Way Back Machine
Posted by SBG on Wednesday, August 30th, 2006 at 10:07 pm
There was a lot of chatter in the off season about a certain DH that was available. I don't know if the Twins actually pursued him, but he went cheap -- $500,000. The Twins decided to go with good citizen Rondell White, because after all, this guy has been known to be somewhat of a problem. He's now hitting .267/.391/.521 with 28 HRs and a VORP of 29.9. Compare that with White's VORP of -22.1 and Jason Kubel's -3.1. Signing Frank Thomas might have meant almost 60 runs (or six wins) for the Twins.
Now, if you could go in time, would you have made a pitch for Thomas?
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Moss would have done it in the first place. No need to second-guess.
I don't think Thomas would've signed a contract with the Twins. There would've been no need for him to play on turf if a non-turf team was going to sign him anyway. Plus, the A's had a better 2005 than the Twins so Frank might've also been more inclined to go with the A's because at this point in his career he's probably more interested in contending than a couple extra million.
I absolutely would've made a pitch to him, I just highly doubt he would've ever agreed to play in Minnesota.
And for the record, the A's are going to wind up paying Thomas at least $2.5M this season, and he'll probably make 450 PA, so they'll likely be paying him $2.7M. He's been worth it, for sure, but the $500K base salary is a bit misleading.
In the past, he's also complained about the hitter's backdrop in the Metrodome. For his career, he's hit .266/.354/.452 in Minnesota, well below his career line (.307/.427/.568 coming into the season). So I don't think he likes our dome. But, yeah, any team willing to commit to Tony Batista last winter should've been interested in Frank Thomas for the kind of contract he accepted from the A's.
But, yeah, any team willing to commit to Tony Batista last winter should’ve been interested in Frank Thomas for the kind of contract he accepted from the A’s.
That's the tough part about trying to judge TR in this case. Was he interested? Or did he dismiss the possibility?
And for the record, the A’s are going to wind up paying Thomas at least $2.5M this season, and he’ll probably make 450 PA, so they’ll likely be paying him $2.7M. He’s been worth it, for sure, but the $500K base salary is a bit misleading.
Still less than what Rondell White is making.
Also, there were a lot of people out there who wanted no part of Thomas.
Thomas? The leading candidate for the M-"crush"-V-"expectations"-P Award? Hell yeah, I'd have went for him.
I wonder if we could have convinced him by offering a higher guarantee with similar incentives. For instance, would the dome have been more beneficial than the Coliseum for any of his personal HR goals?
I preferred Thomas to White going into the season. I would have preferred both of them to Piazza. I thought Twins had an order of magnitude less of a chance to sign Garciaparra than Thomas, so he wasn't really on my radar.
I would have held my nose and pursued him. Maybe he would have enjoyed sticking it to the SheSox. But I agree with ubelmann on the turf thing.
More interesting to me would have been Piazza. Mike Redmond with power. AND he would have completely obviated the Corky Miller Factor.
And now it looks like Phil Nevin is the answer...