I have not looked at five year stretches for any of the players.

I was responding to your assertion that "There have only been 2 or 3 right handed hitters that have ever played the game who were better than Frank Thomas."

Among Aaron, Mays, Foxx, Ramirez, Rodriguez and Pujols, which 3 or 4 would you say are not better right handed hitters than Frank?

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

There have only been 2 or 3 right handed hitters that have ever played the game who were better than Frank Thomas.

Nobody on that list did what Frank Thomas did in the early 90s.

Frank in his prime (early- mid 90s) was better than Arod, Manny, Pujols, and maybe even Aaron. Hank is the HR champ, but other numbers Frank might have been better.

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

How'd his arm for a 3rd sacker, Keyser?

Barring injuries, Beckham should not be in the majors before Sept. 1 this year.

I rarely troll.

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

As we sit here waiting for Manny Ramirez to sign a new contract, Bill Simmons of ESPN writes, “Manny is a handful of numbers away from being the greatest right handed hitter to ever play”. How do we evaluate that comment?

RBI’s? Hits? OPS? Batting Average? I am going to disagree with Bill. Manny is certainly great, but the best? I needed to find out for myself.

The problem with career statistics is that sometimes they only mean you hung around along time. A player can hang around 3-5 years, hit 15-20 home runs, drive in 60-75 runs, and add some big numbers onto a great 10-year run. We have all seen examples of this. We also have seen the opposite. Look at Joe DiMaggio losing more than four years to war. We can speculate as to what those years would of added up to. So we need a different stat.

OPS+ is clearly the best number that combines all things including measuring a player vs his place in time. OPS is on-base percentage plus slugging percentage.

If you don’t know what OPS+ is, here is the definition:

OPS+ is OPS adjusted for the park and the league in which the player played, but not for fielding position. An OPS+ of 100 is defined to be the league average. An OPS+ of 150 or more is excellent, and 125 very good, while an OPS+ of 75 or below is poor.

A common misconception is that OPS+ closely matches the ratio of a player’s OPS to that of the league. In fact, due to the additive nature of the two components in OPS+, a player with an OBP and SLG both 50% better than league average in those metrics will have an OPS+ of 200 (twice the league average OPS+) while still having an OPS that is only 50% better than the average OPS of the league.

Using OPS+ I’ve identified the top right-handed hitters of all-time. Let me add that there were three players tied for the ninth spot.

11) Joe Dimaggio OPS+ 155
Joe D’s career stats: .325 BA, 361 HR, 1,537 RBI, .977 OPS, .579 SLG, and three MVP awards. The thing that sticks out with him is the top five MVP finishes virtually every year. Give him those four missed years and maybe he gets 2,000 RBI’s. He was a amazing player in the mold of Albert Pujols.

10) Manny Rameriz OPS+ 155
Assuming Manny signs and plays three more seasons, he should reach 600 home runs and 2,000 RBI. I was a little surprised Manny’s OPS+ was only 155. Manny has been Aaron-like with consistency year after year. Manny has yet to win an MVP award. His career numbers to date are .314 BA, 527 HR, 1,725 RBI, 1.004 OPS, .593 SLG. Since this is just about hitting we won’t bring up Manny’s inability to play defense and his other baggage.

9) Hank Aaron OPS+ 155
.305 BA, 755 HR, 2,297 RBI, .929 OPS, .555 SLG, one MVP. Hammerin’ Hank has a model of consistency through his entire career. Never hitting 50 homers, hitting 40+ eight times, and 100 RBI 11 times. Aaron’s best OPS+ of 194 was at age 37 in Atlanta… He has the longest stretch between career-high OPS+ and second best OPS+ - a 13-year span.

Richie Allen, OPS+ 156
.292 BA, 351 HR, 1,119 RBI, .912 OPS, .534 SLG, one MVP award. Allen is probably the best hitter not in the Hall of Fame. Allen was a dominating force when pitching was king. His 199 OPS+ in 1972 was the third highest in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, only behind Mickey Mantle (1961), Norm Cash (1961), and George Brett (1980).

7) Frank Thomas, OPS+ 156
.301 BA, 521 HR, 1,704 RBI, .974 OPS, .555 SLG, two MVP awards. Thomas will go down as the greatest designated hitter in baseball history. An OPS machine until he started getting hurt, his seasons in the 1990s were amazing, including a 211 OPS+ in 1994 - the eighth highest OPS+ for a right handed batter in MLB history. “The Big Hurt” is the greatest hitter in White Sox history.

