playing first, and Betancourt playing shortstop. Both of them, quite frankly, sucked playing defense. I think this year you will see a much better defense. Lopez’s bat isn’t all its cracked up to be, I think if he played in a park with a shorter left field he would be a 30+ home run dude.
But back to defense, I don’t think he will be as bad as he has been in the past. There will be a lot less pressure on him to cover as much ground with Wilson at short and Kotchman at 1st. I think he will never be above average defensively, but will he be killing the team this year I doubt it. Also, I cant remember where I saw it, but Lopez actually put up a positive if not decent UZR when Wilson started playing shortstop for the M’s. I think any team that does pick him up will be more than satisfied with the results if they carry other good defenders.
But is he worth Liriano, I don’t think straight up. And honestly, I don’t think I want Liriano personally right now. I just don’t know if he will ever be the same. And if we’re giving up Lopez plus prospect(s) for what Brandon Morrow could have possibly done, I’m not interested. I hope the reports are true that Liriano is turning around. I’d still like to see what he can do against real MLB talent though. The Dominican Winter League is one thing, but facing real MLB teams every start is another.
I don’t mean Branyan was absolute garbage at first either. I just mean, that he is never going to win a gold glove at first. He is paid because of his home run power not catching everything hit in the same zip code as him…
He might win a gold glove if his offensive is good enough *.^. No that wasn’t a type-o.. GG means nothing
if we get hudson for the twins take a sneek peek at the numbers from our team last year and my predictions for this year for pitching and hitting
starting lineup
CF Denard Span 2009/.312 avg/10 HR/63 RBI pred. 2010/.315 avg/11 HR/71 RBI
2B O-Dawg 2009/.283 avg/9 HR/61 RBI pred. 2010/.291 avg/8 HR/67 RBI
C Joe Mauer 2009/.365 avg/28 HR/108???/ pred. 2010 370 .avg/40 HR/125RBI
1B Justin Morneau 2009/ .283 avg/30 HR/100RBI?? pred. .308 avg/49 HR/ 131 RBI
LF Jason Kubel 2009/.303?avg i think?/28 HR/105 RBI/ pred.2010/.305 avg/30 HR/102 RBI
RF Micheal Cuddyer 2009/ .283avg/33 homers/11o RBI/ pred. 2010 .275 avg/31 HR/98RBI
DH Jim Thome 2009/ .244avg/25 HR/???RBI/ pred. .233 avg/19 HR/68 RBI
SS J.J. Hardy 2009/ .201 avg/11 HR/???RBI/ pred. .267 avg/18 HR/ 71 RBI
3B Brendan Harris 2009/ .268 avg/10 HR/68 RBI/ pred. .256 avg/13 HR/62 RBI
2B Nick Punto 2009/ .287 avg/ 1 HR/45 RBI/ pred. .266 avg/0 HR/33 RBI
NOT BAD š but we have to get hudson or its not that good its just okayy