More on Marcus Thames (yes, he’s good)
Posted by Andy on August 19, 2009
Here is a list of all 128 currently acive players with at least 100 career HR. I got that list from the PI then I reordered them based on fewest plate appearances per HR (meaning that guys who hit HR more often are at the top of the list.)
Check it out:
(sorry again about the awful formatting)
PA/HR AB/HR career HR Ryan Howard 14.23 12.13 51 Marcus Thames 16.21 14.75 128 Alex Rodriguez 16.46 14.23 2 Albert Pujols 16.51 13.98 12 Jim Thome 16.71 13.59 3 Adam Dunn 16.97 13.82 18 Manny Ramirez 17.19 14.51 4 Russell Branyan 17.36 14.94 71 Ken Griffey 17.81 15.44 1 Prince Fielder 18.07 15.37 77 Carlos Delgado 18.30 15.40 6 Richie Sexson 18.31 16.10 21 Carlos Pena 18.73 15.82 60 Mark Teixeira 19.12 16.58 42 Vlad Guerrero 19.13 17.09 9 Troy Glaus 19.21 16.35 22 David Ortiz 19.23 16.42 20 Jason Giambi 19.91 16.22 8 Andruw Jones 20.10 17.67 10 Alfonso Soriano 20.16 18.61 25 Jim Edmonds 20.18 17.31 11 Lance Berkman 20.21 16.72 19 Tony Clark 20.40 18.06 38 Travis Hafner 20.58 17.34 73 Paul Konerko 21.12 18.68 17 Miguel Cabrera 21.31 18.82 57 Adrian Gonzalez 21.40 18.86 90 Gary Sheffield 21.44 18.05 5 Jason Bay 21.46 18.23 65 Chipper Jones 21.53 18.18 7 Pat Burrell 21.87 18.44 33 Justin Morneau 21.89 19.39 70 Aramis Ramirez 21.96 19.85 34 Jermaine Dye 21.99 19.80 15 Carlos Lee 22.31 20.26 24 Tony Batista 22.44 20.67 48 Matt Stairs 22.51 19.45 35 Dan Uggla 22.64 19.63 109 Eric Chavez 23.07 20.40 44 Morgan Ensberg 23.45 20.04 113 Preston Wilson 23.47 21.18 63 Chase Utley 23.56 20.46 75 Todd Helton 23.63 19.84 16 Geoff Jenkins 23.77 21.27 47 Nick Swisher 23.79 19.88 97 Derrek Lee 23.80 20.76 28 Moises Alou 23.83 21.20 14 Joe Crede 23.94 21.99 81 Adam LaRoche 23.96 21.32 94 Matt Holliday 24.06 21.44 78 Magglio Ordonez 25.01 22.56 31 Jay Gibbons 25.08 23.03 99 Carlos Beltran 25.09 21.99 32 Hank Blalock 25.09 22.80 76 J.D. Drew 25.32 21.16 53 Torii Hunter 25.36 23.19 43 Craig Monroe 25.43 23.40 104 Brad Hawpe 25.56 22.06 124 David Wright 25.68 22.29 83 Scott Rolen 25.75 22.27 29 Cliff Floyd 26.02 22.83 41 Jorge Posada 26.28 22.33 40 Aubrey Huff 26.50 24.03 56 N Garciaparra 26.64 24.32 45 Jose Cruz 26.71 23.16 54 Vernon Wells 27.13 24.92 62 Raul Ibanez 27.28 24.65 50 Brian Giles 27.30 22.74 26 Adrian Beltre 27.35 25.00 39 Mike Sweeney 27.53 24.40 55 Grady Sizemore 27.66 23.99 92 Miguel Tejada 27.91 25.47 30 Ty Wigginton 27.93 25.39 102 Hideki Matsui 27.95 24.52 88 Mike Cameron 28.29 24.46 36 Mike Lowell 28.56 25.54 49 Bill Hall 28.90 26.24 126 Rondell White 29.56 27.06 58 Casey Blake 29.57 26.21 80 Luis Gonzalez 29.75 25.87 13 Pedro Feliz 29.84 27.87 87 Jose Guillen 29.92 27.49 59 Fernando Tatis 30.04 26.39 115 Jacque Jones 30.24 27.84 69 Dmitri Young 30.71 27.85 67 Brad Wilkerson 30.76 26.12 98 Trot Nixon 30.83 26.47 84 Jason Varitek 31.01 27.02 66 Eric Hinske 31.23 27.48 108 Garret Anderson 31.37 29.55 27 Kevin Millar 31.46 27.41 68 Ivan Rodriguez 31.71 29.61 23 Austin Kearns 31.79 27.42 123 David Dellucci 32.34 28.45 127 Eric Byrnes 32.49 29.48 120 J Encarnacion 32.66 30.03 74 Bobby Abreu 32.67 27.38 37 Milton Bradley 33.07 28.47 107 Victor Martinez 33.18 29.21 121 Ramon Hernandez 33.49 29.92 79 Rich Aurilia 33.68 30.69 64 Aaron Boone 34.25 30.62 95 Aaron Rowand 34.48 31.15 105 Brandon Inge 34.51 30.70 100 Juan Uribe 34.55 31.73 103 Bengie Molina 34.59 32.34 86 Melvin Mora 34.77 30.51 72 S Hillenbrand 35.33 33.06 117 Corey Patterson 35.99 33.47 125 Jay Payton 37.42 34.61 101 A.J. Pierzynski 41.40 38.55 112 Gary Matthews 41.89 37.28 118 Alex Gonzalez 42.43 39.02 114 Sean Casey 43.42 38.97 89 Derek Jeter 43.53 38.45 46 Michael Young 43.70 40.13 85 Ray Durham 43.87 38.58 61 Carlos Guillen 44.19 39.08 116 Jose Vidro 44.59 39.95 93 Jimmy Rollins 45.03 41.05 82 Johnny Damon 45.28 40.38 52 Ron Belliard 50.42 45.08 119 Darin Erstad 53.12 48.36 96 Shannon Stewart 53.96 48.47 106 Mark Kotsay 55.22 50.20 111 Randy Winn 61.41 55.31 122 Orlando Cabrera 64.07 58.54 110 Edgar Renteria 64.84 58.19 91
