A word on Jim Thome
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A word on Jim Thome
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
MIAMI — Ten days ago, Ruben Amaro Jr. said he was fielding calls from American League teams regarding Jim Thome. The future Hall of Famer was recently removed from a terrific nine-game stretch as designated hitter. Now he was relegated to the bench.
It's easy to see what will eventually happen. So AL teams called Amaro.
"I may very well have [received calls]," Amaro said June 19. "Fact of the matter was he was great and exceeded everyone’s expectations — including mine. And honestly, he was fantastic and in some ways, it is a little bit of a disservice to have him sit there as a pinch hitter when he can't do much more than that.
"But we'll see what happens. Right now, I hope he gets a couple of chances to win some games, and then we’ll go from there."
Since then, Thome has won the Phillies one game with a walk-off home run. He is 1 for 6 as a pinch-hitter in the last 10 days with four strikeouts. For the season, he is 1 for 17 with 11 strikeouts.
He needs regular work, something that will not happen while with the Phillies.
Thome will not finish the season with the Phillies; Amaro said as much 10 days ago. Now an ESPN.com report has piqued the Internet's interest by changing "fielding calls about Thome" to "shopping Thome."
Not much is different. The Phillies would like to do Thome right by finding the best situation for a man with 609 homers and zero World Series rings.
The return for Thome will be limited. Perhaps the Phillies can have the acquiring team pay the remainder of his $1.25 million salary. Perhaps they could fetch, at best, a marginal prospect — emphasis on the word "marginal" and not "prospect."
Either way, this is about Thome, a man the Phillies respect immensely.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
- Thome has over 160 PH at-bats career. His career PH average is in the low 200's. The idea that he's going start on a new and better PH career at 41 is also ridiculous. A good PH can hit high 200's (Ross Gload, .270) and, more importantly, can also field since this is the NL. Remember how everyone was on Gload when he got hurt and couldn't run. He was "wasting a bench spot" since he could only hit. Thome wastes that bench spot without being injured and does it with a lower batting average. This is not an improvement.
Don't get me wrong. I like Jim Thome. It's nothing personal. He's just doing the Phillies very little good now that interleague play is over. It was a dumb move to make in the first place.
— s - Thome, mayberry and fragile Dom for a decent 8th inning reliever or two. That would go a long way to help what is wrong with thios team....THE BULLPEN!!!— Trot
- What about the World Series?— jtj06
- Another bad signing decision from the Phillie "brain trust" gone bust.
Jethro should have never been signed in the first place.— pajamas - Absolutely the Phillies have a shot at the World Series this season..the Cardinals stunk last season in the first half of the season, then added some players and got hot as a wild card and won the World series...Well now their is even an ADDITIONAL wild card spot this season,,plus the Phillies will get even better players back in the 2nd half, than the Cardinals did....Halladay, Utley and Howard are all GREAT players that return from injuries to the Phils in the 2nd half...plus you know Cliff Lee will not stay without a win in the 2nd half and retrun to the great playoff pitcher that he has been for years...so keep Thome we will need him as our DH in the World Series!— phil500
- @s says the Cardinals were 5 games over .500 this time last year. While maybe not world beaters, the Cards were certainly playing much better last year than the Phillies have played this year. It's always nice to have hope, but this particular hope appears to be overly-optimistic, I'm afraid.
— Sam Crow - They were also in second place in the NL Central and only one game out of the NL Central lead. They led that division several times and, if they ever dropped below .500, it was very brief. They had one losing month (June) and one .500 month (July) but at the end of every month they were over .500. The Phillies have one winning month so far this year (May) and that was also the only month they managed to end barely over .500.
But I know ... they're going to flip that switch and go on a run any day now.
It's pretty comical how history has been rewritten in Philadelphia regarding the 2011 Cardinals. They were a much better team than the one we've seen in Philly this year so far.
As some have noted, if they can start beating NL East teams maybe I'll be less of a cynic (or realist). But they've faced NL East teams 8 times so far and have one a whopping 3 of those series, going 10-and-24. So they're beating division teams at a slightly better than 40% rate, yet they have to go on a 60% win rate the rest of the year.
Maybe I'll drink the Kool-Aid if they win the next three series.— s 
A quirk in the scheduling gives the Phillies a whopping 48 games against the east out of the last 84 ... starting tonight.
These division games actually give the Phils a way to get back into the picture by catching and passing at least two playoff contenders.
It is critical that they gain ground in these next nine games.
Go Phils.— zubzub- bullpen— ALB328
- Whatever Phil500's smoking, it must be really good.— jermigio
- Come the 15th of July and this team is still spinning it's wheels in quicksand and playing bad ball, RAJ should realistically look at any and all offers on the table. This team is not fundamentally sound like the Tony LaRussa Cardinals team of last year, so I kind of wish those folks would forget about that comparison.— DelawareRiverRat
- What do you think will change in the next 2 weeks?
Seriously— fmMD - As I put in another thread:
Frankly, I would sit tight, not because I think they'll make the playoffs, but because Amaro will make things *worse* than they are now.
And yes, he can make it much worse.
All of this is predicated on the idea that Amaro will surly be canned after this season.— fmMD - This is quite an interesting development. If Thome had not performed to such astounding heights during the inter-league games, the Phillies would have no options but to keep him on the roster and the payroll. Because there is the option of him helping an AL team as a DH, Thome has helped the Phillies more than anyone could have expected. IF we can get at least a half way decent bullpen arm for Thome, it will be worth it. I will really miss Thome, but want to thank him for coming through and shining like the star he is during those inter-league games and raising his worth (and Phillies options for bullpen arms) simultaneously! Good luck JIM!— bingbangbong
- This is quite an interesting development. If Thome had not performed to such astounding heights during the inter-league games, the Phillies would have no options but to keep him on the roster and the payroll. Because there is the option of him helping an AL team as a DH, Thome has helped the Phillies more than anyone could have expected. IF we can get at least a half way decent bullpen arm for Thome, it will be worth it. I will really miss Thome, but want to thank him for coming through and shining like the star he is during those inter-league games and raising his worth (and Phillies options for bullpen arms) simultaneously! Good luck JIM!— bingbangbong
