Jim Thome is embarrassing himself and the team is suffering because of him

[Spoonless]

Veteranosity.

[zero1]

None of you post anything when he grounds into a double play or strikes out but as soon as he hits a HR you all run to your computers to bring up this thread lol. Good for him that he hit another HR but he also looked horrible in 2 out of his 3 other at bats. I'll give him credit for helping the O's win these last two games but I still don't think it was a good acquisition and in the long run he will struggle.

[delinodeshields]

None of you post anything when he grounds into a double play or strikes out but as soon as he hits a HR you all run to your computers to bring up this thread lol. Good for him that he hit another HR but he also looked horrible in 2 out of his 3 other at bats. I'll give him credit for helping the O's win these last two games but I still don't think it was a good acquisition and in the long run he will struggle.

Dude, it's okay to be wrong :thumbsup1:

A good hitter fails 7/10 of the time. That's why nobody posts when he makes an out.

[maybenxtyr]

None of you post anything when he grounds into a double play or strikes out but as soon as he hits a HR you all run to your computers to bring up this thread lol. Good for him that he hit another HR but he also looked horrible in 2 out of his 3 other at bats. I'll give him credit for helping the O's win these last two games but I still don't think it was a good acquisition and in the long run he will struggle.

I don't think many people are arguing that it was a good acquisition, the problem is you said he was an embarrassment. That is where I disagree with you. At the age of 41 he is still able to play a young mans game. Kudos to him. I can only hope to be in as good of shape as he is at 41.

Just to give you something to be happy about, he could catch Reggie for the all time strike outs this year. That would really be embarrassing. I'm only joking about cheering him on for that.

[zero1]

I don't think many people are arguing that it was a good acquisition, the problem is you said he was an embarrassment. That is where I disagree with you. At the age of 41 he is still able to play a young mans game. Kudos to him. I can only hope to be in as good of shape as he is at 41.

Just to give you something to be happy about, he could catch Reggie for the all time strike outs this year. That would really be embarrassing. I'm only joking about cheering him on for that.

You're right as I probably did go too far when I said embarrassing.

[24fps]

I don't think many people are arguing that it was a good acquisition, the problem is you said he was an embarrassment. That is where I disagree with you. At the age of 41 he is still able to play a young mans game. Kudos to him. I can only hope to be in as good of shape as he is at 41.

Just to give you something to be happy about, he could catch Reggie for the all time strike outs this year. That would really be embarrassing. I'm only joking about cheering him on for that.

Through 7/20, the Orioles cumulative 2012 OPB was .305. That's including Thome's .370 since 7/1 as an Oriole. If there's anything to be embarrassed about it's the team-wide lack of plate discipline with perhaps the exception of Markakis and Jones. Thome might be old and his skills in decline, but he still knows what he's supposed to do with a bat in his hands. To me that makes him a reasonably good acquisition in context. Let's hope some of it rubs off.

[zero1]

Through 7/20, the Orioles cumulative 2012 OPB was .305. That's including Thome's .370 since 7/1 as an Oriole. If there's anything to be embarrassed about it's the team-wide lack of plate discipline with perhaps the exception of Markakis and Jones. Thome might be old and his skills in decline, but he still knows what he's supposed to do with a bat in his hands. To me that makes him a reasonably good acquisition in context. Let's hope some of it rubs off.

Jones does not have good plate discipline.

[Flash- bd]

Thome has an .836 OPS on the season. In his short time with Baltimore he has a .813 OPS and rising. There's nothing in his track record that suggest he isn't capable of sustaining an .813 OPS-- in fact, his recent stats suggest he'll do better than that. He's one of our top 3 hitters, in there with Jones and Markakis. OPS-wise, he might well be our best by the end of the season.

Whether or not he is a good addition to the team is really undebatable, IMO. He is. You can disagree that it was worth giving up Simon and Lino for him, but you can't disagree (reasonably) he makes us better.

zero1's assertion that "in the long run he will struggle" is a really lame attempt to save face; "in the long run he will improve" is a much more supportable assertion.

[OFFNY]

None of you post anything when he grounds into a double play or strikes out, but as soon as he hits a HR you all run to your computers to bring up this thread lol.

Actually, there were plenty of people commenting and defending Thome before he hit any home runs since you started this thread. It wasn't until Ve Ve Jones made a comment in the 35th post of this thread did people start pulling up the thread after Thome blasted a home run:

http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php/123635-Jim-Thome-is-embarrassing-himself-and-the-team-is-suffering-because-of-him/page3

[wompfump]

None of you post anything when he grounds into a double play or strikes out but as soon as he hits a HR you all run to your computers to bring up this thread lol. Good for him that he hit another HR but he also looked horrible in 2 out of his 3 other at bats. I'll give him credit for helping the O's win these last two games but I still don't think it was a good acquisition and in the long run he will struggle.

Of course I'm not going to post anything when he gets out... I wouldn't have posted anything about his HR if you didn't make this silly thread. Yes, let's look at EACH at bat and grade him. Come on. Let him get a larger sample size before you make ridiculous assumptions, especially when this guy will probably lead the O's in OBP when it's all said and done.

[Tony-OH]

For those against Thome, who's at bats is he taking away? Who would you rather have batting 3rd?

[CA-ORIOLE]

For those against Thome, who's at bats is he taking away? Who would you rather have batting 3rd?

I think the basic argument is forcing Davis to LF and we could have gone with Avery/Hoes in LF instead.

[OFFNY]

For those against Thome, who's at bats is he taking away? Who would you rather have batting 3rd ?

Mike Trout, but he's not on the team.

[Tony-OH]

I think the basic argument is forcing Davis to LF and we could have gone with Avery/Hoes in LF instead.

Davis' value has gone up now that we've seen he's a decent outfielder. I'm still not convinced he's a long term solution as a starter due to his streakiness, but "forcing" him to the outfield made him more valuable for the O's and in the trade market. I like Hoes as much as the next guy but I'm ok with him getting a full year in AAA. Over his last ten games at Norflok, Avery is batting .178 with 21 strikeouts in 45 at bats. I'd rather he be doing that there.

[CA-ORIOLE]

Davis' value has gone up now that we've seen he's a decent outfielder. I'm still not convinced he's a long term solution as a starter due to his streakiness, but "forcing" him to the outfield made him more valuable for the O's and in the trade market. I like Hoes as much as the next guy but I'm ok with him getting a full year in AAA. Over his last ten games at Norflok, Avery is batting .178 with 21 strikeouts in 45 at bats. I'd rather he be doing that there.

Agree, I've actually been somewhat impressed with Davis in the OF. Less impressed with his hitting skills and his long term potential with us. I've been totally onboard with the Thome acquistion from the beginning. If he can stay healthy and play 2/3 of the games at DH (primarily against RHP), I'm pretty confident he'll contribute a lot offensively. I recall some similar complaints with Nick Johnson but not quite as much as I've seen with Thome. I guess that's residual related to the prospects we gave up for him. Thome looks far more reliable. Not like Johnson was playing much 1b either. I even like the way he runs the bases. Bottom line is if Thome hits, most are going to be pretty happy with it.