Comments on: Bye Bye Matt Thornton

By: pensive

pensive — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 07:42:06 +0000

Petagine would seem to be the best choice as DH. Perhaps as pointed out in an earlier thread as early as early June Everett may have worn out his welcome or will be reasonable trade bait in July to contender.

By: The Ancient Mariner

The Ancient Mariner — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 00:54:01 +0000

Frankly, I’d rather give the DH job to IbaÃ±ez, whose glove qualifies him there, give the LF job to Borchard, and trade Everett back to the White Sox.

And may I just say, btw, that the one thing I really dislike about this move is that I’ve never been able, name-wise, to keep Joe Borchard and Curtis Borchardt straight?

By: Evan

Evan — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 19:48:48 +0000

Frankly, I’d rather give the DH job to Borchard than Everett.

By: DMZ

DMZ — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 17:40:36 +0000

Here’s another way to think about this: the M’s had a nearly-useless player in Thornton. Whatever he can do is duplicated by other, better players already with the team. Maybe he’ll be a star, but it’s pretty unlikely. Maybe he’ll be a regular, but that’s also unlikely.

Borchard is the same thing, but for the White Sox. For the Mariners, he’s still nearly useless, except that if they can figure out how to teach/drill/otherwise use him such that they get marginal usefulness out of him, he’ll be worth a lot more to them than a marginally useful Thornton would be.

Even if it’s a bust, this is a nice little move.

By: The Ancient Mariner

The Ancient Mariner — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 17:06:17 +0000

Yeah, Borchard as a hitter looks a lot like Thornton as a pitcher. The thing is, in their other dimension (fielding), Borchard’s a lot more valuable, especially to this club, where we have a crying need for a bench OF who’s actually competent in the field. As long as he can do two things — play LF/CF/RF better than Wee Willie, and outhit him, both of which seem well within his grasp — he’ll be an asset. That might be more of a comment on the M’s than on Borchard, but there you go.

By: ray

ray — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 10:18:18 +0000

Don’t worry. Thornton will magically improve his pitching and put up a 3.5-4.0 ERA in relief with less walks and more K’s.

BTW, congrats to Ichiro and Team Japan. Nice victorty!

By: brianekst

brianekst — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 09:54:39 +0000

Sorry, the point of me saying that I stopped reading at post number 25 was to point out that someone else might have already informed you guys that Borchard is a switch hitter and not a right handed hitting outfielder.

By: brianekst

brianekst — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 09:53:01 +0000

I stopped reading all the replies at about number 25 or so, but as a Sox fan who has watched Joe Borchard not realize his potential over the last 5 and a half years I can safely tell you a couple of things:

1. Joe Borchard is definitely a switch hitter.
2. I know very little about Thornton, but from what I have read here and elsewhere, he basically IS Joe Borchard, only a pitcher. I was at the game where Joe Borchard hit the longest HR in the Cell’s history. Don’t let this fool you. He can’t touch a breaking pitch, and can’t recognize the difference between a fastball and a breaking pitch. This basically equates to Thornton’s complete lack of control.

Basically, both players are out of options and weren’t going to make their respective clubs coming out of camp, so the teams swapped junk for junk in hopes that they could get something decent out of them. I doubt either team will get anything decent out of either player. In short, it might be a net positive to get rid of Thornton, but don’t count on anything from Borchard. Be ecstatic if he’s ever a decent fourth outfielder, but don’t count on it.

By: BelaXadux

BelaXadux — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 09:40:31 +0000

“Getting something useful for nothing” has been a consistent skill of B. Bavasi and his talent team, and this is another instance which I applaud. Thornton was _not_ going to make the Ms, but this is the example of why I wasn’t in favor of him being waived or non-tendered over the winter as there was some call for. Not only is there often a greater fool, sometimes the other guy is, in fact, desperate: the Chisox have bullpen woes, and a semi-useless bullpen arm looks like something of value to them. The Ms wanted Borchard in the Garcia deal, purportedly. At least Kenny Bigguy made use of his mouth in the press at the time, lauding Joe Borchard as untradeable. Tired of seeing him now, _I_ guess.

The Ms actually do need a somewhat useful outfield reserve at this point, with Bohn being not quite ready and Jones as not sensibly in the picture yet. Mike Morse has an idea of how to hit—but no high rate of contact, no power, no speed, and no defense whatsoever. Borchard is an experienced outfielder with some positives. Whether he _ever_ becomes a credible major-leaguer isn’t the point; he’s not starting now, and probably never will. He fills a need better than anyone available in the organization. Which is more than one can say regarding the departed Matt Thornton. QED.

Sherrill all but certainly has made the team then, yeah, and that’s a good thing. He’s having a crappy spring, but his talent is real, and of a much higher caliber than Thornton will likely ever produce. It’s a win-win-win transaction, as long as we see the ‘w’s in the lower case. I’m hoping the Ms can also hold onto Luis el Dodger, but it may take cutting a deal with that organization to bring it off.

By: Mr. Egaas

Mr. Egaas — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 08:49:43 +0000

Interesting. But I like.

Plenty of LOOGYs in camp and Thornton has been a thorn in my side for a while now. I was just going through Baseball Prospectus the other day looking at Borchard and saw some potential there. I was wondering what we would for a reserve righty outfielder, and this clogs that hole. Who knows, if he starts hitting, he could start in left more often than not.

If Grover wants to sit Reed vs. the lefties there’s another option that’s not Mike Morse or Willie Ballgame, and I like that.