Brewers: Is Eric Thames This Generation’s Cecil Fielder?
Eric Thames and Cecil Fielder seem to have quite a bit in common. Could Thames be this generation’s Fielder?
To be honest, it’s really too soon to tell if Eric Thames could be this generation’s elder Fielder. However, if Thames keeps going at this rate for the majority of the season we could really start to consider that he may be.
Looking at Cecil Fielder, father of recently retired slugger Prince Fielder, his and Thames’ careers do mirror each other at least thus far.
Fielder made his MLB debut with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1985, but he was never really given a chance to play every day.
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Playing as a part-time first and third baseman, Fielder played in 220 games over four seasons with the Blue Jays, which averages out to just 55 games per season.
He finished his time with Toronto hitting just .243 and having hit just 31 home runs.
That isn’t exactly the Cecil Fielder that those of us who were around to see him play remember.
Similarly, Eric Thames didn’t get a lot of playing time in the big leagues after making his debut also with the Blue Jays in 2011.
Despite getting his first hit, RBI, walk and run scored in his first game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Thames was sent up and down between the majors and minors in his little over a season in Toronto.
In 2012, he was traded to the Seattle Mariners where he also spent the majority of his time in the minor leagues. During the 2013 season he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles, released and claimed off waivers by the Houston Astros and later released again.
At about the same time in their careers, Fielder decided to sign with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and Thames signed with the NC Dinos of the Korean Baseball Organization.
Fielder returned after just one year in Japan, signing with the Detroit Tigers in 1990. That season he hit, what was at the time a major milestone, 51 home runs.
Fielder then went on to lead the league home runs twice and in RBI for three straight seasons. He finished second in the MVP voting twice, made three All-Star appearances and took home two Silver Slugger Awards.
Later, Fielder won a World Series championship with the 1996 New York Yankees, a team that is considered to be one of the greatest of all time, before retiring from the game after the 1998 season. His story is one of baseball’s greatest and craziest comeback stories.
Thames spent three seasons with the NC Dinos after finding himself jobless in MLB. He excelled there.
In 2015 Thames was the KBO MVP and batting champion, while also leading the league in on-base percentage, runs scored and slugging percentage. He won the KBO Gold Glove Award in both 2015 and 2016.
He was the home run champion there in 2016 and of course made the All-Star team in both seasons.
Now, he has returned to the U.S. and Major League Baseball, having signed a contract with the Milwaukee Brewers.
Not only that, he is currently the talk of the league batting .370 with a .489 on-base percentage while leading the majors in home runs (11), slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+ and total bases.
If he keeps up this pace he could end up as the National League’s MVP or at least be in the top three in the voting. And as of today he is a lock to make this year’s NL All-Star team.
Although, to truly be this generation’s Cecil Fielder, he’ll have to finish the season atop the leaderboards and do the same for at least the next couple of years.
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If he can do that, his comeback story will likely become more legendary than Fielder’s. However, to know for sure we will have to wait and see what happens next.