Once Frank Thomas publicly ripped the Toronto management after news of his greatly reduced playing time, the Big Hurt's stay with the team was never going to end happily.
Even so, I was surprised the Jays cut him loose so quickly, proving Thomas right when spoke of the benching as a way of avoiding the $10m option for next season kicking in after a certain number of plate appearances.
I think the Jays were wrong to bench him and then cut him loose.
Yes, he's off to a slow start, but he's not the only player struggling, as other bloggers on this site have pointed out.
And surely if the Jays are going to compete strongly for a playoff place, they need all the big name hitters they can get.
Less surprising, however, was that Thomas was not out of work for long.
I was not expecting him to land with the A's, but either the Twins or Mariners.
Thomas would have been a good bat to add to the Minnesota lineup which, aside from Justin Morneau, doesn't have much power.
But as the Twins are in transition, you can understand why they would decide to give DH at-bats to guys like Jason Kubel, just to assess what they already have.
Seattle should have been on the phone to Thomas as soon as he was released. If they weren't, why the hell not?
Thomas would have been a good fit for the Mariners, adding an extra quality bat to a lineup which has some good hitters but, like Minnesota, doesn't have much power.
Even if Seattle thought Thomas's best days were behind him, which they likely are, do they really believe having Thomas as their DH would actually make no change to their team, and would be no better than giving at-bats to Jose Vidro instead?
I hope for Mariners fans that the team did strongly pursue Thomas only to lose out to Oakland.
There's not really much of an excuse otherwise after watching him join a divisional rival.
I agree with ya.
I have been calling for Seattle to hire Bonds all spring. When Thomas became available, they should have been all over him too.
The Angels are all beat up, and Seattle could make some serious headway in the division early, if they were just thinking smart.
Bringing Barry Bonds in will upset the fan-base for all of one week. After that initial wave of negative articles in the local rags, the fans will just get used to the big teddy bear standing at 1B two or three times a night.
The Mariners are being foolish.
I've always thought Bonds would be the most snug fit for the Angels but because of their OF logjam with Vlad seeing the DH role every now and then (and he gives a hissy-fit about it), there might not be room for him in an everyday role. Then again, squeezing in Bonds for 100 games would be a great fit for the Halos, but of course, Mike Scioscia's team-first personality would come to a head with Bonds, although I think much of which is ballyhooed by the media anyway. Plus, the Angels are surprisingly hitting for power early, which I wouldn't expect to last in the long run.
I kinda don't understand the A's picking up both Thomas and Rajai Davis off the wire at the same time. If they really had OF/DH needs, isn't Barry Bonds available? Aside from sb's he would provide much more offense (HR, AVG, BB, OPS, OBP) than both combined. Those guys are black too. Is there some other blacklist out there? Maybe the A's were just trying to prevent ANA and SEA from improving in their division (doubt it).
Blackball/ unspoken collusion
Bonds comes at a slightly higher price tag than Davis and Thomas did. Not saying he won't earn his paycheck, but I don't see Oakland being willing to pay Barry. I don't suspect collusion at this point.
I clearly do.
There is no doubt in anybodies mind that Seattle is in a run for a pennant this season. The idea that Bonds would somehow be a worse bat than Vidro is also not in doubt. At least I hope not.
So, Barry Bonds would equal 3-5 more wins THIS year to Seattle. A team that could clearly use those 3-5 more wins. Yet Seattle won't even look his way.
Nobody will, cus they have been told not to. The Owners have done it before, it has been proven. I don't understand why people have a hard time believing it isn't happening again.
It may not be a memo on MLB stationary, but it was implied, clearly, top down. Don't hire Bonds.
And its wrong
I nearly made this post when I first read the article, but I figured that this discussion always goes to a bad place and wanted to avoid it.
I don't see how the many doesn't have work at this point. Surely, he'd cause some type of a distraction from time to time, but I think a team who's in contention and may be a bat or so away can afford to put up with it for this season (Seattle).
No matter how bad of a guy Bonds is, which I also think is a bit overstated, he is still a great hitter when he's at the plate and considering some guys who go out there and play, it amazes me how hard it is for him to find a job.
It's really sad to see one of the, if not the best hitter of all time black balled for something that a lot of players are getting a pass with just because he isn't a nice guy and doesn't suck up to the people that matter.
Hopefully we're wrong and he gets picked up around the all-star break and continues to do what he always has done...hit.
with Wrveres. There is definetly collusion going on