White Sox great Frank Thomas will appear as a studio baseball analyst this season for Los Angeles-based Fox Sports 1, The Associated Press reports. While Thomas has done pregame and postgame analysis locally in Chicago for the last three years, he describes the new position as "more a call to the big leagues." The slugger also offered his thoughts on how deciding not to use PEDs may have impacted his career. "I probably lost another two MVPs. I lost probably another 150 home runs or so, if you think about it," Thomas assessed. Here's more late-night central notes:
- The Twins made Matt Garza a three-year, $42MM offer this offseason and were willing to add a fourth year as a vesting option, a club source tells 1500ESPN.com's Darren Wolfson. ESPN's Jerry Crasnick was the first to report the terms (via Twitter).
- Jaime Garcia of the Cardinals is scheduled for an examination of his throwing shoulder after experiencing pain this week, The Associated Press reports. GM John Mozeliak confirmed the development means Garcia is unlikely to be ready for the start of the season. The starter went down for surgery in May after doctors discovered a labrum tear in his left shoulder.
Wouldn’t the Twins offer give Garza the opportunity to make money while only risking 6 million. Even though that’s a lot he has made plenty of money.
Instead of, “how much did you LOSE by not taking steroids?” the question for Frank Thomas should be, “how much did you lose to steroid users?” And you might go with the 2000 MVP. Thomas came in 2nd behind known steroid user Jason Giambi. However, Thomas didn’t really deserve it either. Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Delgado were much better than Thomas that year. Thomas probably should have played in the All Star game in 2003 in front of his hometown fans, but that’s about it.
Thomas beat Arod in every category but Stolen Bases in 2000 but he only beat Delgado in Hr’s and rbi’s
ARod provided basically the same offensive production as Thomas from SS instead of 1B/DH while providing tremendous defense at arguably the toughest defensive position in the field.
One player played valuable defense, the other didn’t.
Makes for a huge adjustment
He may have lost 150 home runs, but he wouldn’t be in the hall…
Instead of asking yourself what “you lost by not using PEDs”, you should be thinking about what you “won” instead, Big Hurt. You were inducted into the Hall of Fame and have the respect of your peers and the people you’ve played with. That’s a lot more valuable than what others will ever have, in my opinion. Best of luck in your new job, Big Hurt.
My first thought was he “won” a FIRST BALLOT induction into the HOF.. I’d say in large part because there is no doubt he was clean. If he’d have been using he’d have at least played another 4-5 seasons but he’d probably never see the hall.
Sadly this isn’t anything new for Garcia. The guy is a great pitcher when healthy and calm. Being the lone southpaw in that stable of power arms makes the Cards a bit vulnerable. It makes me wonder if the Cardinals will take a flier on Johan Santana if the price is right.
good idea, moose
The cardinals are already way way overstocked in awesome young pitching and still are even after this injury. They still have 7 starting pitchers competing for 5 spots: Wainwright, Miller, Wacha, Kelly, Lynn, Martinez, and Lyons. And that’s not including Rosenthal and Manness who would be starting for practically any other team as well.
There’s no way we would do anything like that. You must not know anything about the Cardinals if you think they would take a flier on Santana.
Where would Santana fit?
ALL the men who did NOT use steroids during the PED era suffered by comparison with the juicers, and so their careers should be re-evaluated accordingly. The players who should be bumped up a couple of notches: Jim Edmonds, Derek Jeter, Fred McGriff, Carlos Beltran, Will Clark, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Mike Piazza, Scott Rolen …
Loved Frank as a player, but LA can have him if he is dissing local broadcasts like that, especially one that allowed him to get on TV even though he had no broadcasting experience. Guess he forgot who was broadcasting most of his games when he was playing (now Comcast sports). Stay ‘classy’ Frank.
As for the MVP thing, he did definitely lost one to the pill swilling Giambi.
Nice to see that the Garza rumors that were around for months were true. It would have been nice if they guaranteed him 4 years but I understand why they didn’t. Definitely wouldn’t have wanted a vested fifth year so the Brewers likely would have signed him anyway.