In response to the "does Thomas have anything left" discussion at Da Box:
--
I'm sure Thomas has something left, too. I'm just not sure what it is.
He's hitting just .159 on balls in play, his lowest ever. His .177 in 2005 at least came with a slugging average near .600 and a homer every three games. That may correct itself if he gets more playing time, but his line drive rate has been dropping steadily for five or six years, and with it his power. Even if you ignore this year. Subjectively, of course, Thomas looks awful (though I recognize that he looked similarly bad last year and still ended up above-average).
And this "Thomas is always a slow starter" nonsense needs to be put to rest. It's only lately that he's really struggled in the beginning--i.e., April 2006 and May 2007. In his career, his March/April line is .283/.407/.513 vs. .302/.420/.559 overall. Doesn't seem that far off to me.
I know we're all supposed to think warm and fuzzy thoughts about Frank the teddy bear, but unless that bear is going to maul someone like Dana Eveland, it looks as clear to me as the lack of hair on Magpie's head that Thomas' career is either done or close to it.
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2 comments:
Thomas' career is either done or close to it
Ay, there's the rub, isn't it? It's clear from the fact that he's 40 years old, that his career is close to done.
The key question is, is it done? And if not, how close? Those particular questions are the ones that the Jays had to answer to determine their course of action. I think they cut bait too early even though Thomas did look relatively bad at times this spring (he's also hit a lot of long flies very deep into right-center, perhaps suggesting that he may bot be too far away).
Hurt looked *great* in March, let's not forget.
Fair enough on the age 40 thing. Not a terribly great conclusion on my part.
Problem for Hurt, if he's not done, is where does he go now? No AL team will give him a full-time DH role for fear of the option kicking in. He hasn't touched a glove since I was in high school, so you figure the NL is out unless someone really wants a pinch-hitter.
So it's part-time DH work with the M's or Twins or whoever, the only difference being that he's not part-timing it up with the Jays. But the way this organization is run, it's not surprising that Thomas doesn't want to ride it out in Toronto.
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