1994 MVP at age 26: 109 walks, 61 strikeouts

For those of you who didn’t catch it, this post is a follow to my Then VS Now comparison of players back in the day who hit for power but struck out very little compared to sluggers of today like Mark Reynolds, Ryan Howard, and Adam Dunn who don’t care about contact and focus solely on hitting one out of the park.  Well, my step-dad brought up that discussion and weighed in on his thoughts about modern players VS guys back in his day and he brought up a VERY interesting exception: Frank Thomas.

Frank Thomas is a modern player with an identical build to Ryan Howard who hit for both historic power and an impressive average.  I would really recommend checking out both his bio and his stats, but if you’re too lazy to read either or both I’ll give you the highlights:

• One of 9 players all-time with 500+ home runs and a .300+ lifetime batting average
• One of 6 players all-time with 500+ home runs and 1600 walks
• Back to back AL MVP awards in 1993 and ‘94, first time that had happened in the AL since Roger Maris in 1960 and ‘61.  Would have won a third MVP in 2000, but was robbed by a juiced up Jason Giambi.
• One of 3 players all-time with 500 home runs and 120 sacrifice flies
• His 138 walks in 1991 were the most in any single AL season since Harmon Killebrew walked 145 times in 1969.
• In 1994, Thomas posted the highest slugging percentage in AL history
• In the strike shortened 1994 season, Thomas was threatening the triple crown by hitting 38 homers, driving in 101 RBI, posting a .353 average.  He was also leading the league in runs with 106 and walks with 109.
• His .729 slugging percentage in 1994 was the highest in the AL since Ted Williams posted a .731 in 1957
• His .494 on base percentage that year was also the highest in the AL since Ted WIlliams’ .528 in 1957
• Finished with all-time ranks of 18th in home runs, 21st in RBI, 24th in slugging percentage, and 4th in sacrifice flies

Now, I can go on all day about how great Thomas was, or how impressive his numbers were given that he was doing it clean in the middle of the steroids era, or how he was the only active player to give statements for the Mitchell Report, which he did voluntarily, or how he advocated for drug testing as early as 1995.  But for the purposes of this post, I’m going to point out his 1667 walks versus 1397 strikeouts.  I’m going to focus on that 4th all-time in sac flies stat.  I’m going to highlight his lifetime .301 average.  And then I’m going to compare those numbers to Ryan Howard.

2006 MVP at age 26: 108 walks, 181 strikeouts

Howard has 402 walks to 878 strikeouts.  That’s embarrassing.  He has a .278 career average, and has only hit .300 or better once.  He only has two seasons with an on base percentage better than .360.  And he was quoted last year after being criticized for his strikeouts as saying, “an out’s an out.”  I would like to point to Frank Thomas’s 121 sacrifice flies and let Ryan Howard know that those outs produces 121 runs for the Big Hurt’s teams over his career.  Runs that led to wins.  Runs that were produced because of Frank Thomas’s high contact rate.  There’s no reason for Ryan Howard or any other modern player to be striking out as much as they do, save for the effort and focus they need to put in to pitch selection and making good contact, versus trying to muscle the ball over the wall every time.  Frank Thomas never hit bombs.  He hit line drives that went over the wall because he was big enough and heavy enough to make them carry that far.  By doing so, he was able to hit for a high average and for tremendous power while walking significantly more than he struck out, moving runners over, going the opposite way, hitting RBI sac flies, and doing all the little things that complete players do to win.  Ryan Howard could do the same with his nearly identical body to Big Frank’s.  He just doesn’t care enough to try.

That jersey is yet to be worn by the player whose name is on it.

