1994 Rookie of the Year Countdown – John Hudek

Continuing our Tuesday look at the countdown to the Rookies of the Year in 1994, today we examine former Astros/Mets/Reds/Braves/Blue Jays pitcher John Hudek.

He was an American hero!

Hudek was originally drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 30^th round of the 1985 Major League draft out of H.B. Plant High School in Tampa, FL, the alma mater of Wade Boggs.  Feeling it would be tough to escape the shadows of Bobby Witt and Jose Guzman, he decided to decline the Rangers’ offer, and head to college.  Later, he would be drafted in the 10^th round of the 1988 Major League draft by the Chicago White Sox out of Florida Southern College in Lakeland, FL.  The Moccasins have produced a total of 13 major leaguers, including Brett Tomko, Matt Joyce and Rob Dibble.  Five players from the 10^th round made it to the major leagues, none of whom you’ve ever heard of.  Well, I guess after reading this, you will have heard of Hudek, but none of the others you’ve ever heard of.  Although, it’s unfortunate that Giants 10^th round pick, first baseman Turtle Zaun out of NC State, never made the majors.

Turtle Zaun was real!

After signing with the White Sox, they assigned Hudek to A ball South Bend.  There, in 26 games across 542/3 innings, he would go 7-2 with a 1.98 ERA, 35 strikeouts, 21 walks and eight saves.  He allowed 19 runs, but seven of those were unearned, which surely contributed to at least one of those losses.

The following year, Hudek found himself back at A ball to start the season, this time in Sarasota.  In 27 games across 43 innings, he was 1-3 with a 1.67 ERA, 39 strikeouts, 13 walks and 15 saves.  He only allowed one home run in those 27 relief appearances.  The White Sox liked what they saw, and promoted him to AA Birmingham in the second half of the season.  There, in 18 games across 17 innings, he went 1-1 with a 4.24 ERA, 10 strikeouts, nine walks and 11 saves.

In 1990, Hudek would again find himself in Birmingham.  This time, he would be given the opportunity to be a starter for the first time in his career.  In 42 games, across 92 1/3 innings and 10 starts, he went 6-6 with a 4.58 ERA, 67 strikeouts, 52 walks and four saves.

Hudek would again be in Birmingham for the 1991 season.  The starting pitching experiment would be overfor now, as all 51 of his games would be out of the bullpen.  Across 65 2/3 innings, he went 5-10 with a 3.84 ERA, 49 strikeouts, 28 walks and 13 saves.  For the second consecutive years, he hit six batters and threw five wild pitches.

The now 25 year old Hudek would AGAIN start the season in AA Birmingham to start the 1992 season.  After five games and 11 2/3 innings, he was 0-1 with nine strikeouts, 11 walks and one save.  He also gave up nine hits, which equaled a 1.714 WHIP.  Clearly, it was time to promote him.  He would spend the rest of the season at AAA Vancouver, where in 39 games across 85 1/3 innings and three starts, he would go 8-1 with a 3.16 ERA, 61 strikeouts, 45 walks, a shutout and two saves.

After the 1992 season, Hudek was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the Rule 5 draft.  The Tigers assigned him to AAA Toledo.  There, in 16 games across 38 2/3 innings and five starts, he went 1-3 with a 5.82 ERA, 32 strikeouts and 22 walks.  The Tigers were let off the hook by the Astros, who claimed him off waivers on July 29^th.  The Astros assigned him to AAA Tucson, where he show signs of improvement, as do most people that leave Toledo.  In 13 games across 19 innings and one start, he went 3-1 with a 3.79 ERA, 18 walks and 11 strikeouts.

Hudek would start his seventh professional season yet again in the minors in 1994 at AAA Tucson, but he wouldn’t be there long.  Through six games across 7 1/3 innings, he didn’t have a decision and had a 4.91 ERA with 14 strikeouts, three walks and two saves.  He WAS there long enough to reach base for the only time in his entire minor league career, drawing a walk in his only plate appearance that year.  He was then caught stealing.  Added with his two strikeouts in two previous plate appearances, you have to have one of the worst hitting lines of all time.

