Posted on 09/15/2006 4:15:51 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Just to eliminate any confusion, let's get something straight. There is no way -- not even with a 40-homer, 100-RBI season on the horizon -- that Frank Thomas was returning in 2006 for one more year with the White Sox.
This was a franchise that had spent the previous five years counting down the days, minutes and seconds to the instant Thomas and his catalog of contracts finally would be off the books. It was a divorce that was inevitable -- and it had nothing to do with sickness or health.
When the dirty laundry got aired for about the fifth time in spring training, general manager Ken Williams made it clear no love had been lost from the Sox' side. He called Thomas an idiot, then said: ''And we don't miss him, by the way. If you go out there and ask any one of my players or staff members, we don't miss him. We don't miss the attitude. We don't miss the bitching and the whining. We don't miss it. Good riddance. See you later.''
Later is now.
Thomas, who had said he wanted 2006 to be a season of closure as a member of the Sox, finally has moved on. He enters a three-game series against the Sox beginning tonight with a .280 average, 36 home runs and 98 RBI as the centerpiece of the first-place Oakland Athletics' offense.
The Big Hurt has all of the ammunition for the world's grandest I-told-you-so.
No denying talent -- or baggage
What does Williams think now?
''As far as how he has worked out in Oakland,'' Williams said, ''I do not think about Frank Thomas one bit.''
Really?
''I literally have not thought one iota about him since the season started,'' Williams said. ''Beginning [today], I will allow myself to think about it. He is just another player we have to try to get out. We're worried about the White Sox. We're in third place.''
Certainly, the Sox have bigger problems than Frank Thomas.
And in the Sox' world, that is amazing progress.
For so long, Thomas represented a multimillion-dollar headache. He dodged shuttle drills, he walked out of camp over a diminished-skills clause, he spouted off about his salary. He had the goods to be a force in the clubhouse, but most teammates steered clear -- and too many of them sniped at him behind his back. The GM didn't like him from Day 1.
There's no denying that Thomas could be an offensive force when healthy. But he also brought plenty of baggage.
Shortly after the World Series parade, the divorce became final. Williams had his eye on slugger Jim Thome since July 2005. Thome could provide the left-handed bat the Sox sorely needed. And Thomas would be gone.
It was a clean break -- or should have been.
Is that a fair assessment?
''It's fair,'' Williams conceded. ''Without getting into any details, I've said what I've said in the past, and my feelings haven't changed on that front.''
Sitting back and watching all this develop was A's general manager Billy Beane. He lives with a shoestring budget and knows creativity is the only path to adding big-name talent. The A's had long been searching for a dominant designated hitter, and there was Thomas, knocking on their door.
Beane had to pinch himself.
''It was almost like Frank dressed up in a leprechaun's suit and sat at the end of a rainbow,'' Beane said with a laugh.
Best part of the story: Beane signed Thomas for a base salary of $500,000. A stack of incentives was added that could bring the total package to $3.1 million. That was if Thomas avoided the ankle problems that plagued him the previous two years with the Sox.
''It was a low-risk, high-reward deal,'' Beane said.
Already, Thomas has secured every incentive. On top of the $3.5 million the Sox paid to buy out his 2006 contract worth $10 million, Thomas gets all of the $3.1 million offered by the A's.
To Beane, it might be one of the biggest bargains of his career.
''I've been asked many times if I am surprised,'' Beane said on the eve of the Sox-A's series. ''Not with the production because over the last two years, when he was healthy, he produced. But we've all been pleasantly surprised that he has played as many games as he has.
''He has probably been the healthiest guy we've had all year, quite frankly. It is a testament to his work ethic and determination.''
Medical reports meant most
Beane almost blushes when asked about Thomas -- which is nearly every day.
''Hey, believe me, I love all of the accolades,'' Beane said. ''But this is no genius on my part. This was all Frank.''
All Frank from the first meeting.
Beane knew all too well the presence Thomas added to a lineup. Everyone in baseball knew about the bad rap. The A's were mostly concerned about the medical reports. Any deal for the free agent hinged on the doctors' words.
''Even the medicals in the offseason weren't particularly promising,'' Beane said.
So what swung the deal?
''He just had this incredible determination ... and this look,'' Beane said, pausing. ''He had this look in his eye. You knew he was going to be driven. When he got up and left the room, we looked at each other and said, 'Wow.'''
It's a phrase often repeated by the A's.
The man who was shoved out of Chicago has been embraced in Oakland, with A's owner Lewis Wolff recently vowing to re-sign the slugger.
No doubt, a big part of Thomas' drive comes from the chip the Sox left on his shoulder.
The bitterness remains, but Thomas is far from brooding.
Thomas might have been famous for his bad attitude in Chicago, but Beane hasn't seen it.
