Knuckle Curve » jim_thome

A’s Send Swisher to White Sox

Geoff Young — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:15:41 +0000

Baseball Digest Daily (disclosure: I am now part of the BDD staff) is reporting that the Oakland A’s have shipped outfielder Nick Swisher to the Chicago White Sox for Gio Gonzalez, ~~Faustino~~ Fautino De Los Santos and outfielder Ryan Sweeney. BDD has more info on the prospects headed to Oakland, but I’ll make a few quick observations here:

I’m a big Swisher fan. I love his skill set and the way he plays the game. The White Sox have been searching for a center fielder; is Swisher the answer? I know he played there quite a bit in ‘07, but can he legitimately spend an entire season in center?
What’s up with Gonzalez? He’s got the killer minor-league strikeout numbers, but this guy has now been traded for Jim Thome, Freddy Garcia, and Swisher in separate deals. Gonzalez may well be worth the fuss, I don’t know; but that’s a lot of moving around for a kid who hasn’t advanced beyond Double-A.

Meanwhile, the A’s are going through one of their periodic “Who Am I?” phases. They’re pretty good at this sort of thing, so I expect they’ll come out of it okay, but it’s got to be tough to watch (or be part of) in real time.

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Thome Hits 500th Homer, Enough for Cooperstown?

Geoff Young — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 20:11:55 +0000

I forgot to mention that Jim Thome knocked his 500th career home run over the weekend. In light of Thome’s homer, the inevitable question of whether he is a Hall of Famer has surfaced. My first reaction was that he’s an absolute no-brainer, but then I looked at his numbers, which tell a different story.

The homers are nice, as is the career OPS+ of 149. But the fact that he has fewer than 2000 hits will work against Thome, as will the fact that he’s turned into a full-time DH toward the backside of his career.

That said, the guy just turned 37 and doesn’t appear to be in decline. I mean, he’s not dominating pitchers the way he did from, say, 1995 to 2004, but Thome is still a productive hitter with some mileage left in the tank.

In my humble estimation, Thome is just on the edge of serious HOF consideration. If his career ended right now, I could see it going either way. Assuming he can maintain anywhere near his current levels for another 2-3 years, he’ll be a mortal lock by the time he hangs up his spikes.

Oh yeah, and congrats. Hall of Fame speculation notwithstanding, 500 homers is a terrific accomplishment.

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