Tony Thompson, Kansas third baseman an emerging team leader

by James Quinn on Mar 17, 2009 12:52 PM CDT in Kansas Jayhawk Baseball

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Tony Thompson has been phenomenal in 2009. The Kansas sophomore third baseman is hitting .414/.443/.741 after 14 games. He leads the team in several key offensive area, hits (24), total bases (43), homeruns (4) and RBIs (18). His glove has been as impressive as his bat. Third base is the most difficult defensive position when baseball is played with metal bats. Thompson has no errors and has converted tough play after tough play into outs. During the March 6th doubleheader vs. Northwestern twice I saw Thompson leap and snag a line drive that had extra bases painted all over it. That day alone Tony saved a minimum of four runs. In his second year at Kansas Thompson is emerging as a team leader and an impact player in one of the toughest baseball conferences in the NCAA. If his play continues at a level even close to its current one expect to hear talk of him going all-conference. So who is this guy and what did he do to the struggling player wearing #8 last year?

Thompson was Coach Price’s #1 recruit in 2008. The KU head coach took four separate trips to Nevada in 2006 and 2007 to scout and recruit Tony. In his first three years of prep baseball Thompson hit .490 with 23 homeruns and 83 RBIs. Even though Thompson was being heavily recruited by several other schools he got to know and like Price, the coach who drove the furthest to see him, the coach who came to see him play most often. "He’d usually call me and tell me he was coming out and he’d wait after the game," Thompson said of Price in a 2008 UDK profile, "It was kind of an honor to have someone come that far just to see me." Thompson signed on at KU.

It is hard to overestimate the talent gap between high school and Big-12 baseball. Scouts consider Big-12 conference play to be roughly equal to that of High-A minor league baseball. Jumping from a setting where hitters rarely see pitchers with two usable pitches or fastballs that break 80 mph all the way up to the level major league coaches consider about two years removed from the show is enormous. Price expected Thompson to struggle and then adjust. He hoped to see Thompson "hitting around .300 with double-digit home runs and, most of all, playing solid defense." Thompson’s freshman year did not play out like this at all.

At this time last year Thompson might as well have been going to the plate with a broom stick. On March 16th he was hitting .246/.270/.276, an OPS of .546. His defensive play during his first months could at best be described as inconsistent. Thompson was getting to a lot of balls late and then trying to compensate with a rushed and muscled throw to first. Not surprisingly several of these throws were stopped by brick or dugout walls instead of the first baseman’s glove. Even as late as mid-April, two-thirds of the way through the season, Thompson had not hit a grove. His batting line that day stood at .237/.296/.289. Only during the final weeks of the season did the game finally slow down. Outside of one cringe-worthy defensive meltdown at Nebraska Thompson settled down at third and started making the routine plays routinely, while bringing the crowd to its feet at least once a series with a gem. His bat started to heat up as well, singles were followed by line drives and suddenly Thompson’s power stroke arrived. He hit five of his seven extra base hits in the closing weeks and ended the year with an unimpressive, but not horrible, batting line of .276/.325/.374.

Given what happened in 2008 it is understandable that expectations for Thompson were more modest in 2009. I just didn’t see it coming. Somehow Aman wasn’t completely caught off guard. In his season preview he wrote that he expected Tony to "hit near the .300 mark this year with double digit HR’s and much more run production. This team will need Thompson to continue his progression to being a team leader and possible star in this league."

Already in 2009 Thompson has more extra base hits (11) than he had all of last year (7) and as many RBIs (18). The homerun Tony hit on March 6th vs. Northwestern was to dead center. Just using eyeball math I’d guess it went 430 feet. I’ve been to about one hundred games at Hoglund, and I’ve seen some good hitters during that time. Thompson’s homerun was the deepest shot I’ve had the pleasure to watch. I had no idea he had that kind of power. In guy-movie-cliché-speak, watching Thompson that weekend was like the moment in the movie when the mousey librarian lets her hair down and opens her coat and you say, "Hey! That librarian is Rachael Weisz!" (Gratuitous pictures follow to illistrate this transformation.)

Please note, pictures of Rachael Wiesz, not Tony Thompson.

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I have no idea how Thompson made the leap that he has, and I have no idea how long he can continue playing at this level, but right now he is the Jayhawks key offensive threat and emerging leader. KU needs this. I knew the 2009 team was going to have trouble scoring runs so the Thompson explosion has been the mosst welcome development of the season. His defensive play at third is now the best I have seen from a Kansas player in the last four years. Thompson’s performance goes a long way in explaining why the Diamond Hawks are exceeding almost everyone’s expectations so far in 2009.

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Comments

Rachael Weisz

Ah yes, She is quietly one of my favorite dames. She’s right up there with Maggie Gyllenhaal. I guess I like them a bit different…

Great insight JQ. Its nice to see the development. I never really thought about 3rd being the toughest spot on the college infield but that makes total sense. I played Catcher and 3rd base in high school because I always wanted to be in the action and I have a strong arm.

The Snozberries taste like Snozberries

by labbadabba on Mar 17, 2009 2:25 PM CDT reply actions

3rd base and metal.

There is one characteristic of metal bats that, if I understand it all correctly, the reengineering has not yet fixed. Balls come off metal bats about 5-10 mph faster than off wooden bats. And even small guys can uncoil a quick swing with a metal bat. This incidently is also why NCAA pitchers rarely work inside I understand.

So swings with wooden bats telegraph earlier through body motion and the ball comes out slower. When you are talking about a sharply hit ball to third the difference between wood and metal is only a small fraction of a second, but that makes a big difference in baseball. I think third base is harder to field in college than shortstop. Those two positions reverse order once you break out the wooden bats.

