How good is this answer...The Litsch vs. Halladay all-star question is like pondering whether Jonah Hill should win an Oscar for Superbad over Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood, just because Hill’s movie made more money at the box office.

Frank Thomas OPS+ with A's: 163

No, the 10th place offensive team couldn't use him.

The idea that somehow, releasing Thomas has made the team pitch bettrer ...

Even though I liked Thomas as a man, the signing from Day 1 was a misguided mistake by a GM fascinated with being able to obtain one of the great on-base percentage leaders of all time.

If I recall, and I may certainly be wrong, I believe in addition to his on-base proclivities, Frank Thomas is also known for his tendency to hit the ball into the area of the ballpark behind the outfielders.

The idea that somehow, releasing Thomas has made the team pitch bettrer ...

Defense, too! If there's one thing that demoralizes pitchers, it's having the DH make bad defensive plays.

Don't doubt Ricciardi. He's just misunderstood. There's a masterplan and all will be made clear to you at a time when you are prepared to experience it. Shield your eyes.

And defense. The man was a DH!

EDIT: Beaten to it!
Tulo: Does that make JP the Cylon god?

Defense, too! If there's one thing that demoralizes pitchers, it's having the DH make bad defensive plays.

That's why Rafael Palmeiro was such a good teammate. That and the drugs.

I suppose that you could say that moving Thomas allows the Jays to DH Stairs more, which puts Shannon Stewart in LF. This might be a decent argument if not for the fact that Frank Thomas himself might have more range than Stewart.

I suppose that you could say that moving Thomas allows the Jays to DH Stairs more, which puts Shannon Stewart in LF. This might be a decent argument if not for the fact that Frank Thomas himself might have more range than Stewart.

And even if it allowed them to put prime-age Barry Bonds in LF, it would still leave the question of why the platoon-DH Stairs was a better guy to keep than Thomas.

But we will all have to agree that the Big Hurt stinks at small ball. Charles "The Tiny Hurt" Thomas was who the Jays meant to sign.

Though ... the Jays had fewer SH, SB, HBP, and ROE in May than they did in April.

Yep Frank Thomas was cooked. And now that Jack Cust no longer sees fastballs, he can't hit.

I do love April... :(

This is a excerpt from a radio interview this week with Globe and Mail columnist Jeff Blair while on PrimeTime with Bob McCowan. A link to the entire interview can be found at JunkJaysFan where I quickly pulled this from:

Blair: The fact that Frank Thomas isn't here now is much more due to John Gibbons than it is JP Ricciardi. Gibbons, in Spring Training, made it clear to a lot of people, on and off the record-- mostly off the record-- that he was not a big fan of having Frank Thomas around. He spoke to people about it, he spoke to people within the organization...

McCown: Was he right?

Blair: Absolutely he was right. It's a better team without Frank Thomas. And I'm saying that as someone-- I liked Frank Thomas. I had no grudge against Frank Thomas at all. But that was-- that was John Gibbons. He started that in Spring Training and... at the time I didn't notice it as much-- I've started to think a bit about some of the things that were said in Spring Training, some of the signals that were sent out. That was largely him.