"Always" pieced together? My recollection is different...probably because of my age!
More to the point, though, is that Thome (and David Bell, who was signed at the same time) was not a significant part of the great Phillies teams of the '00's; he represented the last effort to buy a winner, before the team that was built on drafting and trading emerged. Chooch, Howard, Utley, Rollins, Burrell, Abreu, Victorino, Werth, Hamels. Thome isn't part of that group.