== More Alike Than They Were Different ===

Poythress is definitely a Three True Outcomes (TTO) pitch-stalker, but you'll notice that he doesn't have Frank Thomas' EYE.  Nobody does!

Lest you delude yourself into thinking that Frank's Freakish EYE ratios were the key to his template, check Manny Ramirez' template too.

Manny, as a very young player in the minors, had a decent EYE but not a great one.  It was only later that his stalking jelled into the .411 career OBP that we recognize now.

Don't kid yourself that a RH power hitter has to have more BB than K in the minors.  The technical term for that is "false."

Hurt showed the wonderful EYE from an early age, but "Right Hand Lou Gehrig" is not the minimum bar to hit here....

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You're talking about big righty hitters who wait for their pitches .... guys who have Adam Dunn-like frames, the Country Boy setup with 250, 260 lbs. of hamburger hung loosely on a big ol' shower curtain rod set of collarbones.

Thomas and Poythress, as well as another NCAA 3B/1B star we'll get to, shared the traits of body control, being light on their feet for their size, and being able to overpower a ball despite a very compact swing path ...

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=== Founding Father Dept. ===

What Poythress and Thomas do have in common, is that a lot of baseball folks scoffed at their accomplishments.  Thomas was an early testing ground for saber theories vs. scouting convention.

Frank Thomas broke in around 1988-1991, exactly the time when Bill James and MLB were at war with each other, and The Hurt was one of five or six seminal flame wars that James had with the general consensus.

As I recall, during this era James was ridiculed for selling the following minor leaguers as future giants of the game, when all were questioned seriously by the establishment:

• Jeff Bagwell
• Frank Thomas
• David Cone
• Robbie Alomar
• Randy Johnson

Of course, back in 1988-1991 it was easy for James to cherrypick saber no-brainers and trounce the establishment with predictions.

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But the point is, though the White Sox believed in The Hurt, a lot of people didn't, despite the BB:K ratio.  A big huge lumbering kid who was going to get even slower... he did not look like a baseball player.  He looked like a football player...

There may (or may not be) an establishment bias working against Poythress.  That's the point.  Baseball folks tend not to like offensive linemen.   Take it under advisement, colonel.

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The Swing

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