Tim Hudson to Return for the Braves

Tim Hudson, who was once upon a time a top starting pitcher in all of baseball, will return to the mound for the Atlanta Braves against the Florida Marlins on Monday. Hudson has been sidelined more than a year due to elbow surgery. He has recently been pitching in the minor leagues and is apparently ready to give the Braves some help in their push to make the 2009 baseball postseason.

Before getting hurt last season, Hudson had a record of 11-7 to go with a 3.17 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. It was his fourth season with the Braves after playing with the Oakland Athletics for the first six years of his big league career.

To make room in the starting rotation, the Braves will sit Kenshin Kawakami. Although the rookie from Japan is having a solid season, the Braves didn’t have much choice. The rest of the starting rotation — Jair Jurrjens, Javier Vazquez, Derek Lowe and Tommy Hanson — are simply too good to sit at this moment.

At 67-60, Atlanta is currently 7 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL East. In the NL Wild Card race, the Braves trail the Colorado Rockies by 4.5 games.

Tim Hudson - Atlanta Braves (Image: Zuma Press)