The Twins and their fans are understandably giddy over the Orlando Hudson signing, but Joel Sherman of the New York Post is throwing a bit of cold water on the O-Dog today:
No doubt Hudson is a better player than Castillo and, thus, would have helped the Mets more. But Dodgers officials were actually disappointed in Hudson’s overall game and, remember, Joe Torre benched Hudson in favor of Ronnie Belliard late in the year. They were quickly surprised that Hudson was not faster with a few inside the organization derisively turning his nickname from O-Dog to Slow-Dog.
Keith Law, who worked in the Blue Jays front office when Hudson was there, thinks that to the extent Hudson’s lack of speed surprised the Dodgers, it was a failure of their own scouting, not any falloff from Hudson:
I saw Hudson a lot when we were both in Toronto, and he was never a plus runner . . . And from talking to people with Arizona, I know they noticed the same phenomenon when Hudson played there. Unfortunately, I think the cause here is that Hudson looks the part of a speedy, low-power middle infielder, and scouts and coaches are making assumptions that just don’t bear out in reality. He’s not fast, he’s never been fast, and anyone who files a report on him with a grade of 50 (average) or better for his running speed has made a bad evaluation.
So there you have it anonymous, name-calling Dodgers officials: Orlando Hudson is rubber and you’re glue and what you say about the O-Dog bounces off him and sticks to you.