Detroit Tigers: Thomas Up, Kelly Down

Clete Thomas was sent down to the minors in June to work out a few kinks in his swing. Tigers manager Jim Leyland instructed Thomas to shorten his swing in order to cut down on strikeouts. In 114 at bats, Thomas had 25 strikeouts and was hitting .237 with 4 HR ,17 RBI, and one stolen base. While in Toledo, Thomas hit .357 in his past 21 games for the Mud Hens after making adjustments to get his bat head through the zone quicker. Leyland said Thomas will start against the Royals on Wednesday, most likely in left field where he’ll platoon with Ryan Raburn. Props to Kurt at MackAvenueTigers.com, he has been pushing for this Thomas move for awhile now. I think we all agree that its the right move, as Kelly had cooled down and was hitting a Dane Sardinha-like line of .250/.308/.354 in 48 at-bats with the Tigers. Wow, sadly that’s still over 100 points higher than not-so-great Dane. Seriously though, glad to see Clete back in Detroit. I'm looking forwar...