Frank Thomas named the best No. 1 pick in White Sox history

The Chicago White Sox has a long list of number one picks but Frank Thomas stood way out above the rest of them as the best.

MLB dot com keeps rolling out these lists for its teams. They’ve been going through specific positions for each team or different themes, and this one is the best number one pick in each team’s history. This player for each team might be subjective but in the case of the Chicago White Sox, it is as obvious as can be. Frank Thomas was their number one pick, seventh overall, in the 1989 MLB Draft.

Not only was Thomas the best number one pick that the team has ever had, but he is also the best player in the history of the franchise. Frank Thomas was one of the best right-handed hitters (and hitters in general) in the history of the sport. His career accolades show why he is one of the best hitters of his generation. He walked into the Hall of Fame on the first ballot with 83.7 percent in 2014.

Frank Thomas had a career slash line of .301/.419/.555. He had 521 home runs and 1704  RBIs to go with 1494 runs scored. Those are brilliant numbers that the man that is known as “Big Hurt” put up throughout his all-time great MLB career. The White Sox were so lucky to have such a great player for parts of 16 seasons. His 73.8 career WAR tells it all.

Thomas has other career MLB awards that should be noted. He was an all-star five times, a four-time Silver Slugger Award winner, a batting champion, and won back to back MVPs in 1993 and 1994. It was awesome to have Thomas there doing all of this in a White Sox uniform.

Frank Thomas was injured for most of the 2005 White Sox season which concluded with them winning the World Series. He only played in 34 games that season due to injury which is sad because it was the greatest season in the history of the franchise while they saw the departure of their all-time greatest player.

He did go on to play for the Oakland A’s and Toronto Blue Jays for a while afterward and was decent with them. In fact, the following year (2006), he came in fourth place in the A.L. MVP vote. Regardless, it was awesome to think about how good Thomas was in his Hall of Fame career. The fact that a player this good played the prime of his career with the White Sox is truly special.