250. Try for home run, fail.
249. Leg crushed by bus.
248. Hair on fire.
...
156. Try for home run, hit single.
...
85. Try for home run, hit home run.
84. Try for home run, accidentally sacrifice runner on first to 2nd.
83. Caught stealing (aggressive!)
...
22. Try to sac bunt, fail.
21. Try to move runner from 1st to 2nd with grounder to right side, hit into DP
...
13. Properly execute sac bunt.
...
4. Properly execute double steal.
3. VJ Day
2. Orgasm lasting for eternity.
1. Properly execute hit and run.

As always, I kid. I kid because I love.

when pitchers are executing, as you say, almost all hitters are going to be sure outs. not too many players routinely hit good pitches. these guys make their living on mistakes. thome makes more than most because when guys make a mistake to him, he frequently hits home runs. you can’t expect anyone to produce offensively when a pitcher is throwing well and locating, but you’d like to be able to capitalize when he isn’t.
pitcher’s pitch: thome k’s. owens grounds out.
mistake pitch: thome hits a homer. owens hits a single.
know what i mean?

I know what you mean to some extend. But I think your point is too over-generalized. The pitcher’s mistake has to be this fat-big-over-the-middle-of-the-plate pitch that will get destroyed by Jimmy. But what about poorly located pitches that can be hit by the reach, something thrown inside “on hands”: none of these things I have seen Thome do in recent memory.

Again, I hate talking about this great guy like this … but the conversation is worth to be had.

for all the guff that Thome has gotten this year, I don’t think Konerko has gotten half of it despite the fact that he’s (Konerko) been much more of a detriment to the Sox’ offense than Thome has been. Is that because Konerko’s had the hand injury? Or am I completely off-base in my assertion altogether?

Going forward, Konerko might just be this team’s biggest problem—two-and-a-half more years and close to $30 million left for a guy who probably doesn’t project to be much better than average (compared to other first basemen) over that time frame. Then again, perhaps I’m just overreacting to an injury-riddled two months.

No no no. Paulie’s contract is not that bad after all. We have DH spot waiting for him. Also, go back to the time when we resigned him. The moment that is. It was right after WS capture. I think he showed to the rest of MLB that Sox are a good team to stick with. He could have bolted for Angels, but he didn’t. Then we had Buehrle resign. Look at our team overall, most of the coaches are ex-Sox. And that’s how we should keep it, you want to stick to the southside sox because they are da shit. Let’s face it, there are 30 teams fighting for the championship and not always the best team wins. I better keep a solid group of guys around than chase some chunky Cabreras around just to get a crown.