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Post by Philadelphia 76ers on Dec 1, 2007 14:40:14 GMT -5
Does anyone think he has a chance at a top 10 hitter? From 1990-1997, he was was probably better a hitter than Albert Pujols from 2001-2007 (182-167 OPS+ advantage, .12 raw OPS. advantage.) When you think about it, he probably had a top 5-10 hitters' peak ever. He's led the league in OPS. four times, OBP. four times, SLG once (with seven other top five finishes), and BB four times, to go along with numerous others. Does he have a top-10 hitter case
Here's some of the argument for him:
Thomas is 19th in career OPS+. Out of the 18 guys ahead of him, 8 had less than 1,500 less plate-appearances.
While is not really a deal-breaker for me, a lot of the guys on there had less league strength to work with. Again, it's barely a deal-breaker, but it's something to consider.
In terms of peak value, here is the top 10 OPS+ seasons compared to other historic hitter;
Thomas 211, 181, 180, 179, 178, 177, 177, 174, 163, 156
Musial 200, 183, 182, 180, 176, 175, 172, 169, 167, 166
T. Williams 235, 233, 217, 215, 205, 201, 192, 189, 189, 178
Lou Gehrig 221, 208, 203, 194, 194, 181, 177, 177, 176, 166
Ty Cobb 209, 206, 200, 196, 194, 194, 193, 190, 185, 179
I'm not gonna bother to do Ruth, since we can guess the results. This is how Thomas stacks up against the top five combination (IMO) of longevity/hitting guys, since you need longevity to accumulate the abundance of high top 10 OPS+ seasons. Considering that these guys are top-tier, there's no reason to think Thomas can't stack up (or at least put up a fight) against hitters 10-15
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Post by Atlanta Hawks on Dec 2, 2007 18:20:02 GMT -5
Yeah I do think he's one of the best hitters ever. Didn't he have a streak of 100 walk, .300 avg, 100 runs, 100 rbi, 40 doubles, along with a high slg., ops., and obs? There were only two or three others that did that EVER.
I still wish '94 wouldn't have been cut short. So many records were about to fall and Thomas and Griffey were having ridiculous seasons.
He may not have huge power numbers but he was a complete hitter for almost a decade.
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