Things are going pretty well for Marcus Thames. Throughout his career he’s been a role player. A guy who has been called on to fill in and hit homers. Now, on the wrong side of 30, finally in his first year of salary arbitration, he’s being acknowledged as an everyday player. He’s given back by going on quite the home run tear that has gotten him some national attention.
Via Jason Beck’s blog Thames is a finalist for the June Pepsi Clutch Award thanks in large part to his homer barrage. Vote often for Marcus. Eight of his 10 homers in June either tied the score or gave the Tigers the lead.
Along those same lines, could Thames be a candidate to represent the Tigers in the All Star Game? With Magglio Ordonez on the shelf, Placido Polanco is probably the next best option. But Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury Ian Kinsler probably have second base covered. Thames is still a long shot, and it probably doesn’t speak well of a team with a $130 million payroll. But what a great story for a great guy if it were to happen. Plus Thames could definitely bring something to the Home Run Derby.
Jacoby Ellsbury at 2B? Maybe you mean Ian Kinsler? He’s leading all second basemen with more than 200 AB in average, slugging, and OBP.
Taken with last year’s great season, I’ve got to think Polanco still slides in there somehow, though.
It is a little telling that a Tigers team with with a $130 million payroll doesn’t have a clear-cut All Star on its roster. Some of that is just due to injuries, etc., but it’s a testament to how badly they played at the beginning of the season.
That said, All Stars games are overrated anyway. They’re mostly popularity contests, which means the big markets out East are going to dominate.
I really wouldn’t mind if the Tigers had minimal allstar representation this year. The rest will be good, plus a little underdog mentality could be a bit of a motivator. Nobody will be talking about the Tigers at the break and that can largely put them under the radar. The last two seasons the Tigers had a very large portion of their rosters in the allstar game and the second half seasons that followed were pretty bad. Not that there is any direct causality to this correlation, but having a different mental state of the team can’t hurt.
agree, Chris, very good point. It’s just that spending so much money on players, you’d expect them to be good players, and have a few at the AS game.
The Tigers have good players, most of them just didn’t have a good first half or were injured. A little R&R might be a very good thing.
Thames ..why not…..maybe Palonco…Grandy on the fringe…. that is about it really
Go Marcus! I’ve been a long time supporter of his and I’m very happy to see him being given (and taking advantage of) an opportunity. He’s a good guy, by all accounts, works hard, is well liked and a team player.
My only question is why we had to go through 20-something other guys in LF before giving him a real shot?