Thames, Choi, Aguilar and Yankees Potential

[Boomer5]

I’d gladly trade them Thames. With his contract and the 1B market he has negative value.

[JohnBriggs12]

I’d gladly trade them Thames. With his contract and the 1B market he has negative value.

 

Except the Yankees have a very right handed lineup and he's off to a good start again. I think he has enough value for them to be interested. If you believe Choi and more AB for Aguilar adequately replace Thames contributions to the Brewer offense, then it's worth exploring but I'd expect something of value back. I wouldn't just give him away to save money.

[JohnBriggs12]

I’d gladly trade them Thames. With his contract and the 1B market he has negative value.

 

Except the Yankees have a very right handed lineup and he's off to a good start again. I think he has enough value for them to be interested. If you believe Choi and more AB for Aguilar adequately replace Thames contributions to the Brewer offense, then it's worth exploring but I'd expect something of value back. I wouldn't just give him away to save money.

[JosephC]

Thames had 12 million left in guaranteed money before this season began. My estimate of value for this season is 1 WAR = 9.16 million (granted, folks could argue it should be less after what happened in free agency this off-season). But even if you knock it way down and say 1 WAR = 8 million, that means Thames only has to be a +1.5 WAR player total in 2018 and 2019 to break even in terms of surplus value. Averaging Fangraphs and Baseball Reference, Thames is already at 0.55 WAR for 2018 and we are not even 10% of the way into the season. There is no way he is a negative value player.

 

But trading Thames is out of the question right now. The Brewers need his bat.

[Tbadder]

No way I’m trading Thames. He hits for power, he has a good on base percentage, and he’s versatile in the field. In addition he’s cheap.

[superfly]

Thames has had an awful spring. Even with a fairly modest contract he might not be easy to move without taking money back. That being said he's nothing if not streaky but I can't see the Yankees taking him with Walker available. That's another reason to be upset the Brewers didn't keep Walker around especially after his market fell apart. Stearns has kind of painted himself into a corner. If Thames and Santana hit, they are obvious trade candidates, but both were awful in Arizona but need to restore interest in them from other teams. It's possible both were working on something in Arizona that led to the poor results, who knows? We're all anxious to see how this plays out. I'm just hoping this doesn't result in them getting off to a slow start. The top 4 in the order seem set, but they need the 5-7 guys in the order to produce and that's where the question marks are. If it were me, I'd be inclined to move Arcia up a few spots.

 

It's spring training. Who cares about their numbers.

 

In the case of Thames, if I was GM, I would.

 

I don't think he has enough of a book to just assume what his production level is going to be. I would like to know how much, if any, of last April I could expect this year. If you assume you are going to get May-August Thames, with his defense, I don't think he has any positive value over his contract. His September was very good, but I believe he was also more platooned. And that is the way I would look at him - the heavy side of the platoon that I would match up with a righty bat that had more defense that I could also sub in at the end of games.

 

 

Thames 2017 : .247 / .359 / .518 / .877, 1.40WAR / (11 HR April)

Thames 2018 : .245 / .333 / .679 / 1.012, 0.6WAR / 7 HR

 

Spring training doesn't matter.

[Roderick]

No way I’m trading Thames. He hits for power, he has a good on base percentage, and he’s versatile in the field. In addition he’s cheap.

 

Versatile? He really should never play OF as he is not good, and is too injury prone. He is below average 1B. I like him, but lets not stretch things.

[adambr2]

We really underrate Thames here I think. He's got about a .900 OPS as a Brewer since being signed, even higher against just RHP. He's been a nice signing.

 

I agree he should never play in the OF. He needs regular maintenance and rest just like Braun. That's why he works perfect as a lefty platoon bat, it maximizes j his output while giving him just the right amount of time off.