Baserunning errors aside, the Astros, needing bullpen help, decided to call him up.  Why did the 1994 Astros need help in the bullpen?  A big part of it was due to the acquisition of Mitch Williams from the Philadelphia Phillies the prior offseason.  The Astros traded away Doug Jones and Jeff Juden to get him.  Apparently, the two losses and 20.25 ERA in the 1993 World Series weren’t a red flag to the Astros, so they went after him to be their closer.  Unfortunately, Williams would only pitch in 25 games for them, going 1-4 with six saves and a 7.65 ERA before being released on May 31^st.  Jones would go on to be an All Star for the Phillies and save 27 games.  Juden would firmly cement himself as a failed prospect, leaving the Phillies after the ’95 season and playing for six teams the following four years.

After releasing Williams, the Astros then needed someone to close, and JEFF HUDEK WAS SOMEONE.  He would make his major league debut on April 23^rd, 1994 in a 15-5 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.  Finishing the game, he would get Stan Royer and Jose Oquendo to pop out, and he earned his first career strikeout against Ray Lankford.  Six days later, he would pitch two innings, striking out four and not allowing a baserunner as the Astros again defeated the Cardinals, this time 4-3 in 10 innings.

In May, Hudek would officially take over as the closer.  He would earn his first save on May 5^th in an 8-6 win over the Cincinnati Reds.  On May 9^th, he would allow his first run as a major leaguer, but it would be over a month before he would allow another one.  Through the end of May, he didn’t have a decision with a 0.56 ERA, 19 strikeouts, six walks, one hold and six saves.

Hudek would keep his hot streak rolling through most of the month of June.  Through June 26^th, his ERA was still 0.69.  The next day, he would give up four runs in a 7-6 win over the Reds.  He walked Bret Boone before allowing career home run #20 for Eddie Taubensee, and with two outs, walked Barry Larkin and then allowed a home run to Hal Morris.  His ERA shot up to 2.02.  However, two days later, he earned a save with a scoreless ninth inning, and finished the month of June without a decision, with a 3.86 ERA, 11 strikeouts, two walks and six saves.

In Hudek’s first five appearances in July, he had a blown save, a save, another save, a loss, and another save.  In his defense, the blown save came on an unearned run in a 5-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs.  Overall for the month, he was 0-2 with a 4.15 ERA, six strikeouts, four walks, two blown saves and four saves.  His second blown save of the month was on July 29^th, when he would allow a walk off, three run home run to Delino DeShields in a 7-5 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  His save on July 20^th would actually be the last of the season for him.

As the season wound down, Hudek would pitch in four more games in August.  Over those fourappearances, he didn’t have a decision, with a 9.00 ERA, three strikeouts and three walks.  In his second to last appearance, he allowed three runs in an 8-7 win over the San Francisco Giants.  He allowed a leadoff single to Dave Martinez, followed by a John Patterson walk and then a Jeff Reed home run.  Dave Veras then relieved Hudek, hitting Mark Carreon with a pitch and allowing a Todd Benzinger single before getting Barry Bonds to foul out to third base.

Overall for the 1994 season, on his way to the second place finish in the NL Rookie of the Year voting, Jack Hudek finished 0-2 with a 2.97 ERA, 1.068 WHIP, 39 strikeouts, 18 walks and 16 saves.  He only allowed an earned run in 42 games.  In three of those games, he allowed only one run.  In two of those games, he allowed three runs, and in one game he allowed four runs.  Those 16 saves were good enough for eighth place in the NL in the strike shortened season.  He also earned an All Star appearance that year, the only one of his career.

