Big Hurt’s Back

Frank Thomas was one of the best free agent signings Oakland has made in the Billy Beane era. He was simply a monster in 2006 – a main reason the A’s made the playoffs and advanced to the ALCS – and at such a cheap price tag. How will Big Hurt 2.0 shake out?

The biggest storyline of this signing is that the A’s front office truly believes it can win this season. Every move the club has made over the past few weeks has indicated that, but this is shouting out loud for the whole AL West to hear. I hope it’s not premature (the A’s hover around first, but they were about the same at this point last season).

The next best thing about this is the price tag: $337,000, which could be worth it if Thomas produces just one good month.

So here’s the bad news: To make room for the Big Hurt, the A’s showed their big hurts. Travis Buck was sent to the 15-day DL. Maybe he’ll emerge from the list and from his slump in a week or two. Eric Chavez was put on the 60-day DL – upsetting but not surprising.

Then there’s the jumble Thomas creates. He’s a right-handed DH. So is Mike Sweeney, arguably the A’s best hitter so far. If you can wrap your head around this, Sweeney is this year’s Frank Thomas of 2006 (aging hitter, coming off injury-prone seasons, signed by the A’s after a nice career for one team, given a small, incentive-based salary with hopes that he can stay healthy enough to provide some punch). So what does that make the Frank Thomas of 2008?

So the lefty, sometime DH, Jack Cust is going to have to play more outfield (yikes!),and Sweeney will have to play a bit of first base, not a bad proposition, though it will limit the at bats of regular first baseman Daric Barton, who is a candidate for rookie of the year.

Either this all works like a charm, or Thomas doesn’t get the plate appearances he demands and gets grumpy, Cust looks like a fool on defense, and Sweeney and Barton spend too much time platooning. Oh, and the rest of the team spends at least 30 days on the DL; don’t count that out.