The greatest (almost certainly clean) hitter of his generation
I present to you the forgotten man of the steroid era. Bonds, Sosa, McGuire – all juiced. Bagwell, Griffey, Thomas. – all gone. Jones, Guerrero, Helton – fading into the sunset.
One man has outlasted them all, is still productive and is on the verge of joining the legendary company of the 600 home run club.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you Jim Thome – The greatest (hopefully clean) hitter of his generation.
The case for. Well, 596 home runs is pretty persuasive. But it’s not all slugger mentality. While averaging a home run every 13.6 at bats Thome also drops in regular extra base hits, with an extra base hit coming every 7.7 at bats. Factor in a .277 BA, a .403 OBP and that he has slugged .577 for his career, and it has been consistent hitting production. His single season best home run production was 52 in 2002 for The Indians. He had four other seasons with forty plus homers but in his fifteen complete seasons (over 100 games) he has averaged 36 homers. Still think he’s a slugger? His at bat to walk ratio is 4.7 at bats per walk.
So why is he not the star he deserves to be? He’s basically a hair’s breadth away from being Ted Williams without the military service.
Well the first reason is that he’s been a designated hitter for the majority of his career. But he was a serviceable if limited third baseman for a while, then an adequate first baseman after that. It’s not his fault that his bat has always justified a roster spot on it’s own allowing the team to accommodate other strong first basemen (Richie Sexson, Ryan Howard, Justin Morneau.)
The second reason is that he has probably out lived his Major League life. His stats are in decline. But the Twins still value him to the tune of $3million per season and he is third in homeruns, fourth in RBIs and fifth in OPS, admittedly in a pretty anaemic offense.
The final reason is steroids. There are whispers about the 1990s Cleveland teams but Thome has never been linked to steroids or HGH. He’s as clean as anyone not yet caught.
So in the next few weeks when Thome becomes the eighth member of Baseballs most feared home run hitting group we can doubt him like we doubt all power hittes of the past twenty years, but until someone produces evidence he will be, to me, the greatest hitter of his generation.
Content courtesy of 7Saint9