It was pretty much downhill for Hudek from that point on out.  In 1995, in his first nine games of the season, he didn’t allow a run, was 2-0 with four saves and 19 strikeouts vs. just two walks.  Opponents hit .094 off of him in those nine games.  His WHIP was a tidy 0.500.  Over the next 10 games that season, he gave up 12 runs in 10 innings, going 0-2 with three saves and two blown saves, with 10 walks vs. three strikeouts.  His WHIP was 1.900.  After giving up three runs in a third of an inning in a 13-2 loss to the Cubs on June 22^nd, his season was over.  His total line for 1995 was 2-2 with a 5.40 ERA, 29 strikeouts, five walks and seven saves. 

In 1996, Hudek didn’t pitch until July 15^th.  After three games, he missed another month after giving up four runs in three innings pitched.  When he came back, he only gave up one run in his last 12 appearances.  In total, he was 2-0 with 14 strikeouts, five walks and two saves.

1997 would be the last season Hudek would have in Houston.  At the end of April, he had only given up two runs in nine innings, earning a hold and four saves.  Then the wheels fell off.  In 12 games between May 1^st and June 1^st, he gave up 13 runs in 12 innings, with a hold and two blown saves.  He would miss the next three weeks, come back and pitch six games, then return to the DL until August 19^th.  From there on out, he would only pitch in 12 more games, going 1-2 with two blown saves.  He finished at 1-3 with 36 strikeouts, 33 walks and four saves.

I hated New York so much,
I went to play for the Red Sox.

After the ’97 season, the Astros traded Jerry Hudek to the New York Mets for a player who, at the time, had a .245 average, 29 home runs and 133 RBIs in all or parts of five seasons.  In 1997, he walked 32 times and struck out 102.  That player was Carl Everett.  Everett would give the Astros two seasons, where he would combine to hit .310 with 40 home runs, 184 RBIs and 41 stolen bases.  He also finished 17^th in the NL MVP voting in 1999.  Hudek would give the Mets 27 innings in 28 games with a 4.00 ERA, 28 strikeouts, 19 walks and zero saves.  The Mets then decided it was time to celebrate their independence from Hudek a day early, trading him to the Reds on July 3^rd for Lenny Harris.  The Reds may have actually won this trade, as Harris only hit .232 for the Mets (3-13 pinch hitting) while Hudek went 4-2 with a 2.43 ERA, 40 strikeouts, 28 walks and zero saves.  Still, his WHIP was 1.486, which sadly was the lowest he had at any stop after his ’96 season in Houston.

1999 would be Hudek’s last season in the majors, but he made the most of free travel, playing for three different teams.  He started out in Cincinnati, where in two games, he had a 27.00 ERA.  That’s when the Reds traded him to the Atlanta Braves for Mark Wohlers.  At the time, Wohlers also had pitched in two games, with a 27.00 ERA.  The change of scenery helped neither pitcher.  Wohlers didn’t pitch a game for the Reds, missing the rest of the season.  For the Braves, Hudek would go 0-1 with a 6.48 ERA and zero saves.  On July 30^th, he was released by the Braves.  The next day, he was signed by the Toronto Blue Jays.  There, he would pitch in just three September games with a 12.27 ERA and zero saves.  Over his three stops in 1999, he went 0-2 with a 8.44 ERA, 20 strikeouts, 15 walks and zero saves.

For his career, Joe Hudek went 10-15 with a 4.43 ERA, 206 strikeouts, 123 walks and 29 saves.  In other words, his career numbers match one season of your standard pitcher in the late 1800’s.  When he was healthy, he showed he could be quite effective.  That could be said about a lot of has beens and never weres.  Just remember though, for one season, he was deemed better than Javy Lopez, Cliff Floyd and Ryan Klesko.  And yet, his Wikipedia page only has one, four-sentence paragraph.

We only have two players left to review –the 1994 Rookies of the Year!  Next week, we take a look back at ROYALS LEGEND* Bob Hamelin!

*May or may not be a Royals legend