Since you played third I am sure you already know about the injury risk. A guy like me without hypertuned reactions would be lucky to duck out of the way of a line drive at my head. Each year I read about a few pitchers and third sackers who are killed or very badly hurt playing baseball in high school, college or in summer league games. This is what I think will finally get metal out of the college game. Pretty much as a rule I hate it when lawyers get involved in situations, but I think a few settlements will get baseball teams to do the right thing and get rid of those damn metal bats.

BTW, I am not surprised to read you played catcher. The thinking man’s position. As always, you lean in the scholarly direction.

www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage

by James Quinn on Mar 17, 2009 3:02 PM CDT up reply actions

Nah -

I just liked wearing as much equipment as possible. I’m a hockey goalie too…. : )

I’ve thought for years that metal bats should be abolished from High School/Legion Ball on up. I had some close calls in my playing days but nothing serious. I do remember a 3rd baseman on the opposing team that was hit in the chest with a line drive. It happened right in front of me. I was on 2nd advancing on the contact and the guy just dropped. I never heard for sure what happened but what I was told is that his heart stopped beating right there on the field. Luckily there was an EMS nearby and they revived him and he turned out okay. Scary to be sure and that was just in Junior High.

I once read an expose on why the metal bat industry and how hard they lobby state athletic associations and the NCAA to keep their expensive and brand-heavy bats in the game. Its a shame, its all about money. I’ve seen too many close calls and read too many horror stories about wooden bats that I’m surprised more lawyers haven’t gotten involved. I feel the same way about Maple bats. One of these days, some pitcher is going to bleed out when the barrel of a maple bat plants itself in his leg.

I understand using metal bats for kids because wooden bats are too heavy and aren’t as hitter friendly. But once a kid gets to high school he/she should be strong enough to swing a wooden bat. The high school teams here in NYC all use wood bats. My neighborhood is heavily Dominican so every Spring and Summer I watch those kids play ball as my apartment across the street from the ballfields. Its nice to be awaken on a Saturday morning by a crack of a wooden bat rather than the incescent PING!

The Snozberries taste like Snozberries

by labbadabba on Mar 17, 2009 4:19 PM CDT up reply actions

NYC high schools went to wooden bats a few years ago.

There is an NCAA D2 conference in the Northeast that uses wood as well. I know there has been a push up in Wyoming (I think) to get rid of metal bats led by the father of a player who died when he was hit by a line drive.

I looked into the whole matter a few years back for a story on this blog. I’ll try to dig it up later. Anyway, I learned that metal bats save university teams about $10K a year, which makes a huge difference for about 90% of all NAIA and NCAA programs. Some of the most successful teams even get their bats free of charge from the manufactures for advertising purposes. I don’t know if this is the case with KU.

Anyway, you are right, there are business interests influencing the whole debate. Some of the juiced bats that cannot be used in college baseball are sold for $300 each. I guess some guys like to spend that much to impress their neighbors at the church picnic.

You just know that if a player dies because he was hit by a ball that came off a bat that was only in use because a coach was getting a kickback from the manufacturer, you just know that there will be no shortage of lawyers willing to take that case. I hope it does not come down to that. What I would love, … If MLB subsidized college teams to offset the cost of wooden bats. MLB scouts HATE metal bats. Every team has a few stories of bonus money sunk into a kid who, as soon as he has to swing wood, suddenly can’t hit. The MLB already pays for much of the operating costs of the Cape Cod League so they can see the college kids play with wooden bats. I’d love it if they could swing an arrangement with the NCAA.

www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage

by James Quinn on Mar 17, 2009 4:39 PM CDT up reply actions

The 10K a year thing

always confuses me. I guess buying 4 or 5 aluminum bats at $300 a pop is only $1,200 bucks, compared to replacing wood bats when they break. My question is (and always has been) why not use composite wood bats? They’re much stronger than a traditional wood and don’t provide near the pop that aluminum bats create.

If you were thinking, you wouldn't have thought that.

by Warden11 on Mar 17, 2009 4:56 PM CDT up reply actions

If I remember correctly,

College players go through 20-50 bats a season. Wood bats cost about $20 each. Metal bats cost about $100+ but players only need two or three each year. So a team like Kansas would spend something like $20,000 each year if they bought wooden bats, and about half that if they used metal. And many teams spend nothing at all on bats because the metal bat manufactures give them out for promotional reasons.

I was surprised when I learned all this.

www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage

by James Quinn on Mar 17, 2009 5:12 PM CDT up reply actions

I"m sure the branding thing can be sorted out

I’m sure Louisville and Easton can emblazon their names just as loudly on a wood bat than they can a metal one. I think Bob Ley did a segment on this a year or two ago.

The Snozberries taste like Snozberries

by labbadabba on Mar 18, 2009 8:21 AM CDT up reply actions

Every bit of the problem seem very solvable

No part of the problem is that complicated. And the amount of money involved is substantial but not enormous. I think all that has prevented it from being seriously addressed so far is a lack of a compelling reason to do so. I just hope that “compelling reason” doesn’t come in the form of a badly injured player and a lawsuit. But I kinda expect that is the way it will play out.

I was surprised to find out that a lot of the players like using the metal bats. I’d be interested to see a poll conducted on this whole matter. Ask the players and ask the coaches. That might be useful. If it turns out that the players and coaches are okay with metal bats that would cause me to see the debate differently.

www.rockchalktalk.com for pretty good KU baseball coverage

by James Quinn on Mar 18, 2009 9:31 AM CDT up reply actions