Just a handful of days after winning Major League Baseball's AL Comeback Player of the Year Award, Jim Thome also earned
the honor from the Sporting News, which is considered the more prestigious of the two trophies.
Thome's main competition for the award was Frank Thomas, and on numbers alone, Thome has a leg up. However, in the case of a comeback award, I'd give more weight to what the player did in the second half than in the first. Many players are able to get off to a good start in a season following an injury, but whether they make it to the finish line in one piece remains to be seen.
Here's how they stacked up after the All-Star break:
| BA | OBP | SLG | HR | RBI |
Thome
| .274
| .420
| .522 | 12 | 32 |
Thomas
| .298 | .393 | .563 | 20 | 68 |
Thome did walk a considerable amount more than Thomas as reflected by the differential between his average and OBP, but if you look at the RBI column, it's obvious Frank did more damage by swinging the bat. By the way, I didn't realize Thomas had only 11 doubles compared to 39 homers. That's remarkable, in a really slow way.
At any rate, this is a largely inconsequential award. But it's interesting to note that a player considered a great teammate and human being won two awards and missed the postseason, while the player largely considered selfish because he was only aware of his own accolades is trophy-less, but leading his team in the playoffs.
Don't believe the hype, children.