White Sox GM Kenny Williams has (somewhat) admitted to his bad gamble earlier in the season when he traded for the expensive failure known as Alex Rios and the always injured Jake Peavy.  Williams’ admission wasn’t verbal, as he decided to speak through actions instead.  That involved sending out a memo to all MLB teams telling them that certain high price veterans were available, including Jim Thome, Jermaine Dye, and Scott Linebrink.  This led to the Dodgers acquiring Thome off of waivers.  So how does this make the White Sox better?  It doesn’t.  It makes them younger and slightly cheaper.  Williams gambled pretty badly the last time around, and now he needs to cut his losses and move on.  Pretty smart given the circumstances, but that’s just because he made a mistake in the first place.  Again, I love the brazenness that Williams shows, but taking on two expensive and ineffective players the last time around was dumb.  Especially when one of them, Peavy, might not play for you at all this year.  At least Williams is smart enough to know how to get out of his own mess.

His stuff won't intimidate you, but it just might embarrass you.

Mark Beuhrle, fresh off of his perfect game in his last start, had another perfect game going through 5 innings tonight.  Although things unravelled for him in that 6th inning and he didn’t reach a second consecutive perfect game, which would have been one of the most improbable feats in baseball history, he did manage to set a major league record by recording 45 consecutive outs.  With Buerhle writing his name all over the baseball history books this week, I got to thinking: Is Mark Buehrle a Hall of Famer?  Let’s take a look at the evidence:

• A 133-91 record
• A 3.76 ERA and 1.258 WHIP
• Not a strikeout pitcher, he still boasts better than 2.5K/BB lifetime
• 200+ innings pitched in all of his 8 seasons as a starter, leading the league in innings twice
• At least one complete game in all 8 seasons as a starter, averaging 3 CG per season
• Routinely ranking in the top 10 in every AL pitching category other than strikeouts
• Twice led the league in starts and innings
• In his first year starting, he led the league in WHIP, had a 16-8 record, and threw 24 2/3 scoreless innings in a row in one stretch
• Works faster than any pitcher in baseball
• Pitched a game that lasted only 1 hour and 39 minutes, the shortest MLB game in over 20 years (striking out 12 batters)
• In 2006, he gave up 7 runs in the 1st inning, but hung on to win the game, the first time a pitcher had done that since 1900
• Had a streak of 49 consecutive starts that was only snapped when he was tossed for beaning BJ Surhoff in retaliation of the Baltimore pitchers beaning his teammates repeatedly
• In 2008, he led the majors in double plays induced
• In White Sox history, he currently ranks 5th in strikeouts, 6th in starts, 8th in wins, and 8th in innings pitched
• 4 All-Star appearances, including the starter in 2005
• A playoff record of 2-1 with an ERA of 4.11
• A complete game in the 2005 ALCS
• One quality start and one save in the World Series (on consecutive nights, which had never happened before in WS history)
• A World Series ring
• One No-Hitter
• One Perfect Game
• A MLB record 45 consecutive outs in 45 batters faced

Now, given that he’s only 30 years old and the way he’s pitching this year, Mark Buehrle still probably has some of his best years ahead of him.  If he continues on his career path thus far, he will approach 250 wins in 7 to 8 years.  Given his durability and lack of stress on his arm from his soft tossing, Buehrle should be able to pitch into his late 30s or beyond.  If the White Sox continue to contend, and there’s no reason they shouldn’t with Kenny Williams at the head, he should be able to add to his playoff resume, and maybe his World Series resume.

As it currently stands, he doesn’t get in.  But as his career stats start to pile up, and he continues to be the ace of a winning team, it will get a lot closer.  If he continues to write himself in the record book, though, the arguments against will start to seem arbitrary.  Buehrle almost had his first no-hitter in 2005 against Seattle, except he couldn’t get Ichiro out.  He no-hit the entire rest of the team, but Ichiro went 3 for 3, which says a ton about both players.  Even his no-hitter was only one walk away from being a perfect game, and right afterward he picked the guy off at first, meaning he still faced the minimum 27 batters.  What I’m saying is, there’s a high possibility that he could have another no-hitter or another perfect game at some point.  That would certainly seal the deal.  If not, I think a Cy Young award would do a lot to put him over the Hall of Fame hump (he’s never finished higher than 5th in voting), and with the way he’s pitching right now, it just might happen this year.  Let me know what you think of his chances, and where you see him in context of pitchers in this decade.

To check out his complete stats, go to Baseball-Reference.com