With the White Sox and Cubs set to begin their second series against each other this season at U.S. Cellular Field, former White Sox first baseman Frank Thomas is back in Chicago, but instead of playing he's now a member of the local media. The two-time AL MVP is 41 years old now but he's still open to the idea of coming back and playing if anybody is interested in his services.
The problem is that there just aren't that many teams in the market for a 41-year old designated hitter right now, and it's highly unlikely there will be any suitors for the Big Hurt in the near future. So it's not exactly a shocker that while giving a radio interview in Chicago on Thursday Thomas said he's very close to just hanging up his cleats.
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Most of the time you can ignore Ozzie Guillen. Do so at your own peril, of course. When he's not testing the boundaries of decency or making you do earmuffs like Vince Vaughn's kid in Old School, he's wildly entertaining. And if you can get by the crudeness and the f-bombs, he's even insightful sometimes.
From the Windup is FanHouse's extended look at a particular portion of America's pastime.
Believe it or not, Spring Training is just one month away. It's been a long, cold winter -- at least everywhere except Philadelphia (or Florida or Southern California) -- but if you listen closely, you can practically hear the sharp crack of the bat. Daydream long enough, and you can almost see that first session of pitcher's fielding practice.
But we aren't there yet. The slow free-agent market has left plenty of unfinished business as the clock counts down toward reporting date. So with that in mind, here are 12 big questions that figure to be answered before the moving trucks are loaded and sent on their way to Florida and Arizona.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups
Oakland Athletics (29-23) vs. Toronto Blue Jays (28-26) - 10:05PM Est.
After a stretch of games in which the Athletics lost 9 of 11 and had fallen to only a game over .500, I thought that their surprising early season success was coming to an end. Given the fact that the average age of players on the team not named Frank Thomas is 15 years and 7 months, I felt it was only a matter of time before reality set in on Oakland, and that they'd regress to the mean.
Apparently, as happens pretty often, I was wrong. The A's followed that stretch with a sweep of the Red Sox, and they put an end to Toronto's five-game win streak on Tuesday night for their fifth win in a row.
They've pulled back to within two games of the division leading Angels, and now they've got me wondering if they'll be able to keep this up all season, or at least for one more day.
I like Frank Thomas, like him a lot. I was a teenager who devoured baseball when he hit the scene and, even though he never played a game for my team, I always dug him. His numbers, his size and his absolutely perfect nickname added up to make him one of my favorite players. My admiration for him only grew as he fought off injuries to return to productivity and went even higher when he stepped up to speak out against steroids and to the Mitchell Report by his own volition. So he's a stand-up guy and a fantastic hitter but he isn't a 2008 All-Star.
I say that in response to a very well argued piece on Big League Stew today by Kevin Kaduk. He brings up the Big Hurt's long absence from the game, 1997 was his last trip, and his place in the firmament of baseball's great hitters but focuses the argument on rewarding him for being the rare voice against steroids in baseball.
Yes, Frank had a phenomenal career - and it's possible it could continue past '08 - but this campaign is motivated by more than just Thomas' impressive numbers. It's also rooted in the fact that over the past few years, we've scolded suspected star after suspected star for possible steroid use. Yet we've done absolutely nothing to reward and applaud the players who have actually spoken out against it.
Those players absolutely should be applauded, I just think the onus is on another group.
Since coming over to the Athletics from the Blue Jays, Frank Thomas has been hitting a lot better than he was in Toronto, though he's not tearing the cover off the ball or anything. In fact, after his first twelve games back in Oakland, the Big Hurt has more triples (1) than home runs. Something tells me that the A's didn't sign Frank for his speed, though, and generally wanted some power production (though any team that allows their players to wear those uniforms probably deserves what they get).
Frank hasn't provided any, but it's not for lack of trying. In fact, Frank even admits he's basically been trying to do nothing but hit home runs, even passing up on off-speed pitches he knows he can hit because he knows he won't be able to poke it over the fence.
"I'm trying to go deep," the A's designated hitter said before batting practice Tuesday. "I really am. I have a good swing right now. I have a good approach, it's just the results aren't there."
He's been trying so hard, in fact, that after flying out to the center field warning track on Monday Thomas said, "I try not to show emotion, but I wanted to cry."