''He has just been a great addition to our clubhouse,'' Beane said. ''He cherishes every at-bat, every game he plays. You couldn't ask for a better guy in the clubhouse or on the field, with the way he puts as much time into everything he does. This guy, as soon as he steps in the clubhouse, he is all business. That rubs off on everyone.''
To be fair, Thomas showed the same kind of professionalism last season with the Sox. He could have been a divisive force as an injured icon during a championship run, but he stayed quietly to himself in that famous corner of the clubhouse.
After the ugly war of words with Williams during spring training, Thomas has avoided discussing the Sox with Chicago reporters, though he remains open with the Bay Area media.
Here's Thomas' most recent explanation of his struggles in Chicago:
''I always took things in stride and realize I have an ability to do things some people can't do at times,'' Thomas told the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times. ''It just became a pressure-cooker situation, how much heat they could put on me and try to make me respond all the time.
''As for being selfish, believe me, I always felt I could hit 40 [home runs] and drive in 100 every year, and people got caught up in thinking, 'All he wants is RBI, a high average and homers.' It wasn't about that. I just wanted to achieve.
''I've always been for my team, most definitely. That's what it's all about. We're here to win every day. I do care about my performance. I take it seriously. If you want to look at that as selfish, go ahead. I care about doing well every day, and the team should care about that, too. If you go out and have a big game, you're going to help the team win.''
It's hard to argue with Thomas' assessment. He was a punching bag for the media. Yes, he was consumed by his numbers, but before 2005, the Sox only thrived when Thomas thrived.
Was he treated unfairly in Chicago?
Absolutely.
His whining over money fueled the unfair treatment, but there is no denying he played under a different set of rules.
Call it the reality of '06
Look at the 2001 season. Thomas was battling an excruciating triceps injury. On May 2, he winced his way through batting practice, then pronounced himself unavailable for that night's game against the Anaheim Angels.
The next day, pitcher David Wells went on his radio show and ripped Thomas in his famous ''no guts, no glory'' character assassination. Wells wasn't speaking simply for himself. Manager Jerry Manuel and many players had raised their eyebrows in similar fashion over Thomas calling in sick.
A week later, doctors discovered Thomas needed season-ending surgery. The player many critics thought was too soft was seriously injured. It was a common theme.
Even last season, Thomas hobbled each time to the plate but hit 12 home runs in 105 at-bats for the Sox. Deep down, Thomas thought he was securing himself another season on the South Side.
Instead, 2006 brought a new reality: The Sox are as overjoyed to be rid of Thomas as the A's are to have him.
''He is one of the most dominant hitters of his time, and this performance puts the stamp on a Hall of Fame career,'' Beane said. ''What's really scary, to me, is to think about the two years he missed with the White Sox and what he might have accomplished.''
That's the only what-if the Sox are willing to entertain when it comes to Thomas.
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CHICAGOLAND PING
Thomas is a whining bum. Good riddance.
Yeah, I've always loved the Big Hurt, though naturally I've heard all the complaints. In addition to all the big numbers he has put up over the years, what I really loved was his incredible eye and plate discipline. I'm glad he's doing so well in Oakland. I hope he hits homers in every game of the upcoming series - but that no one else in the A's lineup does anything so Da Sox can win!
love that tagline!
And next to the over-rated ex-north side guy Sammy So-so, I've never seen someone strike out so many times in important at-bats.
Batting .310 with 35 homers is meaningless if you leave runners stranded and your 'dingers' are solo homers.
Good riddance
HOF? Well, maybe. His eye-popping OPS numbers put Frank Thomas up there in the rarefied air of baseball's ALL-TIME greatest sluggers: Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, and just a very select few others.
HOWEVER, there are at least two strikes against the Hall for the Hurt: 1) His numbers came in an era of extremely inflated numbers (my "Vinny-Castilla-was-not-better-than-Ron-Santo" argument); and 2) Thomas has mainly been a DH, i.e., half a player (my "Ortiz-finishes-behind-Dye-and-Jeter-for-MVP" argument).
Now if it ever turns out that the Big Hurt's big body has been aided by, say, HGH or other cheating substances (I'm not saying it has been), then that would be strike three.
And that's another reason I've never liked him
IIRC it was his 2nd year and we went to a Sox game. I wanted our little girls to learn early: Sox = good, Cubs = bad. Anyway, there's the 'big hurt' and whose playing 1st Base, NOT HIM. The pig was the stinking DH - and IIRC he struck out at ALL his at bats.
Frank Thomas = over rated. Who btw, wouldn't have made it in 'old time' Baseball or the NL as his fielding sucked. His 'career' would have consisted of Triple A ball.
Is anybody making book on the Thomas/Thome matchup for this series?
GO GO WHITE SOX
With all due respect, you make zero sense
It all comes into focus when you take into consideration that the source of the comment lives in Illinois, and this thread is a discussion about a desparaged former-Sox player.
