Diminished skills

[nyy26wc]

1) The Whitesox notified Frank Thomas that they will invoked his "diminished skills" clause. This moves reduces his salary to $300,000 (his contract says it would be $250,000, but the minimum was raised by the new CBA), with the remainder of his pay deferred. Thomas has the right to became a free agent for 45 days and if he doesn't sign with someone else, he could return to the Whitesox.

Thomas had a good season in 2002, except by his former standards and by that useless stat of AVG. Thomas hit .472 SLG, .361 OBA, .834 OPS, 17 RCAA in 148 games and has a 1.000 career OPS, compared to his league average of .762, and 722 RCAA in 1698 games.

Career OPS leaders--

1    Babe Ruth                 1.164   
2    Ted Williams              1.116   
3    Lou Gehrig                1.080   
4    Jimmie Foxx               1.038   
5    Barry Bonds               1.023   
6    Hank Greenberg            1.017   
7    Rogers Hornsby            1.010   
8    Manny Ramirez             1.010   
9    Frank Thomas              1.000   
10   Mark McGwire               .982   

Career OBA leaders--

1    Ted Williams               .482   
2    Babe Ruth                  .474   
3    Billy Hamilton             .455   
4    Lou Gehrig                 .447   
5    Rogers Hornsby             .434   
6    Ty Cobb                    .433   
7    Frank Thomas               .432   
8    Jimmie Foxx                .428   
9    Barry Bonds                .428   
10   Tris Speaker               .428   

2) The Royals released minor league P Orber Moreno.

Moreno was once considered their show up in the 9th inning pitcher of the future, before he had Tommy John surgery. He has 7 games of major league experience, back in 1999, with a 5.62 ERA/-1 RSAA in 8 IP.

3) The Brewers outrighted P Jose Mieses to the minors. The minor leaguer had been removed from the 40 man roster when he was designated for assignment last week.

4) Brewers P Chad Fox and OF Ryan Christenson refused their assignments to the minors and became free agents.

5) The Rockies hired Sandy Alomar Sr. (3B), Jamie Quirk (bench), Dave Collins (1B) and Rick Matthews (bullpen) as coaches.

6) The Tigers hired Kirk Gibson as bench coach.

7) According to New York Newsday, "One of the first things Lou Piniella would do if he becomes Mets manager is try to hire vaunted Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone to oversee the Mets' pitchers, a person close to Piniella said."

8) The Pirates claimed P Jim Mann off waivers from the Astros.

Lee -

I would think Frank is a certain inductee into Baseball Immortals - but for a candidate of his nature - how do you take late-career declines into effect when determining a candidates worthiness? Say Frank (or any candidate who had really reached extreme levels of production) had two or three bad years at -25 RCAA.. And these seasons dropped him of several career RCAA lists... would that put him on the bubble? Or would the body of work leading up to it overshadow the freefall?

[nyy26wc]

With everything he's already accomplished, Thomas is a lock for Baseball Immortals. I'd say it would take 4 consecutive Neifi Perez -50 RCAA seasons just to knock him into the questionable category. Then, even if that was to happen, he'd still be in the 500 RCAA club.

In other words, his selection is going to be a mere formality.

[Skip]

If that's true, why isnt he there already? I am unclear on the criteria. Your posted rules in the FAQ say "A player had to play at least 10 years & be retired for at least 1 year, except active players become eligible when they reach 40. But, to be elected as an active player, a player is held to a higher standard than a 1st ballot candidate."

Bonds, Rickey, and Raines are already in and (with Bonds obviously) the latter two cases were in before age 40 I think. As I recall, Ripken, McGwire, and Gwynn were also in pre-retirement and pre-40. I could be wrong here, just asking for clarification on something that pops up into my mind once in a while.

[JamesI]

If I recall correctly, Lee changed his criteria so active players were not able to be elected. Players like Henderson, Ripken, et al were grandfathered in.

[poorme]

i guess it's fairly obvious, but there's no way thomas would put up -25 RCAA numbers. the only thing he contributes is offense. if he's that bad, he's not playing.

[nyy26wc]

Originally posted by JamesI
If I recall correctly, Lee changed his criteria so active players were not able to be elected. Players like Henderson, Ripken, et al were grandfathered in.

That's right.

[hmrsf]

Lee thanks for the numbers. Sometimes I hate the English language. We say these stinging words. Is it Thomas fault that dumb/smart owners and greedy agents wrote awful/good contracts? Thomas numbers puts in a league of baseball IMMORTALS! Have his numbers declined? Yes. Can he still contribute? Yes! The problem is a communication problem. Press needs to sell papers. Truth and good news is considered boring, but here it is:


Baseball is turning a new page. The new labor agreement has players and management willing work together in a newer way. Get ready for a paradymne shift! This is not a bad thing. Baseball has been saved, the general public just does not know it yet.