Jim Thome - Hall of Famer?

Jim Thome just hit his 500th HR and now people are asking if Thome is a Hall of Fame player. Last February I looked at which active players should be considered as potential Hall of Fame players. Here's what I said about Thome:

Jim Thome - he'll probably finish in the top 25 in HR and the top 75 in RBI but I don't think that will be enough. Thome never even finished higher than 4th place in MVP voting. Nice guy but so was Andre Dawson.

I still stand by that assessment.

Yes Jim Thome is both an excellent hitter and just as good a person. However, as good as Thome is as a hitter consider that he only has one Silver Slugger award to his credit (given to the best hitter at each position). And that one Silver Slugger Thome won was for 3rd base in 1996! That means that for the past 10-years that the managers and coaches who vote for the Silver Slugger may have thought that though Thome was good he wasn't better than some other player. Each and every year since 1996.

Thome was a true "three outcome" hitter. When he got to the plate he usually either walked, hit a home run or struck out. In fact besides now being in the 500 HR club - Thome is 3rd on all-time strikeout list with 2,031 and counting and over 58% of the time he got an AB he either had one of those three outcomes. Three times Thome led the league in walks and three time he led the league in strikeouts. Maybe if he does get in the Hall of Fame his plaque should read, "He was a selective hitter who swung from his ass."