Jim Thome's Debut

Let's Go Mets

 

As a Philly fan I can't wait till Thome continues to make dcaddick hate him, and especially I can't wait till a 8th inning homerun by Thome mathamatically elimates the mets from contention in mid-august.

 

Jim "It's not about the money" Thome can kiss my butt. What a jerk. And sorry, hang, but Thome WILL lead the league in strikeouts, and will be lucky to hit his weight.

This will be compensated for by the fact that he's extremely slow around the bag, has a cast-iron glove and can be timed on the basepaths with a sundial. Or maybe a calendar.

You don't have to believe me now. Just wait until he steps up to the plate with runners on and the game on the line and strikes out on three pitches. And then does it next game. And the game after that. And the game after that.

Then hits three solo shots in a 10-3 loss. He's Dave Kingman with better hair.

 

Hey is that any way to treat the guy who was the best thing that happened tou Clevelank outside of Kucinich (just kidding). I won't argue to much that money wasn't a prime motivating factor for him leaving Cleveland. But to say that was the only reason is a little harsh and as usual, very black and white reasoning from you. Thome has had a taste of the world series and the playoffs. He probably only has 4-5 good years left. Since he was so close to a ring he probably wants it more, and there is no chance Cleveland would get there in the time he has left, especially with him eating up most their salary. The Phils on the other hand have a solid young core and are looking to win now or very soon down the line, not 5-7 years away like the Tribe. Belive me I have nothing against the tribe, I sorta root for them at times because they have been almost as poor as the Phillies over history. It's just they have no immediate future hope. Would you rather make 20 dollars an hour at a company that is going nowehere, or 50 dollars an hour at a company that has the chance to be the best in its field. It's just to uncreative, and not well thought out to bash Thome for leaving solely for money reasons. Ah, yes, but then we get to the heart of your argument....Thome's hair and the Kingman comparison...

Hair - it's a push...I don't care much for Thome's hair, but Kingman's hair was unfairly influenced by the 70's.

Walks - Kingman's career high in walks was 62, Thome has had over 100 walks in 6 of the last 7 seasons and has a high of 122 walks. Advantage Thome.

K's - Kingman's high was 156, Thome's was 189, though Thome did get his K's down to the 130 range last season. Regardless he will be hard pushed to lea the league in K's with players like Jose Hernandez out there, and Pat Burrell on his own team. Slight Advantage Kingman.

Batting average. Kingman's highest was 288 in 1979, Thome's was 304 last year. Thome also has consistently been working his way up to be more than just a home run hitter as his last 5-6 years prove. Kingman's 288 average was an abberation in a creer peppered with .268 type averages. Advantage Thome.

OBP - Kingman's highest, 343. Thome has had 7 years over 400 and a high of 445. Its not even close Thome's advantage again.

Basically the Thome/Kingman cpmparison is a raher easy win for Thome, since he is a more complete hitter by far. The Phils probably overpayed for him, and you coulda made that argument and I woulda agreed. But you went the route of comparing him in hair and hitting ability to Dave Kingman, which is as shown above unfair to Cleveland, er I mean Philly's own...Jim Thome.

 

Yes, but you're forgetting that Thome got a lot of extra at-bats because he played DH so much. He has back problems that aren't going to go away as he gets older and is asked to play the field in more games.

As for the money thing, look. I don't begrudge a guy a dime. His life, his business, more power to him.

But early last summer, when the front office gave up on the season and was trading away the big boys like Colon, they had a very good offer from Boston which would have A) Put Thome into a playoff race and possibly a series and B) Let Cleveland get something in return for the guy.

Thome had the right to refuse, and he did. He said that he just loved Cleveland too much, his wife and kid were sooooo happy there, and he wanted to play his entire career with the Indians and for the fans of Ohio.

Four months later, he left for Philly because they offered him a six year contract instead of five.

And instead of just being honest, he cried big tears, saying that he did it because he loved Cleveland so much that he didn't want to saddle the organization with his contract five years from now so he was making the personal sacrifice of leaving this town he loved, oh boo hoo!!!

So when it COULD have helped Cleveland, he said no. When it was time to SHAFT Cleveland, he said "Sure, great"

He'll suck. Even after forcing the team to hire his personal mushmouthed moron, Charlie Manuel, to hold his towels. To hell with him.

