Fun fact:
Wikipedia wrote:
He is part of an elite group of four players (including Mel Ott, Babe Ruth and Ted Williams) to have at least a .300 batting average, 500 home runs, 1,500 RBI, 1,000 runs and 1,500 walks in a career.
And my favorite article written about the Hurt:
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/artic ... uth-hurts/John Brattain wrote:
Frank Thomas isn’t a pure home run hitter a la Mark McGwire. He isn’t a pure singles hitter like Ichiro. He’s been as pure an all-around hitter as you’ll find. Probably the best example is this: Ted Williams enjoyed a rather remarkable skein early in his career. He had six consecutive seasons in which he hit at least .300, with at least 20 HR and 100 runs/RBI/walks. In 1997, Thomas did him one better and enjoyed his seventh consecutive .300 season, with at least 20 home runs and 100 runs/RBI/walks.
I’m not saying that make Thomas (who enjoyed 500+ more at-bats over their respective runs) is in the same stratosphere as Williams, but he wasn’t exactly miles away either:
Ted Williams (1941-42, 46-49) Frank Thomas (1991-1997)
BA/OBP/SLG R HR RBI BB
Williams .359/.505/.657 817 211 780 898
Thomas .330/.452/.604 746 250 823 835
It takes a very special type of hitter to pull that off. You have to have a great batting eye, discipline, power and be able to maintain your ability to hit with the pressure that comes when runners are on base. You also have to remain healthy. The fact only Williams and Thomas have been the only hitters to pull it off speaks volumes as to Thomas' greatness. Let’s not forget that his streak was not derailed by the players’ strike that shortened both the 1994 and 1995 seasons.
Of course we’re just dealing with a seven-year stretch of his career. What about his totals to date? How do they stack up historically? To really get a grasp on this (if indeed such a thing is possible) we need to use adjusted stats; numbers that are adjusted for both era and ballpark. They’re not perfect, but they do a better job than traditional stats. Two that I like to use are Baseball Reference’s adjusted OPS-plus (*OPS+) and Lee Sinins’ Runs Created Above Average (RCAA) in that they adjust for both park and era.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/artic ... uth-hurts/
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Douchebag wrote:
This thread is probably going to make Tim Raines want to do cocaine again.