Memories of Josh Thole

[G-Fafif]

Such a nice boy. Such an ineffectual hitter in 2012. Such a not plate blocker in San Diego in August. OTOH, was great receiving the first ball from the pooch every year on Bark in the Park Day.

Saw him hit a walkoff HR at the tail end of '10. Barajas and Blanco had done that earlier in the season. Then all Mets catchers stopped hitting altogether, it seemed.

Strange that Josh and Nickeas get entombed with Pharaoh Dickey as he's mummified and shipped to Canada. They can keep him company in the afterlife.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Sitting next to D-Dad who was bemoaning about not having a catcher with pop anymore. Five minutes later Thole smacks one out. D-dad was still right.

[metirish]

I thought he was going to be great.

My abiding memory of him was his that he always seemed so happy and optimistic in interviews, not a bad quality to have.

[Gwreck]

G-Fafif wrote: Saw him hit a walkoff HR at the tail end of '10.

Off Tyler Clippard, if memory serves. My favorite Thole memory.

[smg58]

The only Met to catch a no-hitter.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

smg58 wrote: The only Met to catch a no-hitter.

No small thing, and one he will be remembered for long after we forget everything else about him.

My memory of Josh is going to Chicago for a three-game set at Wrigley in 2010, and the PA announcer pronounced his name THOLE (one syllable, rhymes with pole) the entire series.

[Guest themetfairy]

I remember seeing him, while he was a B-Met, in the Eastern League All Star Game in Trenton -




And, as Greg said, he was such a nice boy. He autographed the above picture at one of the GKR events, and he hung out with an injured D-Dad -





Best of luck Josh. And dress warmly - it gets cold up in Canada!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Always seemed like a really good, earnest-but-with-a-sense-of-humor sort of guy. Never quite as good as I wanted him to be.

G-Fafif wrote: Strange that Josh and Nickeas get entombed with Pharaoh Dickey as he's mummified and shipped to Canada. They can keep him company in the afterlife.

I don't think it was THAT odd that they took Joshie-- good Dickey caddy, nice on-base-y contrast to JP AirMover; the weird thing is that they took Nickeas as the back-end guy, isn't it?

[Frayed Knot]

The problem with Thole is that virtually all of his offensive value rested in his BA - so that when his BA wasn't as good as hoped (or as it briefly was in the minors) there were few walks and power to fall back on. I always wanted him to succeed (of course) but I was never to high on believing it would happen.
He just seemed to not have the same swing as when we first saw him. That swing was never going to produce much power, but at least it was good for contact. But in the last year not only did the contact go down but he rarely got anything out of the infield much less in a gap.




Second Spitter is posting in this thread at the Josh Thole level.

[Ceetar]

He did suffer a concussion, miss three weeks, and then catch the no-hitter. Wish him well, hopefully he gets back his OBP and swing rates that went poof afterward.

[Frayed Knot]

That swing we first saw from him seemed to disappear about two years ago.

[Fman99]

354 ABs last year and 21 RBIs.

Buh-bye.

[Zvon]

I'll never forget the look on his face going out to meet Santana after the no-no. He looked like I would have looked. Beaming with boyish enthusiasm.

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: That swing we first saw from him seemed to disappear about two years ago.

Right. When he first came up, I liked his approach at the plate and even thought he might develop into an interestingly efficient #2 hitter. Don't know what happened after that. Maybe playing half his games on turf will help him.

Later

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

When he was still in the minors, I remember the Times doing a story about how his dad taught him how to hit in an old barn on their property. It's hard to believe a kid like that could struggle as consistently as he did, but he really did.

Douchy Mets fans ran him off Twitter, then hated him for not hanging around on Twitter and taking it.

Still time for him to hit .300 but really needs to mix in the doubles.

I liked him in No. 30. Like a backup goaltender.

[bmfc1]

Frayed Knot wrote: That swing we first saw from him seemed to disappear about two years ago.

I remember him hitting a long HR in a spring game two or three years ago--he pulled it to RF--and wondered where that came from and if we'd see more of that in the coming years. We didn't. Instead, we saw lots of weak flyballs to LF and weak groundballs to 2B.

[Edgy MD]

Caught the knuckler with a softball mitt.

No such thread for R.A. Dickens?

[Frayed Knot]

bmfc1 wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: That swing we first saw from him seemed to disappear about two years ago. I remember him hitting a long HR in a spring game two or three years ago--he pulled it to RF--and wondered where that came from and if we'd see more of that in the coming years. We didn't. Instead, we saw lots of weak flyballs to LF and weak groundballs to 2B.

IIRC he hit like three HRs that spring including that over-the-hill bomb you're referencing (even though I think that one was a bit wind-aided).
But it's not like he seemed to get all HR-happy on account of that, it's just that his swing never seemed as controlled or smooth and he was forever topping the ball. For a while last summer I was keeping track of the number of balls he actually hit out of the infield and it got embarrassing after a while. Even the few OF outs he did get were short bloops. He may have gone weeks without even making an OFer back up for a catch.

[seawolf17]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Douchy Mets fans ran him off Twitter, then hated him for not hanging around on Twitter and taking it. Still time for him to hit .300 but really needs to mix in the doubles. I liked him in No. 30. Like a backup goaltender.

All of this.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I think I'll remember him for the story of his dog. He and his wife found out that their dog was deaf, and they both decided to learn Canine Sign Language, or some such thing.

He was also one of the younger, if not the youngest, player reps in the big leagues. He stepped up because none of his veteran teammates wanted to do so.

Seems like a nice guy. I hope he has a decent career and that he can stick around well into his thirties.

[Centerfield]

Zvon wrote: I'll never forget the look on his face going out to meet Santana after the no-no. He looked like I would have looked. Beaming with boyish enthusiasm.

This is what I will remember about Josh Thole.

And the fact that he sucked.

[Edgy MD]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: He was also one of the younger, if not the youngest, player reps in the big leagues. He stepped up because none of his veteran teammates wanted to do so.

And thus, the guy left holding the moral bag when the league insisted the players not wear first responder caps.

[ashie62]

A fine fellow and passed ball machine.