So there was a post the other day that someone said, “the most feared hitter of the 90’s was The Big Hurt Frank Thomas”, to which I say, absolutely not!
Thomas may be top five, but he is not the No.1 feared hitter of the 90s.
I will give it to Thomas that he has the stature of a scary looking hitter, but to be honest, I probably could argue these five players to be above him in the top five of the 90’s.
I will present my argument below.
First, let us start with the subject, Thomas during played in 1,371 games and racked up 4,892 at-bats, during which time he did hit an impressive .319 with 301 home runs and 1,080 RBIs.
Thomas managed to slug .573 in the 90’s, during his time, he played DH 458 games of the 1,371 he played. Thomas ranked fifth in hits, fifth in doubles, and ninth in HRs.
So now, we will move on to who I thought was the Most Feared Hitter in the 90’s, Ken Griffey Jr.
Griffey Jr. played in 1,408 games during the 90’s, and all but 30 of those games were played in CF, which is probably one of the most key positions on the field for defense.
During his time in the 90’s, Griffey managed a .301 batting average with 382 home runs and 1,091 RBI’s, while slugging .581.
Griffey ranked second in hits, ninth in doubles, fifth in triples, and second in home runs. I will admit I am a little shocked that Thomas had more doubles than Griffey but he did, but Griffey drove in more runs and hit more home runs.
We can talk about some that round up the top 5 here, there can’t be a top 5 without Barry Bonds right, the man played in 1461 games and hit 361 Hrs while being walked 1146 times, slugging was at .602 and batting average of .302. Mark McGwire was another he batted .267 but slugged .615 with 405 HRs in 4002 at bats.
Albert Belle is another candidate for top 5 as he slugged .581, tied with Griffey, he ranked second in doubles with 344, 14th in triples, and fourth in HRs with 351, while driving in 1,099 runs which ranked first in the 90’s.
So to me, to say Thomas is the most feared hitter of the 90’s I would have to disagree, but if you were to say one of the most feared hitters, I would agree with you.
What do you think? Who do you think belongs in the top five most feared hitters of the 90’s?
Comment below!