How good do we think Thames will be

[baulderdash77]

I see Thames as a long term fixture in the middle of our order. He really has shown the ability to make adjustments and that's what's going to keep him in the lineup. I think he's going to maintain a .800+ OPS for a long time.

As was said above first he couldn't cover the slider down and away- he adjusted and started walking and slapping those pitches into shallow left. Teams had to pitch him Fastballs because they didn't' want to load up in front of Jose. Then they were pounding him inside with fastballs- he adjusted by shortening his swing and driving it.

His defense is really quite manageable. His adventures are becoming more rare and his range is actually pretty good and he doesn't make many mistakes. He has a below average arm so he's best in LF. If you look at his UZR that's what it shows- slightly above average range, average error rate, below average range and in total average.

[dagger]

His defense is really quite manageable. His adventures are becoming more rare and his range is actually pretty good and he doesn't make many mistakes.

Ya really think?

[sonn]

Ya really think?

He is average in LF, just barely though.
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?pl ... F#fielding

[baulderdash77]

His defense is really quite manageable. His adventures are becoming more rare and his range is actually pretty good and he doesn't make many mistakes.

Ya really think?

I stand by it and the numbers back me up. He has better than average range. Some of the hits he's given up that were close a guy like Patterson aren't even close to. Like the diving almost save he made last night is a double for most guys. He almost make it an out and held it to a single. His problem is that his better than average range is not a plus tool so he's very close a lot of the time but not quite there.

His big problem is his arm really and it's mitigated to some extent with him playing LF lately.

[Avenger]

His defense is really quite manageable. His adventures are becoming more rare and his range is actually pretty good and he doesn't make many mistakes.

Ya really think?

The naked eye can be incredibly deceiving when you're trying to evaluate defence, especially outfield defence. Thames is making the kind of mistakes that stick out, he doesn't seem to have great body control(or gracefulness if you wanna call it that) so his mistakes seem to look much worse than they really are. The best thing we can do wait for UZR and TZ or any other fielding metrics to do their thing over long sample sizes before we make conclusions about a players' defence.

[BigLeagueChew]

ok i think i was way off about thames being a 4 tool player, he is definately closer to 2-3 tool player as others have mentioned.

[Skin Blues]

He always seems to make it to within 10 feet of the ball, only to have it almost bounce over his head. I've seen him do this countless times. Something like that I wouldn't correlate with a good defender. I guess it's the classic F% vs UZR. If you get there in the first place, it's not as bad when you're sloppy.

[Weems]

Ya really think?

He is average in LF, just barely though.
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?pl ... F#fielding

UZR is thought to stabilize with about 3 full seasons of data and isn't to be taken as gospel.

Thames doesn't look good to me in the field, but he's a hard worker and that could change.

[youreachiteach]

If Thames was a few inches taller he'd be much better. He's a shrimp. To his credit, his speed gets him close to the play and his athleticism allows him to make it more often than not. Playing in Skydome is also exceptionally hard, due to the dead turf bounce that eats up even excellent fielders.

Well see. With experience, he'll learn the plays he can make and the ones he can't, and the only weakness he'll really have is his arm (which is not such a problem in left). He's got quite a nice bat and he's shown a ton of power (much to my embarrassment).

But I'd much rather have Travis there, though. Man, I wish Thames played second!

[sonn]

If Thames was a few inches taller he'd be much better. He's a shrimp. To his credit, his speed gets him close to the play and his athleticism allows him to make it more often than not. Playing in Skydome is also exceptionally hard, due to the dead turf bounce that eats up even excellent fielders.

Well see. With experience, he'll learn the plays he can make and the ones he can't, and the only weakness he'll really have is his arm (which is not such a problem in left). He's got quite a nice bat and he's shown a ton of power (much to my embarrassment).

But I'd much rather have Travis there, though. Man, I wish Thames played second!

Thames is 6'1 which is an inch taller than Snider and Bautista.

[Lateral Quicks]

He's got ridiculously huge musculature, which oddly makes him look shorter. But he's actually just a really big guy. If he hits a whack of doubles and OPS's over .800, I can put up with the occasional defensive miscue.

[StringerBell]

In his prime I think he's more than capable of posting an OPS over .850. But if he doesn't improve his defence, he'll see more time as a DH.

[Lateral Quicks]

From last night's game:

http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/video/p ... d=18146731

How can you not root for this guy?

[There There]

From last night's game:

http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/video/p ... d=18146731

How can you not root for this guy?

For all the overdone talk of Lawrie's energy and enthusiasm, the media around this city has generally missed out on the fact that Thames was up here playing that way before Lawrie was called up.

Now if Thames had a Canadian birth certificate, perhaps he'd also be vying for the title of Charlie Hustle reincarnated.

To that point, there is a daily column on BP tracking the "trot times" of each of the home runs of the day. There was a couple of weeks in July when the column went dead, so some of Thames times weren't yet officially tracked on there, but for each day the column ran where Thames hit a home run, he had the fastest trot time of the day