We are currently reading Joe Posnanski’s great book, The Baseball 100, and we just read the chapter on Hall of Famer Frank Thomas, who was #74 in the book.

Thomas was a tremendous hitter, perhaps the closest thing to Ted Williams in the last 50 years. Williams is the all time leader in on base percentage at .4817 and none of the players between him and Thomas, ranked 21st at .4191 all finished their career before 1972 save for Barry Bonds, whose statistics are tainted (to us).

Williams is second all-time in slugging at .634 behind Babe Ruth, and Thomas is 22nd at .555 although several of the players from recent times between the Splendid Splinter and The Big Hurt (Bonds, Mark McGwire, Manny Ramirez, and Juan Gonzalez) and also suspected of using PEDs.

There are also a few who haven’t been linked. Those players are Mike Trout, Larry Walker, and Albert Belle.

We continue to hope Belle gets consideration from the Veterans’ Committee, and someday can be inducted into Cooperstown.

At the time both were playing, we always felt Thomas took walks, and so did Belle, but Belle would expand the strike zone when it came to getting runners home. He wouldn’t swing at bad pitches but would put the borderline pitch into play to put a run on the board.

The fact the Sox and the Tribe were rivals for the division title in the strike year of 1994 and on into 1996, makes the comparison move inevitable.

Belle is two years older than Thomas, and of course had his career cut short by a hip injury after the 2000 season when he was just 33 years old.

The right-handed slugger had 95 RBIs in his first full big league season in 1992, and that was the lowest total he had until he retired. He led the AL in ribbies in ’93, ’95, and ’96, the last of those years knocking in 148, before leaving Cleveland as a free agent.

Thomas finished second to Belle in that category in ’93 trailing by just one run knocked in. He drove in 109 in first full year in 1991, the first of eight straight years eclipsing the century mark. He never did lead his league in this department.

He did lead the AL in walks, on-base percentage, and OPS four times from ’91 to ’97. On the other hand, Belle led the Junior Circuit in homers once and runs scored once.

And of course, he had the epic season in 1995 when he hit 50 dingers and 52 doubles during the season (shortened to 144 games by labor issues).

Thomas won two league MVPs, Belle none, although in retrospect, he should have won in ’95 but his attitude with the writers did him in.

When Belle left Cleveland for free agency after the ’96 season, he teamed with Thomas for two seasons, but Chicago won just 80 games both years. The pitching wasn’t good and the Pale Hose didn’t have much offensive talent beyond these two great hitters.

The latter year, Chicago ranked 14th in the AL in ERA.

After his rookie year, Thomas never struck out more than he walked until 2002 when he was 34 years old. Belle didn’t walk as much, but after fanning 128 times in his first full season (’93), he never whiffed more than 105 times in a season again.

These two weren’t wild swing for the fence guys. They were both good hitters who hit with power.

We can’t help but think about Belle when Thomas’ name comes up. What would Belle’s numbers have been had he played two more years, three more years?

It’s fun to think about.