Was he clean?  If so it’s a tremendous feat.  Does 600 home runs make him a Hall of Famer? Let’s discuss

SCOTT JACOBS

To give you an idea of the watered down state of home runs and our Quiz Show-esque perception of them — mainly that we look afar with untrustworthy eyes  — Jim Thome reaching the 600 home run plateau is something we want to celebrate.  But we’ve been down this road before, and we’ve been snakebitten by too much trust before.  So it seems shallow of us to automatically hail him one of baseball’s good guys — even though I very much believe in my heart that he is.

That said, let’s assume for a second that Thome has played his fantastic career entirely clean, because well,  that’s what we all really want.  Let’s assume Thome played the right way, and that his power wasn’t a mirage of PED’s.  Let’s assume he was just that kind of power hitting freak, the type of player who comes around only a handful of times a generation.  Afterall, 600 home runs has only been accomplished eight times.

Let’s pretend that the Steroid Era didn’t happen and let’s judge Thome for who he is, and the numbers he has put up, during a long successful career that dates back to 1991.  Let’s assume he’s innocent.

Because if he is, Thome’s numbers speak for themselves.  On the surface 600 home runs are impressive in it and of themself, but there’s more than just that eye opening number.  Thome is the epitome of consistency.  He’s not one of those polarizing figures that lives in the spotlight, and he’s never been confused for someone outspoken.  Instead, over the course of three decades and counting he’s gone about his business and delivered the goods, when he’s healthy.

Consider this nugget of a stat:

When Jim Thome has played 100 games or more in a season (which amounts to 16 seasons) he has hit no less than 20 home runs in any given year.  That’s 16 seasons!  More impressive numbers: Thome hasn’t always been healthy, but when he has played 140 games or more in a season (which is 10 seasons) he has 33 home runs or more ever year.  That’s impressive.

Thome has 6 seasons of 40 home runs or more.

According to baseball-reference.com, averaged out over the course of a 162 game schedule, Thome’s career numbers are as follows (again this is averaged out)

40 HR a year.  Hard to dispute that.
110 RBI a year. That’s pretty good.
149 hits a year
.277 average

Those are all pretty good numbers, but are they Hall of Fame caliber?  Thome has never been league MVP, but he’s almost always been in the discussion. 9 years, Thome was in the top 20 balloting for league MVP. He’s a 5 time All-Star.  But he also has more strikeouts than any active player.  That reeks of a guy who’s a streaky power hitter.

Which is what Thome pretty much is.  He’s always been a power hitter in the middle of a team’s lineup who provides pop, strikes out a lot, and walks more than any active player.  He has always been a home run threat, obviously you have to be to get to 600 home runs.

First ballot?  No.  But he’s an elite home run hitter, who if clean, deserves to be enshrined. Just think where the Cleveland Indians of the 90’s would have been without him?  Which is the other question: what kind of value did he bring to his teams?  A lot I say.  He was the type of guy in his prime who you walked if you had an open base and didn’t want him to beat you.

No one will confuse him for being a five tool player.  His defense has never been confused for anything extraordinary, and he didn’t exactly show Jose Reyes-esque range.  But no one ever asked him to.  Club balls into the seats, get walks, and start rallys.  In that sense, he did his job.

At 6′3, 250 pounds Thome was a tower of power.  Which is why Cooperstown will soon come a calling, after his career is through.  Assuming, once again, that he’s clean.

Photo: Reuters

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