Thursday, July 31, 2008

It's Tommy John Surgery for Hudson

When you hear that your team's ace is scheduled to visit Dr. James Andrews, you can pretty much expect the worse. If you're a Braves' fan, the worst has been confirmed, as Tim Hudson has been advised to have the old TJ surgery for a torn ulnar collateral ligament. Hudson, however, has a case of Jorge Posada Machismo syndrome:

Two doctors have advised Tim Hudson to have ligament-transplant elbow surgery, but the Braves pitcher will wait a week before making a deciding whether to have the procedure that would keep him out for the rest of this season and most of 2009 . . .

. . . "Gonna see how it feels this week and make a decision," Hudson said in a text message Wednesday night. Surgery appears inevitable, but the Braves said Hudson wants to be convinced it's necessary.
Thank you for your third opinion, Dr. Hudson. Now hold still and let the nice men with the medical degrees slice your arm open.

For the record, Hudson is under contract with the Braves through the end of next season. Given the 12-month recovery period -- and given Dr. Hudson's decision to delay it for an indefinite period of time -- it appears likely that we have seen the last pitches ever thrown by Hudson in a Braves uniform.

5 comments:

Dre said...

And now the last of the Big 3 has fallen, really a shame.

Craig Calcaterra said...

It is kind of crazy to think that -- heaven forbid -- if Hudson has some Mike Hampton-style complications following his TJ surgery, Barry Zito will be the last one of them left standing.

I guess you can't hurt your arm if you throw 81 miles an hour and don't snap off curveballs.

Jason @ IIATMS said...

what a shame. Huddy's a good guy, someone anyone could root for.

Tough break for the Braves.

Unknown said...

The question I have is: Has anyone ever gone to see Dr. James Andrews and had him say, "No, you don't need surgery"?

Alex Brissette said...

I'm with you Kelly. I'm a little suspicious of that guy, because who would tell him he's wrong?