Aesop gave us a phrase for that: "sour grapes".
Maybe Thomas will make the HOF, and maybe he won't. I'll leave that to Thomas to keep putting up HOF numbers and make the remainder of his MLB career worthy of the honor. If he does all that, he might eventually get some HOF votes out of Chicago, but that'll be a long, hard road; The Windy City has a long memory and knows how to hold a grudge.
Obviously, you don't remember people like Reggie Jackson (who is in the Hall of Fame) or Dave Kingman (who isn't and won't be). Frank Thomas is a piker compared to those two. Did I mention that through 2005 Thomas walked 301 more times than he struck out? On the other hand, I've never necessarily understood the animus regarding striking out, unless someone was looking at an awful lot of called third strikes. Makes you wonder what's so much better about hitting into double plays.
Batting .310 with 35 homers is meaningless if you leave runners stranded and your 'dingers' are solo homers.
Through this writing 38 percent of Thomas's home runs this season were hit with men on base; his lifetime percentage through this writing is 44 percent. That's pretty bloody good. You might care to make note, too, of the following percentages. First, for 2006 and counting:
With men on base: .265 batting average but a .389 on-base percentage and a .480 slugging percentage.
With men in scoring position: .292, .411, .533
With the bases loaded: .385, .471, .462.
Now, for his career through this writing:
With men on base: .315, .445, .573.
With men in scoring position: .317, .455, .574.
With men in scoring position and two out: .297, .465, .572.
With the bases loaded: .357, .376, .636.
By the way, less than half of Thomas's strikeouts lifetime have come with men on base. You can probably find a small passel of Hall of Famers, even, who have struck out more frequently than that in similar situations. And, I say again: Objecting that vehemently to striking out with men on base should make you wonder what's so preferable to hitting into double plays.
P.S. Thomas when he played the field full time was a good first baseman. He wasn't the next Keith Hernandez with the leather (and I remember how long it took to convince people about the first Keith Hernandez) but he was a good first baseman who actually got to a few more balls than the average first baseman in his league. He didn't win any Gold Glove awards but you can do a lot worse than hold Don Mattingly's coat for most of your years as a full-time first baseman.
So he may or may not have been a pain in the ass as a person? I've known of far worse people in baseball than Frank Thomas.
Thomas cannot possibly have Thome beat in strikeouts per at bat, could he? Thome seems to whiff quite a bit; a few years back, I think he may have led the league in both Ks and walks.
Thanks, however the Hall of fame isn't or shouldn't be a place for any player who played 1/2 the game for most of his career. So his batting average is high, what about his fielding stats, errors, etc?
If it was the case then a Smoky Burgess should be in there. A 'solid' catcher in his prime who became the 'best' Pinch Hitter. But that would be pretty silly, no? A statue of Smoky next to Babe Ruth?
I don't know about career wise.
But this year Thome doesn't seem to strike out all that often (I've watched most of the games). And he does get a lot of walks - at least this year. (I'm going by memory and haven't checked the Sox website for actual stats.)
But even if Thome's batting stats are similar to Thomas', at least Thome actually went on the field and played when in his prime.
Big Frank was an all time great for the Sox to bad it ended the way it did.
Funny, but I was going by his actual statistics, not his official bio.
Frank Thomas has never led his league in whiffs though he's led in walks four times; Jim Thome led his league in both in 1999 and has led his league in each category three times. Through the end of 2005, Thomas was number 17 on the all-time walk list and number 29 on the all-time punchout list. He struck out every six at bats, rounded off, compared to every three rounded off for Jim Thome.
Thome has one interesting pattern: for a three-year period (2001-2003), he alternated league leadership---he led his league in strikeouts in 2001 and 2003 and in bases on balls in 2002. Through the end of 2005, Jim Thome came up second in strikeouts among active players and tenth on the career list, while he came up seventh among active players for walks and 42nd on the career list. With Sammy Sosa gone for this season (and not officially a permanent retirement, so far as I know), it bumped Thome to the top of the heap among active players for strikeouts; with John Olerud apparently out of action and Jeff Bagwell done, Thome bumps up to number five among active walking men. (Barry Bonds is number one on the walk list among the actives, but guess who wanders in at number two? Frank Thomas.)
Through the end of 2005 Frank Thomas struck out in 17 percent of his at-bats . . . but Jim Thome struck out in 30 percent of them. Through the end of 2005 Thome had completed fifteen major league seasons---one more than Thomas---and struck out 597 more times. (Thomas through the end of 2005: 1,165 strikeouts; Thome through the end of 2005: 1,762 strikeouts.) Thome is slightly better than his career average this season: he's struck out once every three and a half at-bats; Thomas is just about at his career average, give or take an at-bat.
Explain that one to Paul Molitor.
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