Old Thome stream of consciousness

The Twins signed Jim Thome, you guys! Like a while ago. I haven't been procrastinating the Twins-signed-Thome-post. I've been using the time to process the information surrounding his signing. I don't like to rush to judgment when the Twins sign a player. My preferred method of assessing the value of a free agent signing is reading what other sports writers and bloggers write about it...with a mood ring on.

After reading numerous articles and posts, my mood ring continuously shown an enlightening "Indian Red." (Sorry, I apparently have the world's most racist mood ring. It's really old.) According to the mood ring handbook, "Indian Red" means "indifferent." Not exactly a mood if you ask me, but who am I to tell a mood ring handbook it's wrong. Anyway, I guess I'm indifferent about the Thome signing.

He'll be a solid DH against righties and a very nice pinch hitting option. But I couldn't help remember a Jim Thome third-baseman not so many years ago. Of course, it only feels like a few years ago he was doing his thing at the hot corner, but really it has been almost 14 years. I was still methodically blowing into occasionally-working video games the last time Thome was playing 3B. That makes me feel old. And if this makes me feel old, I can't imagine how old the actually old, Jim Thome, must feel.

Jim Thome is a good guy. So when he gets older and worse at defense, it seems most baseball people are permissive. Thome became a 1B because he got older. Then he became a DH because he got older. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this, but compare this to my boy Miguel Cabrera.

They both transitioned from third to first at about the same age. The perception of these position changes, however, is very different. Cabrera is lazy and ate himself out of any defensive value. Thome, however...well he just got older.

And I understand how much harder it is to keep in shape as you get older. Age is a bitch. Even a few years ago I might wake up in the morning and say, "Hey, it's a nice day. Maybe I'll go for a run." Now I wake up and say, "Hey, it's a nice day. Maybe I'll watch TV with the windows open." I, however, am not a professional athlete.

I have no idea where I'm going with this. Please tell me we've signed Mauer and/or Hudson already.