Sports Radio Interviews

Tim Hudson Is A Big Reason Why The Atlanta Braves Are Back In Contention

When he was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery, it sure didn’t seem like Tim Hudson would ever be able to return to the same form that helped him win a Cy Young earlier in his career. But Hudson has done just that and could be in line for another Cy Young if he’s able to pitch as well in September as he did in August. Hudson is 15-5 after his most recent dominant outing, and his ERA is now at an impressive 2.24. More importantly for Braves fans, he’s helped Atlanta get back in position to return to the playoffs after several years of missing out on the postseason party.

Hudson joined 790 The Zone in Atlanta to talk about his recent dominant 13 strikeout performance, his nasty stuff that night, if he knows when he’s got his good stuff prior to a game, recovering from Tommy John surgery, if he thinks Stephen Strasburg will be able to recover like he was able to, and being a part of the Oakland A’s young and rowdy teams earlier in his career.

On what got into him before and during his 13 strikeout performance recently:

“I don’t know man. I guess there team must have gone out the night before and stayed out late or something.”

On being described as nasty that night by the opposition:

“I had a good sinker going, I had a good cutter going. Just locating them and staying down in the zone. It was just one of those nights where they were swinging and missing.”

On if it’s dangerous to tailor one’s pitching style to the ballpark, and on if Coors Field in Denver is one of those where pitchers frequently find themselves doing just that:

“I mean, it can definitely get in a pitcher’s head. There’s no question about it. I know most pitchers are very happy when you miss Colorado, there’s no question about that. But you’ve got to deal with it. It’s part of the schedule, it’s part of the game, you’ve got to go out and do your best, hope for the best, hope it’s one of those nights where your guys go out and put up some crooked numbers for you.”

On what he’s done to change his approach and preparation after his Tommy John surgery and on how he thinks Stephen Strasburg will be able to recover:

“I think the big reason why I’ve had success this year is just the overall strength of my arm and my shoulder. I think that’s just the big key – your shoulder and arm is going to be in the best shape it’s ever been after you’ve done the rehab. Not only that, but throughout this whole process this year, you really have to take care of your arm, your forearm, because you’re missing a whole year of pitching at the Big League level. Then all of a sudden you’re back pitching at the Big League level and you start getting innings under your belt, and your body starts letting you know that, hey, you’ve haven’t done this in a while you better take care of me. After about 150, 140-150 innings this year, I could tell I haven’t pitched this deep into the season in awhile. And you really have to make sure you’re stretched out good, you’ve got to make sure your hamstrings are stretched out, you’re taking care of your arm, you’re getting treatment in the training room. That’s something he’s going to have to go through. Obviously he’s never pitched a full Major League season yet, but hopefully he’ll be able to go through that and have no problems next year.”

On the differences between the Braves young clubhouse and the ones he was a part of earlier in his career in Oakland:

“No doubt. We were dubbed the misfits of baseball. If you were young and crazy and wanted to have a great time that’s where you played. But it was one of those things where Billy [Beane] and the manager knew we were young, immature, fun-loving bunch of kids, and they just let us be kids. They didn’t put too much pressure on us. We just went out and played, and in the process we happened to win. If we went out and got our brains beat in every day, I’m sure there’d be a little more discipline in the clubhouse.  But we just went out there, we played video games, we played with remote controlled cards, we played cards in the clubhouse, and we played jokes on everybody, but we went out at 7 o’clock and we won baseball games. And that why we were able to do what we did.”

Listen here to Hudson with Mayhem in the AM on 790 The Zone in Atlanta

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