Tim Hudson (SP-SF)
There are some injuries that are just too uncomfortable to watch as a fan. One such instance would be what happened to Tim Hudson in July 2013. In case you didn't know, Hudson suffered a broken fibula and sprained ligaments in his ankle when Eric Young, Jr. of the Mets accidentally stepped on Hudson's leg while trying to beat out an infield hit. He underwent surgery and was shut down on the precipice of becoming a free agent. S
ure enough, Hudson signed a two-year/$23M contract with the San Francisco Giants to ironically replace his former Oakland teammate Barry Zito as their fourth starter.
Hudson appears to be on schedule to have a normal spring training, but you can be sure the Giants will take things slow with him. Despite that, Hudson is a great athlete and a tremendous competitor so it should be expected that he will be ready by Opening Day. Let’s not forget that it was just a couple years ago that Hudson came back very successfully from Tommy John surgery, so there is no reason to think he cannot pick up where he left off from this injury.
Hudson won’t help you much with strikeouts, but he has always been a consistent winner and very serviceable with respect to ERA and WHIP. When you are trying to fill your pitching staff out late in a draft, keep Hudson on your radar because he is a proven winner who won't hurt your stats.
If you are wondering the best way to evaluate arms like Hudson so that you can find these “gems” on the mound, I've got just the thing for you. It's the 2014 Fantasy Alarm Draft Guide powered by BaseballGuys. There are a couple of articles in that guide detailing exactly how you can go about finding the relevant cheap adds that have breakout potential in 2014.