Twins Sign former Indian Jim Thome

[Tony_The_Calf]

It looks like Jim Thome won't be out of work for long.

The veteran slugger agreed to a one-year, incentive-laden contract with the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday, according to the Pioneer Press of St. Paul, Minn.

Thome, who played three-plus seasons with the White Sox before he was traded to the Dodgers on Aug. 31, was interested in returning to Chicago.

General manager Ken Williams gave manager Ozzie Guillen the final call on the move, and Guillen decided he couldn't give Thome enough at-bats to justify bringing him back.

"I play him once a week or twice a week. I don't think it was fair for him," Guillen said Monday.

Thome, who will be 40 in August, has 564 career homers, including 134 in his three-plus seasons with the White Sox. He hit 23 a year ago for Chicago before he was traded to the Dodgers. With Los Angeles, he was 4 for 17 in 17 games.

from ESPN.com

 

[Chris]

So he can still kill us a million times a year.

Great....

 

[cavaliers4ever]

White Sox, now Twins? Stay out of our division already if you're not coming back to the Tribe!

 

[AZ_]

What the heck are the Twins thinking?


Kubel is firmly placed in the DH spot, and is left handed.

Morneau is a 162 game starter at 1B (barring injury), and is left-handed.

Thome can't play the field, and is left handed.

Did they sign him to be a pinch hitter in the American League?


....Yikes.

 

[AZ_]

Great quote from Gardenhire:

"I don't expect him to come off the bench and be a .400 hitter. I expect him to come off the bench and be a threat," Gardenhire said. "He looks like stinkin' Babe Ruth. He swings like Babe Ruth. We've seen too many fly against us. Now let's see some fly for us."

 

[DougHeil]

I think this is silly. Don't the Twins have any good young players who could be sitting on the bench wanting a chance? That would have been my problem with signing Thome. He would take up a roster spot without EVER really being able to play the field.

 

[macbdog]

I like the signing by the Twins, frankly.

He doesn't take Kubel's ABs, because Kubel will rotate to LF. Thome also isn't going to be playing every day. Even at 40, the guy put up a very good OPS, still draws walks and has alot of power left. He takes ABs away from Delmon Young, but Young hasn't exactly set the world on fire in his two years in Minny after costing the team Matt Garza. They actually make good platoon partners, too. With the Joe Mauer window potentially closing I think the Twins did good by adding about as good of a power bat as you are going to get to their bench.

 

[Backstage]

When I was younger and playing town ball, I modeled my swing after Thome. Explains why I struck out so often.

 

[chiefwahoo]

My only problem with this is that the Tribe didn't jump at the opportunity... and hear me out.

First, I am in no way a Thome-lover. I was back when he seemed like a Tribe lifer, but then he screwed the organization over for another guaranteed year from Philly for "a chance to win a ring." It still makes me mad when I think about it.

That said, the Tribe is in desperate need of fan interest. What better way than to bring Thome back for one last hurrah with his original team? Current ownership either doesn't get it or just doesn't care. They need to get asses in the seats at Progressive Field and putting Thome back in a Tribe uniform would have accomplished that in the short-term. Again, baseball-wise I would hate the move for the current Indians... but PR-wise, it would have been the right choice.

 

[Tony_The_Calf]

I can explain why the Twins signed Thome.

Its really simple..Thome will be a guy who can provide some pop off the bench..The Twins bench was beyond awful last season...Also..Incase of a big injury..like we had last year when Justin Morneau went down for the season and we had to have Brendan Harris/Jose Morales DH...now we have a guy who can DH and who is leaps and bounds better than those guys....for only 1.5 Million guaranteed..this is a steal.

 

[DougHeil]

My only problem with this is that the Tribe didn't jump at the opportunity... and hear me out.

First, I am in no way a Thome-lover. I was back when he seemed like a Tribe lifer, but then he screwed the organization over for another guaranteed year from Philly for "a chance to win a ring." It still makes me mad when I think about it.

