AZ_
Hall-of-Famer
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2007
- Messages
- 40,728
- Reaction score
- 51,464
- Points
- 148
It's important to remember that Thome was pretty much a DH-only player for 9 of his 22 seasons. Omar, who will be a Hall of Famer as well, provided not only very good offensive numbers but was one of the (if not the) best defensive shortstops of all-time. I think their overall impact in their primes is actually pretty close.
I like Vizquel as much as anyone, but saying he had very good offensive numbers is simply a fallacy.
He had some good seasons sporadically throughout his career, but he's a career .688 OPS (82 OPS+).
Jim Thome has a career WAR of 72, Omar 45.
They're not remotely the same in the way they impacted the game.