 

Um yeah, some of Kingman's best years were in the AL also, where as you well know he could have played DH also. Also considering Thome rarely even plays 150 of the given games in a season I doubt his amount of times at bat would be substatially more than Kingman. Regardless, statistically it was a pretty poor comparison on your part.
His health may be a problem, but it probably won't be a big problem for another 3-4 years. Even Philly acknowledges that he has back problems. yet despite those back problems he had his best year last year on a team that had much less around him than the Phillies offer. No reason to think he'll immediately shutdown due to back problems. Pretty much everyone agrees on that. Nothing extremely groundbreaking in your analysis on that issue.
Yeah, a trade to Boston, no offense, everyone knows Boston will never win a series.
But I forgot to take into account that he will, as you so eloquently put it, "suck" this year. What exactly is the criteria for said suckage. Look at what the Phils had at 1b last year, Travis Lee. Now if Thome were to drop 22 home runs this season and about 20 RBI's he still would have 30 HR's and about 95 RBI's both a huge step up from Travis Lee, which is what the Phillies desperately needed since Lee was a waste at what has become a power position.
As for him "screwing over" Cleveland, I'll just leave you alone to stew on that. I don't know the guy well enough to judge his character, or his animosity towards Cleveland. Perhaps you seen him in some Uniontown, watering hole and overheard some conversations detailing his grand plan to leave the fine people of cleveland crying in their Stroh's. But since I doubt that you were lucky enough to have this happen, I will take the word of a hefty majority of baseball and sports reporters who go on record saying he's one of the class guys in the game. I think they have had more interaction with him than you to judge his character.

 

A lying scumbucket is a lying scumbucket, and I don't need to swap spit with the guy to tell you that.

I'm just quoting you what he said for publication. I'm not making it up or impugning anyone, just giving you his own statements. You want to pretend something different, or say his statements don't count because I heard him say them on TV or quoted in the papers instead of over a table at Cleats, great. I disagree.

And I hope you enjoy his personal toady-cum-ex-Indians manager Charlie Manuel. Dumber than a box of hammers. Wonder what his deal is - sweep out the clubhouse? Wipe Thome's butt for him?

I'll also remind you that Kingman played a lot of years for the Cubs, pumping out HR's that would have been harmless fly balls anywhere lese.

Last year with Ellis Burks behind him he got a lot of stuff to hit. The guy is a walking strikeout. The plus is his swing will negate the need for fans or AC in half the city. King Whiff.

You'll see. They'll be booing Thome in Philly by July, and you'll be back here crying "Fred, Fred, you were so right; how could I have doubted your expertise?"

 

I'm sorry, how does the fact Kingman was a Cub help your argument at all considering their porch is so short. If anything it would show another reason the Thome/Kingman comparison is unfair to Thome.

You do realize you aren't going out a limb by saying the fans will boo Thome by July right? I mean they would boo Christ during passover if they had a chance.

Look, its one thing to be upset that Thome left Cleveland, if I were you I'd be upset too. But the fact is he is one of the premeir 1b's in the league and a huge step up from what they had. He's a walking strikeout with 40hr 100rbi power, which makes him better than anyone the tribe has now and one of the top 3 players on the phils. The Phils are a lot better for signing him and the Tribe is quite a bit worse. I'm sorry if he kicked your dog, or macaw on the way out the door.

Oh and Manuel, didn't he at least manage the Tribe into the playoffs? Wouldn't that make him one of their 5 or 6 best all-time managers? I don't know why you are so harsh to Clevelands heros of yesteryear.

 

I'll tell you this once, man: don't mess with the bird - she will fukk you up



And as for Ch-ch-ch-charlie, he took over a team full of veteran all-stars and future hall of famers that had been to the playoffs and/or World Series five years in a row and managed not to get in their way.

Infield: Thome, Alomar, Vizquel, Fryman and Alomar.

Outfield: Ramirez, Lofton and Justice.

Your Grandmother could have managed that team.

 

Other managers have had just as talented groups and managed to fukk it up (see Bobby Valentine).

BTW, I get along well with birds.

 

Ch-ch-ch-charlie M-m-m-m-m-m-m-manuel was FIRED less than two years after getting the job. The people who watched him every day and had the opportunity to evaluate his works felt that he, well, s-s-s-s-s-sucked.

It's hardly "being mean to old heroes". Charlie never did squat.

 

sh!t-o-deer!
Jim Thome homers in his first spring training at bat.
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/n...&content_id=205060&vkey=spt2003news&fext=.jsp

Howver it was a line drive, so some people may think it "sucked"

 

I cannot wait to see how Phillies fans feel about Thome 5 years from now when he will be so overpaid the Phillies cannot do anything to improve their team. Unless you are Barry Bonds, 37 year old players (which Thome will be at the end of his contract) are not worth that type of money.

I hate Joe Carter for the crap he pulled in the late '80s, saying how he wanted to play in Cleveland but making outrageous contract demands which no team would agree to, showing that he was lying. At least he was more "upfront" about his desires than Thome.

 

no reasonable philly fan expects thome to be great at the end of his contract...everyone knows we overpaid for him, but when you are the phils thats what you gotta do.

 

granted being in italy and all...it's a little tough to follow baseball over here...but...how I missed Thome singing with Philly is beyond me...when did this happen?