NEWSLETTER
Eric Thames is the Milwaukee Brewers’ slugging – and ridiculously on fire – first baseman, but I wouldn’t expect you to know that before the past few days.
You see, while every team in baseball has lesser known players – many of which go off on ridiculously Herculean offensive tears, like the one Thames is on now – most of them aren’t 30 year olds who haven’t played in the ‘States since 2013 (let alone MLB since 2012). But that’s Thames’ story.
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Thames made his Major Leauge debut with the Toronto Blue Jays back in 2011, but hasn’t played a single game in Major League Baseball since 2012. In fact, he’s only got 192 games under his belt altogether, as he’s been busy becoming the first member of the 40-40 club and only the third foreign born MVPÂ in the KBO (Korean Baseball Organization).
Well, over the offseason, the Brewers signed Thames to a three-year $16 million contract and so far it’s paid off … like A LOT.
After starting the season off by slashing .368/.455/.921, with a league-leading six home runs before the start of play tonight, Thames went off on John Lackey and the Chicago Cubs.
In the first inning, he began his night off with a double (trying to keep things simple, you see) and then just two innings later he led off the third inning with his still-league-leading seventh home run of the season …
Do you ever wonder what the MLB home run lead looks like? Here you go courtesy of @EricThames! #ThisIsMyCrew #MILatChC pic.twitter.com/JeceG5Je20
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) April 18, 2017
If you can believe it, that was Thames’ sixth homer in five days, including a homer in five straight games. He’s now hitting .400/.478/1.025 (that is his SLG, not his OPS – incase you were mistaken/fainted). According to Statcast, that homer came off the bat at 101 MPH and traveled 361 feet into the Chicago night.
The dude is absolutely locked in and is an early leader for the coveted “2017 NL Where the Hell Did this Guy Come From?” award.
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