Big Hurt done with baseball?

[General]

USA Today is reporting that Frank Thomas may not play baseball again.
The publication said his ankle injury will require further surgery that will end his career. However, the doctor who performed his surgery last fall, Richard Ferkel, said last week that Thomas will wear a cast to see if the injury can heal without another surgery.

[Boris13c]

I really liked Frank Thomas.

I didn't like the public feuding between him and the management, but hey, this is a management group that flushed our season down the toilet a few years back, while the team was only a game and a half out at the All Star break. So I found it hard to find a good guy on either side of that dispute. Thomas was not performing particularly well at the time, and the front office was the clusterf*ck I had come to loathe.

I have no hard feelings towards Thomas though. Won't rank him as one of my all time greats or favorites, but thought he was a qulaity player for us. I wish him well.

[Dam8610]

Frank Thomas is one of the greatest players ever to put on a White Sox uniform. That said, I think it's over for him. As long as he can make the roster, I'd still keep him on the team (always nice to have a power threat, even if he can't hit anything but HRs), but if I were him, I'd retire. I think he's a hall of famer, especially when you consider the circumstances of his career (94 strike taking a large portion of his best season, playing in the juiced era as a clean player, etc).

[awefullspellare]

I never realized he led the league in OBP 4 times. That's pretty impressive for a HR hitter. Carreer OPS of .996 is really nice. All but one player who has had a shot at the hall with one over .945 has gotten in and that guy had a .9451.

I'd put him in.

[Boris13c]

I never realized he led the league in OBP 4 times. That's pretty impressive for a HR hitter. Carreer OPS of .996 is really nice. All but one player who has had a shot at the hall with one over .945 has gotten in and that guy had a .9451.

I'd put him in.

The only reason I'd hesitate about HoF talk is that he spent a big deal of his time accumulating those stats as a Designated Hitter. How many DH's are in the HoF? I ask because I really don't know.

As for his fielding, he would sometimes pull one out of his butt at first, but generally was quite average at best.

So does his ability with the bat outweigh the fact he did not spend his career as a full time player?

Should DH's be given extra consideration from just the hitting aspect as far as qulaifying for the HoF?

As I said, I liked Big Frank. And I wish him the best.

But I'm just not sure about whether he could be considered a great player.

[redsrbetter]

Good points Boris. I think he could definitely be considered a great player. but as far as the HOF goes, it could be argued either way. i think Edgar Martinez would be in the same category as Frank Thomas. Both could hit extremely well, but spent more than half of their careers as a DH. Even if I were to vote for these guys, it would be hard for me because I respect the defensive side of the game a lot more than most people do. But their is no way to look past their ability to get it done at the plate.