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By Connor Byrne | at
Email a copy of 'NL Notes: Thames, Posey, Dodgers, Phillies' to a friend
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Astros44
How bout dem Astros?
SixFlagsMagicPadres
Their rebuild is working, haha.
Maybe by around 2020, the Padres will become Astros 2.0.
66TheNumberOfTheBest
Padres have a lot of really nice pieces between Myers, Margot, Renfroe, Hedges, etc. but they need to get some pitching or they’ll be the Twins West.
padreforlife
Padres need to shore up defense. Myers is clunky at 1B
66TheNumberOfTheBest
Not sure what testing Eric Thames constantly proves.
I don’t think anyone (serious) is accusing him of being on PED’s currently. The implication is that he used them for years in Korea and is now benefiting from the body he built with them.
Neither the people defending him or accusing know the real truth, but I”m not sure what having him pee in a cup twice a week solves.
There is no evidence he used. It’s unlikely there ever will be.
smallg
I have no idea if he used peds in Korea, but dude has always been a beast. I remember, as a jays fan, that a few years back he slowed down on the weights one winter to concentrate on flexibility. He was getting so big he was losing some throwing ability from the outfield. Always hoped Thames would workout as a blue jay. He just couldn’t lay off pitches outside of the zone back then.
TheMichigan
He also had a very bad swing.
Like I’m in college and I’m pretty confident in saying I have a better swing than Thames did as a blue jay. His batting and launch angle was just absurd, and he could not hit a change up (or any off speed for that matter) anywhere, add that with his preference for swinging at pitches that weren’t strikes and you get a player who could barely play in the majors let alone in the minors.
Basically he just hit up the KBO and learned to hit off speeds since the KBO is so off speed heavy. Routinely Korean pitchers only top low nineties, they are focused more on deception and location over overpowering hitters. That’s why it is so batter friendly over there, not only are the parks hella short, but the pitching is far inferior to any sort of MLB pitching.
So it wasn’t steroids, it was Thames straightening (literally) his swing, learning to see what was a strike and learn to actually sit on a curveball that is causing his success right now.
liamsfg
Very well put. I remember watching a game where he hit 2 monster shots both on sliders around the knees. He smashed off speed stuff now. Guys will start to beat him if they have good hard stuff though.
Toksoon
Look at his baseball card and the listed weights ,, he was not always a beast he was like Sammy Sosa with the white sox, then he was like Sammy Sosa with the Cubs
lesterdnightfly
joshbelltrolls: What about his funny name? Any thoughts on that?
IloveMACfootball
Three tests in ten days is some BS
IloveMACfootball
Three tests in 10 days is serious BS. The players association should be in the Commissioners office Monday morning. Random test? Ha. Not if all the redneck pitchers make a stink about the new guy.
BlackBeltJones
I don’t quite understand the logic of testing someone three times in a ten day span. Do they think they will obtain a different sample in such a short time span? Like after the first test, do they think the player would think he was in the clear and immediately juice up?
JoeyPankake
Rich Hill should go work construction for a couple weeks. Toughen up, butter cup.
BlueSkyLA
With all this back-and-forth insulting, nobody seems to have identified the only things that actually matter: It is not up to Rich Hill to figure out how to cure his medical problems, no matter what they may be, it is entirely up to the team trainers and doctors. And it is certainly not up to him to decide when or how he will be able to pitch again, that’s entirely up to the coaching and management. Otherwise, spot on analysis. Very relevant. Well done.
Ready, fire, aim.