Marcus Thames' time with Tigers is over
Lynn Henning
The Detroit News
November 07, 2009 06:04 AM
Not surprisingly, his voice was clear and upbeat.
Marcus Thames sounded no different from the Thames who had hit his share of home runs during five seasons with the Tigers, who had kept his mouth shut when he did not play as often as he would have preferred, and who now is free to sign with another club after the Tigers decided Friday to release him along with backup catcher Matt Treanor.
"I'll be fine, I'm in good spirits," Thames said, speaking from his home state of Mississippi as he traveled north for a weekend with friends in Tennessee. "I talked with Skip (manager Jim Leyland), and it's just business.
"I could see it toward the end of the season. Raburn (Ryan, reserve outfielder) was playing well, and I never could get into a rhythm. Carlos (Guillen), they have a lot of money invested in him and I saw where he wants to play every day in left field.
"I had a fun time. Now it's time to move on."
Thames, 32, leaves after parts of six seasons with the Tigers, who discovered he was a prime-time power-hitter who, until this season, had one of the most potent ratios of home runs per times at-bat of any player in the majors.
But he fell off in '09, when he hit 13 homers in 87 games, while batting .252 with 36 RBIs.
Thames had it analyzed correctly: Guillen's expensive contract ($26 million through 2011), and Raburn's emergence (16 home runs) made Thames expendable when he was arbitration-eligible and already on the payroll to the tune of $2.275 million.
Thames was signed as a minor league free agent in 2003 after stints with the Yankees, who drafted him, and Rangers. After splitting 2004 and '05 between Triple-A Toledo and Detroit, he arrived as a major league slugger whose best seasons were 2006 (26 homers) and 2008 (25).
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(Image: Robin Buckson / The Detroit News)
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