re: The ATL Thread: Spring Training Edition

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Tim Hudson isn't a knuckleball specialist, but he's also not afraid to engage in some Spring Training fun with good buddy Adam LaRoche.

During Thursday's Nationals-Braves game, Hudson reached back and threw a 47-mph floater to LaRoche, who watched the pitch flutter by with a peculiar grin on his face.

"I can count on something every time I've faced him in Spring Training," LaRoche said. "Another time, I flew out deep, and coming out, he throws the rosin bag off my chest. He's always picking on me."

LaRoche turned the tables on Hudson this time, lacing a single through the hole on the very next pitch -- a more traditional fastball.

"He's just a buddy of mine," LaRoche said. "He's thrown me a knuckleball one time -- I guess that was the second one. Another time he went to switch balls, and threw one right at my head. It went all the way to the backstop. He just likes having fun."

But maybe Hudson wasn't just "having fun" after all.

"It's a new pitch I've been working on," the right-hander joked. "I was going to wait until the All-Star break to break it out."

Well now the cat's out of the bag, Tim.

-- Andrew LeRay and Joey Nowak / MLB.com

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