Comments on: Marcus Thames’ HR production

By: Willie

Willie — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:33:17 +0000

Ken Phelps was a .375 career OBP guy. Not even close.

By: JohnnyTwisto

JohnnyTwisto — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 01:00:10 +0000

Yeah, Thames has had a better career than most would have expected. He's been used mostly as a LHP masher, but he holds his own against righties as well. As a Yankee fan, I remember no one took much notice of him until his big year in AA in 2001. He was 24 at the time, and repeating AA, and I remember discussion at the time about how much his age and repeating the level should be held against his very impressive numbers.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:59:10 +0000

So you guys have passed my test.

This sort of post I made is kind of dumb for exactly the reason Johnny pointed out (but didn't call me on it, even though I'm sure he realized why it was stupid.) Thames is on a list here with mostly retired players who didn't homer nearly as often as Thames did and therefore had fairly short careers. There are many, many players who hit at least 100 career homers who would have appeared on this list at one point but eventually hit more than 105 homers, and most guys worth a damn who went on to hit 150+ homers hit them at a faster rate than just about everybody on this list.

But then Gerry mentioned the second one I was thinking. If you look at the top HR hitters of all time, in terms of how quickly then got to 100 homers, Thames is pretty high on that list despite being a part-time player for a lot of his career.

In short, this post doesn't ACTUALLY demonstrate it, but Thames has been pretty successful with the long ball in his career. He reminds me a bit of Ken Phelps.

By: gerry

gerry — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 05:57:45 +0000

Ryan Howard had 129 home runs in his first 1461 at-bats. Jim Gentile had 101 in his first 1451.

By: jksesq1

jksesq1 — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:59:10 +0000

He's also #1 in HR's among all major leaguers named "Marcus". Among players with the initials "M.T." he trails only Tejada, Tettleton, Teixeira and Tiernan. And of all major leaguers born on March 6, the only one to hit more dingers than Thames is.... that's right, a Hall of Famer named Willie Stargell. Not bad company!

By: Marcus Thames spotlighted on Baseball Reference - MotownSports.com Message Board

Marcus Thames spotlighted on Baseball Reference - MotownSports.com Message Board — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 21:49:27 +0000

[...] Marcus Thames spotlighted on Baseball Reference Baseball-Reference Blog

By: Take Me To The River

Take Me To The River — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:00:31 +0000

[...] Click here to read a very interesting item on former Yankee Marcus Thames over at B-R Blog & Stat of the Day. [...]

By: JohnnyTwisto

JohnnyTwisto — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:04:24 +0000

Wow, very interesting. Of course the one caveat is that guys with as much power as Thames get the chance to keep hitting more HRs. It's almost certain he'll hit at least 6 more HR in his career, and then he won't be on the list anymore. Same story with Jacobs.