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Luke Hudson cut


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Potential not enough: Hudson sent packing
By Hal McCoy

Dayton Daily News

BRADENTON, F LA . | The first cuts for the Cincinnati Reds were not the deepest — only six players — but it cut pitcher Luke Hudson deeply.

Hudson and fellow pitcher Bubba Nelson were released Thursday morning. In addition, infielders Aaron Herr, Derrek Wathan, Anderson Machado and pitcher Josh Hall were reassigned to minor-league camp.

The release of Hudson, a guy with major-league stuff and major-league experience, was somewhat of a shock and sent some chills through the clubhouse for other pitchers.

Essentially, the team grew weary of Hudson's control problems.

"We had other pitchers ahead of him (on the depth chart)," said manager Jerry Narron. "Bona fide major-league pitchers have to be consistent. At times, Hudson was very, very good. At times he was very, very bad. What separates everybody is consistency."

Hudson appeared in three games this spring and pitched four innings, giving up one run and two hits while walking four and striking out four.

When teammate/pitcher Paul Wilson heard about it, he said, "Really? That's surprising. At least they did it early enough that Huddie can hook on with another team."

Hudson was in the Ed Smith Stadium parking lot when the team bus left Thursday morning for Bradenton and he said with a shrug, "Things like that happen all the time."

General Manager Wayne Krivsky said Hudson was shocked at the news.

"They always are, but we told him we thought it best that he look around at other teams. We're doing right by him, giving him time, and I'm sure another team will sign him. If not, I told him we would be interested in having him at Triple-A (Louisville)."

The 28-year-old right-hander came up from Louisville in August of 2004 and was 4-2 with a 2.42 ERA in nine starts, but has been beset by a litany of injuries since.

Last season, in 19 appearances (16 starts), he was 6-9 with a 6.38 ERA, walked 50 in 84 2/3 innings and led the National League with 11 hit batsmen.

For the defense

Third baseman Edwin Encarnacion cracked a two-run home run in the second inning Thursday against the Pirates, his fifth home run in his first six spring games. He is hitting .429 and has 12 RBIs. He homered Wednesday against the Twins in a 3-2 win, but also made an error that led to a run.

His defense concerns the Reds more than his offense, but manager Jerry Narron sees improvement afield.

"He has looked better on defense," said Narron. "And he definitely is locked in on offense. He has hit some balls hard."

Narron defended Encarnacion's .232 rookie season average last year over 69 games and 211 at-bats.

"We batted him eighth most of the time and it isn't easy heading ahead of the pitcher," said Narron. "I see him batting higher in the order, somewhere in the middle, and we're talking about a young kid (23)."

Sleep and hit

Pittsburgh first baseman Sean Casey was not in the lineup Thursday after Reds pitcher Mike Gosling hit him above the eybrow with a pitch, but Pirates manager Jim Tracy said Casey is all right.

"Just giving him two or three days," said Tracy. "Hey, that kid can fall out of bed and hit. The first game we played he had three hits and every one was smoked. I said right then, 'Let's put him in a humidor until Opening Day. Why does he need to be out here?'"
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[quote name='DanvilleBengal' post='231407' date='Mar 13 2006, 11:40 PM']Could the Big Red Machine be actually starting to come back to life, or is it just getting a fresh coat of paint?


I want to say the former, but its too early to tell for my taste.[/quote]

Hopefully the big red machine is comming back, im too young to know the feeling of what its like to acctaully be excited for baseball season, i love the direction Narron is taking us, thats at least two cuts now due to not comming to camp prepared, sounds like the marvin lewis of baseball im liking it :1hump:

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[quote name='McBallerson' post='232468' date='Mar 15 2006, 01:33 PM']Didn't we draft Nelson like 2 or 3 years ago? Just goes to show shit only floats so high.

Edit: Wasn't he our first rd. pick too?

Edit2: Nah, I'm confusing him with Homer. Sorry about that fellas.[/quote]

it's ok sweetums.
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