www.baseballyarn.com   The Frank Thomas Enigma (Part I)
a baseballyarn investigation 		  www.baseballyarn.com
Career Batting Averages
  • .341 Bill Terry
  • .340 George Sisler
  • .340 Lou Gehrig
  • .337 Frank Thomas
  • .325 Jimmy Foxx
  • .313 Hank Greenberg
  • .312 Johnny Mize
    • Hall of Fame First Basemen
  • When you look at baseball's elite first basemen. . .
  • . . . you'll see Frank Thomas ranks with the very best
  • He batted .337 as a White Sox first baseman (969 games)
  • Trouble is, his average was much lower as a designated hitter
  • He played 959 games as the Sox DH and batted .278
  • This disparity surfaced early in his career, and held true until. . .
  • . . .the end-- and nobody knew what to do about it!
    • Career Batting Averages
  • .310 Jim Bottomley
  • .297 George Kelly
  • .297 Orlando Cepeda
  • .287 Eddie Murray
  • .279 Tony Perez
  • .270 Willie McCovey
  • .256 Harmon Killebrew
    • Each of Frank's 5 Sox managers juggled him between 1B and DH in wildly different proportions
    under Jeff Torborg
    (1990-1991)
  • Bats .321
  • Bats .316 at 1B (107 games)
  • Bats .326 as DH (109 games)
  • Plays 1B 49% of the time
    • under Gene Lamont
    (1992-1995)
  • Bats .328
  • Bats .331 at 1B (433 games)
  • Bats .289 as DH (22 games)
  • Plays 1B 95% of the time
    • under Terry Bevington
    (1995-1997)
  • Bats .337
  • Bats .352 at 1B (297 games)
  • Bats .288 as DH (100 games)
  • Plays 1B 75% of the time
    • under Jerry Manuel
    (1998-2003)
  • Bats .283
  • Bats .336 at 1B (128 games)
  • Bats .272 as DH (635 games)
  • Plays 1B 17% of the time
    • Previous screen Note-- Under Ozzie Guillen, Thomas played 1B in 4% of his starts,
    (4 games at 1B, 93 as DH) and had an overall average of .258     		Next screen
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