Eric Thames now has an open invitation to the "The Bryant Man Cage" this offseason.
Thames had been so far off the baseball map that Kris Bryant didn't realize they both live in Las Vegas and used to play in the West Coast Conference. But where Bryant's fast track made him a Rookie of the Year, National League MVP and World Series champion within three-and-a-half years of leaving the University of San Diego, Thames has bounced around since the Toronto Blue Jays grabbed him in the seventh round of the 2008 draft out of Pepperdine University.
Traded to the Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles in the middle of the 2012 and 2013 seasons.