Educating Twitter: Does Tim Hudson Belong in Cooperstown?

Recently, Jim Miloch of the Pod of Fame podcast posted a tweet about the somewhat illustrious company Tim Hudson kept during his career.

Now, I suspect Jim knows this isn’t the best way to make the case that Tim Hudson belongs in the Hall of Fame. It’s pretty easy to point to the parameters he laid out and say, “Well yeah, Jim, but you set the ERA+ threshold at the lowest point that would allow Hudson to qualify. Most of those guys are wildly better than Hudson.”

Take Roger Clemens at the top of the list. We all know why he isn’t in the Hall of Fame yet, and he was obviously a much better pitcher than Hudson could ever hope to be. He and Hudson competed in the same league in seven seasons - 1999 to 2003 in the American League, and 2005-06 in the National League. These were largely Hudson’s best years and weren’t remotely close to being Clemens’ best years, but let’s compare them anyway, head-to-head.