6) Willie Mays, OPS+ 156
.302 BA, 660 HR, 1,903 RBI, .941 OPS, .557 SLG, two MVP awards. Mays goes down as the second greatest all around player behind Babe Ruth in most polls. I would not argue that point. He has the second most homers and third highest RBI total among right-handed batters. Mays had five seasons of OPS+ over 170, and one season over 180. He also had two 30/30 seasons and was four homers away from a 40/40 year. When Jose Canseco accomplished his 40/40 year in 1988, Mays said if he knew it was going to be such a big deal he could of done it every year.

5) Hank Greenberg, OPS+ 158
.313 BA, 331 HR, 1,276 RBI, 1.017 OPS, .605 SLG, two MVP awards. Greenberg’s 183 RBI season fell just seven short of the MLB record, and his 58 home runs tied Jimmie Foxx as the most for an AL right-handed batter, a mark which still stands today. Greenberg lost four years to World War II, and was a hero to the Jewish community much as Jackie Robinson was later to African-Americans.

4) Mark McGwire, OPS+ 162
.263 BA, 583 HR, 1,414 RBI, .928 OPS, .588 SLG. McGwire had several amazing years including hitting 70 homers which is the most by a right-handed batter in MLB history. McGwire, never known as a great average hitter, had three seasons with OPS+ over 200 and one over 190. Big Mac has the fourth highest single-season OPS+ for a right handed batter in MLB history at 216 in 1998. He had seven seasons over 100 RBI. It should be noted that there is no proof at this date of McGwire doing anything illegal.

3) Jimmie Foxx, OPS+ 163
.325 BA, 534 HR, 1,922 RBI, 1.037 OPS, .609 SLG, three MVP awards. Foxx’s productive yearsr ended suddenly at age 33 due to back problems, but he had been one of basbeall’s best sluggers since his early 20s, so he still piled up an amazing ledger of achievement. “The Beast” had 13 straight years of over 100 RBI’s, and is the only right-handed batter to have a OPS+ of over 200 in consecutive years (1932-1933). Foxx, Dimaggio, Mike Schmidt, and A-Rod are the only RH batters to win three MVP awards.

2) Albert Pujols, OPS+ 170
.334 BA, 319 HR, 977 RBI, 1.049 OPS, .624 SLG, two MVP awards. Only eight years into his career, Pujols is on a DiMaggio-like pace. Where his career will go is unknown, but in his first eight seasons he has had over 100 RBI, scored 100 runs seven times, and ranks 17th all-time in batting average. Despite his tremendous power, he has yet to strike out 100 times. His worst OPS+ is 151. Albert could be standing with Mays, Ruth, and Honus Wagner as the best hitters ever on his current pace.

1) Rogers Hornsby, OPS+ 175
.358 BA, 301 HR, 1,584 RBI, 1.011 OPS, .577 SLG, two MVP awards. Hornsby topped 200+ OPS four Times, the only right-handed batter to do that. He’s the best second baseman of all-time, and has the highest career batting average for RH hitters. Over five seasons, from 1921 to 1926, he averaged .401, no other player has ever sustained such a high batting average for such a length of time. His .424 mark in 1924 is the highest on record for a RH batter since 1901. You could debate his 1922 season (.401 and 42 homers) was the greatest season ever by a RH batter. It ranks 16th all time in OPS+, and is the highest for a right handed batter since 1901

It's more fun to be a victim

There will never be an effective vaccine. I'll never get one anyway.

I have MANY years of experience in trying to appreciate steaming piles of dogshit.

Nix has a quad injury. Leaving the door open for Gordo!

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen officially named Chris Getz the club's starting second baseman on Saturday.

Now Ozzie needs to officially name Brian Anderson the starting center fielder, Clayton Richard the 5th starter and officially show Bartolo Colon the door.

PHOENIX - The White Sox optioned 2008 first-round pick Gordon Beckham to Double-A Birmingham.

"I had a lot of fun," Beckham said. "I think I've shown what I can do when I'm playing well. It was a blast."

Beckham will play shortstop for the Barrons.

The White Sox cut five other players to trim their spring roster to 33.

They optioned pitchers Adam Russell and Ehren Wassermann to Class AAA Charlotte and reassigned infielders Ben Broussard, Eider Torres and Beckham and left-hander Aaron Poreda to minor league camp.

The roster moves increased competition among some of the remaining players battling for a job.

Non-roster invitee Randy Williams could be in a prime spot to win a job as a left-hander to complement Matt Thornton.

Corky Miller and Donny Lucy are the finalists for the backup catching spot. Non-roster invitee Josh Kroeger has impressed the Sox's staff, but could be better positioned for a big league job later this season. Kroeger can play first base and left and right field.

http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports_hardball/2009/03/white-sox-send-beckham-to-double-a-to-play-shortstop.html

Beckham to play SS in AA ball.