Shortcode not picking up custom field

could be a question of string concatenation – try (untested):

<a href="'.get_permalink().'" title="'.get_the_title().'"><img src="'. get_bloginfo('template_directory').'/timthumb.php?src=".$thumb."&h=100&w=600&zc=1&q=100&a=".get_post_meta($post->ID, "thumbcrop', true).'" alt="'.get_the_title().'" /></a>