That said, the Tribe is in desperate need of fan interest. What better way than to bring Thome back for one last hurrah with his original team? Current ownership either doesn't get it or just doesn't care. They need to get asses in the seats at Progressive Field and putting Thome back in a Tribe uniform would have accomplished that in the short-term. Again, baseball-wise I would hate the move for the current Indians... but PR-wise, it would have been the right choice.

You make a good point, however; I'm not so sure the Indians didn't weigh out the pros and cons of that anyway. They had to know Thome would certainly take up a spot that a good young player would have taken. I'm also not so sure the Indians wanted an aging vet sitting on the bench next to other aging vets like Redmond. That would have been two vets 39 and over on the bench.

I also believe they think that Sandy Alomar will provide some excitement for the fans.... and he will. Did the Tribe really need yet another vet on this team at this point? I just don't think so.

 

[chiefwahoo]

You make a good point, however; I'm not so sure the Indians didn't weigh out the pros and cons of that anyway. They had to know Thome would certainly take up a spot that a good young player would have taken. I'm also not so sure the Indians wanted an aging vet sitting on the bench next to other aging vets like Redmond. That would have been two vets 39 and over on the bench.

I also believe they think that Sandy Alomar will provide some excitement for the fans.... and he will. Did the Tribe really need yet another vet on this team at this point? I just don't think so.

I agree with you to an extent... but instead of signing a guy like Grudzielanek, why not just bring in Thome for the same price? He would have generated 10 times the fan buzz that Alomar will as a coach.

I guess it's a moot point... but I'm continually more frustrated with this organization's lack of connection with the common fans. A lot of us more knowledgeable fans understand what the team is trying to do and the limitations they face budget-wise... but the common fan doesn't and will keep refusing to buy tickets. When that happens, it further ties the organization's hands.

One small positive step today - they actually announced they will induct Kenny Lofton into the Indians HOF.

 

[AZ_]

Kubel can't play the field any better than Thome can at this point :chuckles: .

That's why I'm scratching my head, putting Kubel in LF or even RF for Cuddy is the equivalent of putting Pronk there IMO.

 

[macbdog]

My only problem with this is that the Tribe didn't jump at the opportunity... and hear me out.

First, I am in no way a Thome-lover. I was back when he seemed like a Tribe lifer, but then he screwed the organization over for another guaranteed year from Philly for "a chance to win a ring." It still makes me mad when I think about it.

That said, the Tribe is in desperate need of fan interest. What better way than to bring Thome back for one last hurrah with his original team? Current ownership either doesn't get it or just doesn't care. They need to get asses in the seats at Progressive Field and putting Thome back in a Tribe uniform would have accomplished that in the short-term. Again, baseball-wise I would hate the move for the current Indians... but PR-wise, it would have been the right choice.

I would have loved to have seen Thome signed, too. He still has something left IMO, would be a good vet leader for the club, would spark at least some fan interest, .

What shoots any idea of adding him is the presence of Travis Hafner- you just can't have two strict DHs on a roster. You also can't be adding him at the expense of a Grudz or Bixler, since those guys are filling a needed role of UTI (utility infielder, not urinary tract infection). If Hafner wasn't here, even with young guys coming up I would have done it in a heartbeat. Problem is, Hafner is here, and thus that door is closed.

I also have to wonder how much fan interest would really be peaked. It may lead to a few ticket sales, but nothing that I think would be consistent. Consistency in ticket sales will occur when the team wins consistently. I think the club is doing things with the 90s glory days to draw people in- bringing Sandy in for the coaching staff, inducting Kenny Lofton into the Tribe HOF, etc. That little bump would be a side benefit to adding Thome, but I wouldn't think it would make his signing imperative.

When I was younger and playing town ball, I modeled my swing after Thome. Explains why I struck out so often.

I have no idea how he ever hit for average with that swing, seeing as he had such a huge hole up high in that swing. He is/was such a killer of inside stuff that nothing got past him I guess, since he could go the other way with the pitch with authority. His swing does work nicely in slow pitch softball, though

 

[chiefwahoo]

^ Good point about Hafner macbdog... guess I subconsciously forgot about him (even though I've seen him twice in person in the last couple months... and dude is much smaller than I expected).