We've known this was coming
since October, but it still stings to see it happen: Jim Thome signed with the Twins yesterday. He'll make only $1.5 million this season.
This is what
SouthSideSox wrote on its Facebook fanpage when the news broke:
Thome
is a Twin for a whopping $1.5M, or the price of Mark Kotsay, who, you
know, pretty much sucks to the point where he was traded for Brian
Anderson. There's simply no excuse for letting your best hitter go to
your biggest rival.
And just so no one argues with the "best hitter" remark, you can
check the stats. Thome led the '09 Sox in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and finished with a team-best OPS+ of 122. If he repeats that production in Minnesota this year for only $1.5 million, someone in the White Sox front office should get arrested.
The Cheat had
this to add today:
The only way the Williams/Guillen team avoids rabid fans calling for
their head -- the ones that aren't already -- is if the pitching staff
they've built carries them easily to the post-season. Anything less than an easy walk to the playoffs shows that the two were more concerned with building a team their way than exploiting what might be the best free-agent value on the entire market.
He's obviously super bummed about this - maybe rightfully so - but I strongly disagree that this should put Kenny and Ozzie on the hot seat. This has to be the competent upper management duo in Chicago sports right now, with the possible exception of John McDonough's 'Hawks mob squad.
Kenny and Ozzie are great. Did they screw up big here? Perhaps. But - like I said yesterday - if DH is killing this team, Kenny will do something about it. He will. That's just the way he rolls.
So we end on a happy note, JJ at
White Sox Examiner has four reasons why you should be optimistic about the 2010 Sox. Stay positive!
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