Unfortunately for the A's and Thomas, the harder Frank tries to go deep, the less likely he's going to be able to hit one. In all the years I watched Frank on a daily basis with the White Sox, he went on his biggest long ball tears when he wasn't trying to do to much at the plate. He was just so strong that sometimes that outside breaking ball he was just trying to go the other way with would keep on going for about 450 feet.
If he wants to start hitting the long ball again, he'd be better served to swing at those pitches he's passing on and just think up the middle, and those home runs will come back a lot quicker than expected.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups
Toronto Blue Jays (16-17) vs. Tampa Bay Rays (16-15) - 7:07PM Est.
It's been a few weeks since the Blue Jays cut themselves loose of slugger Frank Thomas because he just wasn't contributing anything on offense for them. Since that move, the Blue Jays still haven't scored very many runs, pushing only 37 runners across the plate in the 14 post-Thomas era games. Generally when you're only scoring 2.6 runs a game, you aren't going to win much, and the Blue Jays haven't going 6-8 in those games.
Over the last few days, though, Toronto has figured out how to win without scoring runs, and that's just not letting your opponent score any either.
When the Blue Jays released Frank Thomaslast Sunday, they did so because they felt that Frank was breaking down and wouldn't be able to contribute the offensive production the team needed from him. Originally they just wanted to bury him on the bench, but after Frank complained (nothing new there) he and the team decided it was best to part ways.
Now no matter what the Blue Jays say in this situation, I refuse to believe the team let Thomas go because of his play (or was it the lack of high fives), and that it had a lot more to do with not wanting to pay him $10 million next season. I mean, considering general manager J.P. Ricciardi is one of them newfangled "stat geeks" runnin' baseball teams these days, there's no way he would think the small sample size of the 60 at bats Thomas had had up to that point were enough to make a judgement on.
So instead the Blue Jays just decided to let Frank go, and pay him $8 million to play for somebody else. Well, hell hath no fury like a Big Hurt scorned, because Frank has been tearing the cover off the ball since joining the Oakland Athletics.
In his first five games with Oakland, Frank is hitting .313 with an OBP of .476 and an OPS of .914. The man even tripled yesterday. That's right, Frank Thomas tripled, and the game still managed to take under five hours to complete.
In other words, life is good for the Big Hurt right now. Not only is he hitting well and proving his doubters in Toronto wrong so far, but he's gone from a last place team in the AL East to the team with the best record in the American League right now.
On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups
Los Angeles Angels (16-10) vs. Oakland Athletics (16-10) - 10:05PM Est.
The fact that the Angels and Athletics are fighting for the top spot in the AL West isn't exactly a new experience. I mean, they've been doing it for just about the entire 21st century but they weren't supposed to be doing it this season. No, the AL West this season was supposed to be a two-horse race between the Angels and Mariners while the Athletics were supposed to be mired in a rebuilding process and battling with the Rangers for third place.
Yet here we are nearly finished with the first month of the regular season, and Oakland is tied with Los Angeles for the best record in the American League. To make it even more surprising, they're doing it without Eric Chavez and Rich Harden.
When the Blue Jays released Frank Thomas this past week, a gaping hole in the lineup was opened. It doesn't matter that he wasn't even hitting above the Mendoza line, nor does it matter that he's about to turn 40. Nope, what does matter is that the stature of a hall-of-famer just vacated a lineup slot and someone has to fill it.
For now, we're being treated to a rousing rendition of "Matt Stairs is our DH ... and we really think we are going to compete in the AL!" Good luck with that, Blue Jays brass.
You know what's funny? Stairs' numbers are never bad. Maybe it's that he used to have a mullet, that's he's 5'9" 220 (and it ain't "muscle"), or that he has less charisma than Eric Young on Baseball Tonight (seriously, have you seen that crap?). Whatever the reason, he's not sticking as the DH of the Blue Jays all season. We all know that. I don't need any other evidence than the fact that you don't cut The Big Hurt to play Matt Stairs all season. You just don't.
Those of us with foresight in Fantasyland know what to do ...
With the White Sox and Cubs set to begin their second series against each other this season at U.S. Cellular Field, former White Sox first baseman Frank Thomas is back in Chicago, but instead of playing he's now a member of the local media. The two-time AL MVP is 41 years old now but he's still open to the idea of coming back and playing if anybody is interested in his services.
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