"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

Aw, Shucks

Future Hall of Famer and all-around Nice Guy Jim Thome is profiled by Joe Posnanski this week in SI. Dig in.

3 comments

1 rbj   ~  Sep 22, 2010 2:43 pm

And deadspin has the Fire Joe Morgan crew in a special. Funny right from the get go.

2 OldYanksFan   ~  Sep 22, 2010 2:47 pm

While to me, JT is an obvious HOFer, I've read many blogs where many thought he didn't belong.

Aside from (ultimately) hitting 600 HRs, his career OPS+ is 147, 2 pts higher then ARod. He doesn't rate that well on BR's Black/Grey ink, because he didn't lead the league in many categories, many times.

True, he was not the absolute dominant player that often, but he has posted from excellent to great numbers, for most of his 20 year career.

I will admid he doesn't get any credit for speed or running, and I don't think he is reknown for his D. However, plenty of slow, average/poor fielders make the grade if they post enough offense.

Anyway, to my mind, he is a HOFer, wearing a Cleveland hat.

3 monkeypants   ~  Sep 22, 2010 4:05 pm

[2] I agree with you that he should be a sure-fire HOfer. However, the comparison his career OPS+ is 147, 2 pts higher then ARod is not particularly relevant. The real question is how does he stack up against other 1B (or 1B/DH) of his era? I think he stacks up well both in terms of counting and rate stats (for example, his OPS+ is the range of Bagwell, a step below McGwire).

He will get extra credit from voters for not (yet) being associated with PEDs.

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