Nice quote from Gaudin on Thomas' newfound speed:

“That was priceless,” winning pitcher Chad Gaudin said of Thomas’ 12th career triple. “I played with the guy in ‘06, and I don’t think I saw him beat out a ball—much less go from home to third on a triple. It’s uplifting. He told me a couple of days ago, `I can run now.’ And I said, `Really.’ And I’m thinking to myself, in 15 years, all of a sudden you can run now? And sure enough, he can run.”

I was kind of hoping for a inside-the-park home run.

Has anybody seen Big Hurt during a play-at-the-plate? Does the catcher just step aside and concede the run?

I was at the park last night, and it really wasn't Thomas so much as a perfectly placed ball. I could have legged out that triple.

I was looking around for an article about a collision, but I found this interesting SI piece from 1994 instead.

This is where we must spend a minute talking about walks. America regards the walk sort of the way it regards the Quiche of the Day. The hotshot Little Leaguer hurls the bat away in disgust at ball four. The hotshot Little League dad hollers, "Swing at anything close, Jason!" when the count gets to 3 and 0. So no wonder there is grumbling in Chicago that King Kong is not swinging at all the airplanes. Who does he think he is, Eddie Gaedel? Screw batting average, Hurt, wail for the fence! After all, a three-run homer is a damn sight better than another walk to load the bases.

Even Thomas's teammates wonder. "I do," says one of his best friends on the team, Tim Raines. "I'd like him to swing more." And when Thomas let Cleveland catcher Sandy Alomar off the hook on July 23, purposely avoiding a collision at home plate when he could have turned Alomar into a wet cleanup on aisle 7, his own teammates rode him mercilessly. "The Big Hurt?" a voice grumbled, half kidding. "More like the Big Puss."

3: No doubt that was Vlad's misplay than anything else. Thomas could have stopped between second and third to catch his breath. Actually - did he?

Batting a low-average, high OBP player 5th or 6th is unwise.

Frank used to be pretty fast. He played TE as a true frosh at Auburn and you can't do that running a 5.8 40. However, that was probably 80 pounds, three foot surgeries, and 20 years ago.

I doubt he's "fast." But he is quicker than a few players (Konerko, Giambi, the Molina bros.). It's all relative of course.

i know it's early, but thomas is now on the team with the best record in the american league!

The hotshot Little League dad hollers, "Swing at anything close, Jason!" when the count gets to 3 and 0.

That's probably the most idiotic thing I've read in the last ten minutes. I'm pretty sure I've never heard a single dad at any level ever yell that on a 3-0 count. 0-2, yes. Any count with two strikes, yes. But never 3-0. It's certainly possible that some fool somewhere yelled such a thing in that situation, but I strongly doubt that it's a frequent enough occurrence that Rick Reilly should be allowed to refer to it as if it were a cliche.

He sure wasted no time making hash of my prediction that he wouldn't close their triples gap.

True story:
On my 13-yo little league team, the coach had no take sign and indeed a "buy a pitch" sign used on 3-0, where we were required to swing no matter where the pitch was, so as to get another chance to hit.

When the playoffs rolled around, the take sign replaced the "buy a pitch" sign.

So Frank is mad that he didn't have protection behind him?

He was supposed to BE the protection.

i know it's early, but thomas is now on the team with the best record in the american league!

!!!!!


That is all.

“Their future was Vernon Wells and Alex Rios, and they batted them fourth. I never hit out of my comfort zone for so long. I was in the five hole, six hole most of the year ... I’ve never been in that position my whole 18-year career.

“There were so many different people hitting behind me. I’ve been in the game too long, and if you don’t protect me ... last year, our offense was bad and they didn’t use me in the fourth or fifth spots. Only a few times.”

Frank's memory might be going with his age.

2007 games started at different lineup spots:
3: 6
4: 76
5: 56
6: 9

Frank's memory might be going with his age.

I'll trust the Big Hurt before your "numbers."

SCAREDUCK: I was at the park last night, and it really wasn't Thomas so much as a perfectly placed ball. I could have legged out that triple.

I was not there, but what I saw on TV was some typically terrible defense by a lousy outfielder.*

WINNIE: 3: No doubt that was Vlad's misplay than anything else.

You and I apparently were watching the same game.

* Manny is in a class by himself for looking horrible in the outfield. However, when it comes to taking terrible angles on balls and turning one-hop singles into misplayed triples, I think Vlad and Godzilla are pretty close.

I'll trust the Big Hurt before your "numbers."

Especially if the Big Hurt is in the room.

I'll trust the Big Hurt before your "numbers."

Yeah, Danny's all into that Sabre stats stuff. He should never have written that book.

Frank Thomas: not clogging the bases.

He's entitled to any bitterness he has toward the Jays. They cut a hall of fame player after 10 bad games because they were convinced he was done. After a couple of thousand career ABs and a solid year of production for that team the year before, you're entitled to a 10 game slump. Apparently the fuktarded Gibbons-JP braintrust didn't agree. The Jays are going to need every penny of that inflated Canadian dollar to convince FAs to come to Toronto after this episode. I'm not saying you side with the Hall of Famer because he's a Hall of Famer (this wasn't a Craig Biggio situation), but rather because mismanaging him his a bigger waste of resources than firing your impatient manager would be.

I can't believe I used to root for this guy. What a ####### baby.

You used to root for "google boy"?

You used to root for "google boy"?

We all used to be Sergei Brin fans.

You and I apparently were watching the same game.

The one where you're playing with your infant son and assume you misheard the announcers calling a Big Hurt triple, and then rush over to the computer to make sure that what you heard is what actually happened, and then your son starts crying so you rush back to him? You were playing that game, too? Awesome!

Seriously, Vlad has that strong, inaccurate arm going for him, but besides that he looks pretty bad in the field. Like a wounded gazelle or something.

Vlad finally got his deserved OF-1 this year.