YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES
twins/mlb
Startribune.com sports coordinator Howard Sinker used to cover the Twins and now shares season tickets with friends in Section 219 of Target Field. He blogs about baseball from the perspective of a long-time fan who loves the game, doesn’t always believe the hype and likes hearing what others think.
Ozzie goes goofy about Thome
Posted by: Howard Sinker under Twins offense, Twins transactions Updated: August 19, 2010 - 12:52 AM
Gotta love Ozzie Guillen.
Gotta hurt for him a bit after Wednesday night's game, though, as he watched Alexi Ramirez's high, wide and stupid throw home on Danny Valencia's ground ball let the Twins break a 5-5 tie and take the lead for good.
Who did he think was trying to score from third? Me?
No, that wasn't a smart try, even with Jim Thome lumbering home.
Made me wonder how you all would react if Nick Punto had made that throw. Actually, that play was kind of the defensive version of Punto getting thrown out after rounding third too far in Game 3 of the ALDS last October.
(That's the one with the classic John Gordon call: "Oh, my! Oh, my! Unbelievable, unbelievable bonehead base running play by Nick Punto!" The Gordon version starts at about the 1:20 mark of the link above.)
But, like I said, you gotta love Ozzie.
He spent a good chunk of time before Wednesday's game bashing Thome -- and defending his decision to tell White Sox general manager Ken Williams not to keep Thome around.
In an session reported by Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune, Guillen said: "For all those people there saying it was my fault about Jim Thome, yes it's my fault. If those people don't like that, (bleep) them."
And this: "We're in second place. When Jim Thome was here, we finished third three times out of four years. We went to one playoff because he hit a home run to go to the playoffs. ... A lot of people in Chicago talk about Jim Thome. How about (Jermaine Dye)? I think Jermaine Dye did more stuff for the Chicago White Sox than Jim Thome did, with all my respect to Jimbo."
Dye "did more stuff" because he played the outfield while Thome was almost exclusively a DH.
But, offensively, Thome did more from 2006-2009, when both were with the White Sox.
Thome: 134 home runs, 372 RBI, .390 on-base percentage, .929 on base-plus-slugging.
Dye: 133 home runs, 373 RBI, .347 OBP, .875 OPS.
Dye had 209 more plate appearances than Thome, most of that difference coming last season when Thome was traded to the Dodgers at the end of August.
As far as playing the outfield, a fangraphs.com report from earlier this year, when eyebrows were raised over Dye's inability to find work, said: "Dye’s defense has been nothing short of atrocious over the past four years."
In other words, in Ozzie's attempt to soil Thome's tenure in Chicago, he succeeded only in soiling himself.
Jim Thome is here, not there. Gotta love Ozzie for helping make that happen.
***
For the record, I'm not the one declaring the title race to be over. But after Wednesday's game, the blog southsidesox offered this takedown:
"The White Sox have now lost 4 straight series, while the Twins haven't lost a series in nearly a month. During that time the Sox have gone from a 3.5 game lead to 5 games behind It's not official, but the season is effectively over. This team, built in Ozzie Guillen's image -- or at least with more input than ever before -- simply isn't good enough to win the American League Central. And unlike this time last year, they don't appear well-positioned to make a run next year."
ADVERTISEMENT
more twins blogs
-
Around the Majors
Twins cut Vasquez to make room for Mastroianni
The Twins added Darin Mastroianni, an outfielder comparable to Jason Repko, to their 40-man...
Post By Category
ADVERTISEMENT
Links
- Aaron Gleeman
- Babes Love Baseball
- Baseball Outsider
- Baseball-Reference.com
- Bleacher Report (Twins)
- For Love of the Game
- Hitting the Foul Pole
- Josh's Thoughts
- K-bro's baseball blog
- Knuckleballs
- Nick's Twins Blog
- Off the Mark
- Oh, it's THOSE girls
- Over the Baggy
- Pat Neshek's blog
- Stick and Ball Guy
- Seth Speaks
- Tenth Inning Stretch
- TwinsCentric
- Twinkietown
- Twins Geek
- Twins Nation
- Vegetarian Piranha
inside the StarTribune
-
425 Portland Av. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55488
(612) 673-4000
- Company
- Subscriber Services
- Website
- Buy Ads
- Store
- Connect with Us
© 2012 StarTribune. All rights reserved.
StarTribune.com is powered by Limelight Networks
Newspaper Subscriptions
eEdition
RSS
Newsletters