Hudson is a former fifth round pick out of the Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. When drafted in 2008, he was assigned to the White Sox's Rookie ball team where he went 5-4 with a 3.36 ERA and spent the rest of the season there. Then over the winter between 2008 and 2009, Hudson worked hard and was primed and ready to go at the start of 2009 where he started with the White Sox's low A ball team, the Kannapolis Intimidators, after just 4 starts in which he posted a 1.23 ERA, Hudson was promoted to the high A ball team.  His promotion to AA took twice the amount of starts as his last promotion(8 starts) but after pitching 8 games with a 3.40 ERA, he had punched his ticket to Birmingham. Then in 9 starts with Birmingham he was stellar, going 7-0 with a 1.60 ERA over 9 games and then he was on the move again, this time to Charlotte, North Carolina. His stint in Charlotte lasted 5 starts in which he posted a 3.00 ERA and went 2-0.

Hudson made his Major League Debut on September 4th, 2009 during a 12-2 rout of the Boston Red Sox.  Hudson pitched 2 innings giving up no hits or walks while striking out 1.  Hudson would go on to pitch relief in 2 more games in which the Sox lost in blowout fashion.  Then on September 21, 2009 he made his first career start against the Minnesota Twins.  Hudson gave up 3 runs, 1 earned in 5 innings of work while striking out and walking 4 batters. This ended up with him being tagged with the loss but on September 27th he had a chance to redeem himself, this time against the Detroit Tigers. Hudson held the Tigers to two runs over 6 innings while walking 5 and striking out 4. This became his first major league win and was his final start of the season. He did go on to pitch one more relief stint and finished the season with a 3.38 ERA with 14 strikeouts to 9 walks with the Sox thus capping off the amazing run he had to the majors, in just one full season.

Hudson is still very ripe with only one month of service in the MLB but if his last season was indication, he has some real potential.  If his off season this year holds the same improvement as his last off season, Freddy Garcia better hold on to his hat because Hudson is going to make a strong run at the final spot in the White Sox's Rotation.  But lets not get ahead of ourselves, Hudson is still only 22 years old and has plenty of time to become a full time starter in the MLB.  Having him start the season in Charlotte may be the best thing for him as it ensures him his pitching time and gives him time to develop his pitches more instead of facing the best of the best so quickly. The White Sox have a veteran in Freddy Garcia who should be more than capable of holding down the White Sox's final rotation spot but Hudson will still be waiting in the wings in the case of an injury to a starter. In my opinion the worst thing the White Sox could do to him would be putting him in the pen right away because he is much better off working as a starter in the minors even if he could make a small contribution out of the pen. However, I do believe that Ozzie will do the right thing and if he is ready to go, he will be in the rotation, and if not, he will be in AAA.

On a final note, I would like to talk a little bit more about Hudson as a pitcher.  Hudson is 6-4 and 220 pounds and primary throws four different pitches.  He throws a four seam fastball that hits 91-93 MPH, a two seam fastball that is around 85-87 MPH, a change up that is slightly over 80 MPH, and a slider that usually is a bit over 80 MPH but he can drop it to 78 MPH or so.  In his last season he was mainly a fly ball pitcher, but however, this could very well be another story this season.

Thanks for reading,

Mike

Credits:

This is where I got my final scouting report bits from, they also have some graphs on him as a pitcher.