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Big Impact Player


Guest wsc425

  

19 members have voted

  1. 1. Big Impact Player

    • Aaron Rowand
      0
    • Miguel Olivo
      0
    • Frank Thomas
      16
    • Carlos Lee
      1
    • Dan Wright
      1


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Thomas...without a doubt in my mind....if he hits well, our offense is better than it was in 2000. If he doesn't....the offense doesn't. Valentin will hit .240 or .250 if Thomas doesn't perform....Jimenez will probably hit a little worse, Olivo won't develop offensively quite as fast, Rowand then doesn't....etc. It is a chain reaction. When you have a bat that is as good as Thomas's when he is healthy and hitting well.....your whole team is better. Why in the hell do you think we had any success at all from 1995-1999? BECAUSE OF THOMAS.....his bat alone made the team twice as good(not statistically, but you get what I'm saying)

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Its got to be Thomas. If he steps up to his prior form, aka two time MVP form, then this will be the most potent offense in the majors and could compete as one of the greatest of all time. Of course other things would still have to fall into place and guys like Maggs, PK, etc would have stay healthy.

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Its got to be Thomas.  If he steps up to his prior form, aka two time MVP form, then this will be the most potent offense in the majors and could compete as one of the greatest of all time.  Of course other things would still have to fall into place and guys like Maggs, PK, etc would have stay healthy.

3 time MVP -- the voters gave Giambi a present in 2000...

 

In any case, if Frank can get his groove back, Jose will get more fastballs to hit, which will make his numbers skyrocket. Then, D'Angelo will see more fastballs, which will make his OBP skyrocket. Then, Mags, Paulie, Carlos, and of course Frank himself will have opportunities up the ying-yang to drive in runs.

 

For those reasons, I think he'll be the key to our offense.

 

However, for the team as a whole, I think Jon is going to have to break out of his mediocrity shell and finally live up to his potential. He had a pretty decent season last year, but as we saw in the game at Fenway, he's capable of much more. Plus, Bartolo and Mark aren't going to be able to do it all by themselves.

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Frank can carry the team like no one I have ever seen (I think I posted that elsewhere recently). I see your point, but if Jimenez has a tough year he is replacable but if Frank has a tough year the whole offense suffers with him. Frank has a great year and everyone does.

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Frank can carry the team like no one I have ever seen (I think I posted that elsewhere recently).  I see your point, but if Jimenez has a tough year he is replacable but if Frank has a tough year the whole offense suffers with him. Frank has a great year and everyone does.

Thats the thing, I don't really think Jimenez is replaceable. Thats why I'm scared when it comes to the top of the lineup. Yes, we have Willie Harris, the only other guy truly capable of leading off, but he hasn't shown me a thing that proves he could leadoff. I think Jimenez can do it, but we don't really know.

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No doubt Thomas need to step up. After having an average of .252 last year and an OBP of .361, Thomas needs to improve immensly noting that his career average in .314 and career OBP is .432. Thomas is an extremely talented player and with the highest active career OBP of any player, he needs to step up in order to keep that title. After being uninjured for about a year and a half, there is no excuse that Thomas should not be where he was in 2001 with stats of 43-143-.328.

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Thats the thing, I don't really think Jimenez is replaceable.  Thats why I'm scared when it comes to the top of the lineup.  Yes, we have Willie Harris, the only other guy truly capable of leading off, but he hasn't shown me a thing that proves he could leadoff.  I think Jimenez can do it, but we don't really know.

So if Jimenez is injured and out for a few weeks/months, what will we do?

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No doubt Thomas need to step up. After having an average of .252 last year and an OBP of .361, Thomas needs to improve immensly noting that his career average in .314 and career OBP is .432. Thomas is an extremely talented player and with the highest active career OBP of any player, he needs to step up in order to keep that title. After being uninjured for about a year and a half, there is no excuse that Thomas should not be where he was in 2001 with stats of 43-143-.328.

To me thats whats so amazing. Thomas had that bad of a season, yet his OBP was still rather impressive and you can't laugh at his homer or rbi totals. This guy was absolutely horrible, yet he still did all that. This guy is capable of having his best year of his career right now, kind of a Bonds like type season. If there was any player in the majors that I think could do something like that, it would be Thomas because of his great batting eye, his great power, and the fact that he can really hit for avg.

 

I'm starting to think he could hit 50 hr's this year, especially since Comiskey is more of a hitters park than it ever was when he was having his MVP seasons.

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Thats the thing, I don't really think Jimenez is replaceable.  Thats why I'm scared when it comes to the top of the lineup.  Yes, we have Willie Harris, the only other guy truly capable of leading off, but he hasn't shown me a thing that proves he could leadoff.  I think Jimenez can do it, but we don't really know.

So if Jimenez is injured and out for a few weeks/months, what will we do?

i guess we'll have to bat willie then :huh:

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If Jimenez went down for an extended period of time...we have Harris, Graffy, Hummel, Miles, Yan, and more that can play 2B and hit leadoff at the same time....with Yan and Harris having the best speed and Hummel, Graffy and Miles being OBP guys.

 

As I said before....Thomas needs to step up. Period.

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Garland is another one.

Garland is THE one. Colon and Buehrle, injuries and breakdowns not withstanding, should be able to each win around 20. Imagine if our number 3 has his breakout year this year and could win 15-16 along with Colon and Buehrle's 20. That happens, the AL Central will be ours.

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Garland won what, 12 last year- given that he should be improving and all the rest, he better win at least 15-16.

You would think, wouldn't you Vince..... at least we'd hope. The only thing about Garland though is his inconsistency. He has to reverse the trend and be consistent from the get-go this season. If he finds a consistent groove, 15, 16, hell..... 20 isn't out of the question. But if it's the same old JG that we've become accustomed to the last 2 seasons, it'll be one one-hit SO followed by one 1 1/3rd's of 8-hit, 6 ER baseball. JG can't have that this year if we hope to make the playoffs and win the AL Central.

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If Jimenez went down for an extended period of time...we have Harris, Graffy, Hummel, Miles, Yan, and more that can play 2B and hit leadoff at the same time....with Yan and Harris having the best speed and Hummel, Graffy and Miles being OBP guys.

 

As I said before....Thomas needs to step up.  Period.

We also have Nunez. I like that guy quite a bit as a utility player. I'm surprised not as many have mentioned him. He could really take a job away from Harris. The only reason I think we carry Harris is because he can play center. If he couldn't, I think we'd have Nunez up here.

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