The last column is where each guy ranks among the 128 active players with 100 homers.
How crazy is it that the 128th and last guy, Thames, is second overall in fewest PA per HR?
August 19th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Mark Reynolds, currently with 83 HRs, will be pretty high on this list when he hits #100. He has averaged one HR per 16.18 ABs, and one HR per 18.43 PAs.
And he's only getting better, too. His yearly rates:
2007 - one HR per 21.53 ABs, one HR per 24.35 PAs
2008 - one HR per 19.25 ABs, one HR per 21.89 PAs
2009 - one HR per 11.53 ABs, one HR per 13.24 PAs
If he continues his 2009 rate, he will have 100 HRs (17 more) in his next 196 ABs and 225 PAs. That would move his career rates to one HR per 15.39 ABs, and one HR per 17.55 PAs.
August 19th, 2009 at 11:08 am
As Andy was quick to point out (in a discussion of Mark McGwire), Dave Kingman was good at mashing the ball, too (1 HR per 15.11 AB over his career); that doesn't make you a great player. Thames' OBP (and his numbers overall) look a lot more like Kingman's than Ryan Howard's.
August 20th, 2009 at 6:22 am
I was talking about this guy a week and a half ago. Thames, when healthy, is the kind of masher you want in your lineup if your team "needs" some more pop. 30+ homers every 162 is a good start, you have to wonder if he would have/will develop a better discipline if he could stay off the DL, so he could walk a lot more, score more runs, and drag his OPS(+) up to a level commensurate with the other guys on that list.
But yeah, he's not in the class of a guy like Howard. I wanna say he's a rich man's Rob Deer, but he doesn't walk nearly enough. I think I'd rather have Deer.
August 20th, 2009 at 10:03 am
Thames has essentially been a platoon player. Let's not get carried away with the comparisons.
August 20th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Cases like this one with Thames are where I tend to think that the stats don't tell the whole story. Anybody paying attention sees that Thames has excellent power production. There's got to be a reason why he doesn't play every day and it's not just injuries. Say what you want about Rob Deer or Dave Kingman, but these guys did what they did over full seasons and were not guys who occasionally came off the bench and popped one. (I think that's what Johnny was trying to say above.)
Of course, I probably would have said the same thing about Ken Phelps--i.e. that there was a good reason why he wasn't playing, but it actually appears that it was just stupidity by his teams.
August 20th, 2009 at 7:37 pm
I compared Thames to Deer--guys who like Phelps, like Chris Davis, like Branyan (before this season), tantalize with the possibility of being a bonafide slugger but for whatever reason (lack of playing time, injury, lack of growth as a player, poor platoon split) don't quite deliver. The kinds of guys, who, if they manage to get 650 PA for the first or second time in their career, whatever, you find yourself completely unsurprised that they get some grey ink.