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2008 The shape of Thigpen's performance is a bit different from that of Robinson Diaz's, but the two end up in about the same place. Thigpen, however, gets higher marks for his defense, particularly for working with pitchers. A job-sharing arrangement with Gregg Zaun is likely this year, with Thigpen having an opportunity to win the job if his bat comes around. As you can see, the first few drafts of the J.P. Ricciardi era, which focused on collegians, were wildly unproductive. We praised the approach at the time, but as Rany Jazayerli has noted, there's not much edge in drafting collegians any longer, and very little sense in emphasizing one subset of players over another. 2007 Thigpen, who played mostly first base at Texas behind Taylor Teagarden, has gone from being a bit of novelty to an organizational favorite. His defense is surprisingly well-regarded, and, while the home runs haven`t come yet, he`s hit for enough doubles to project for 10-15 homers annually in the big leagues to go with a decent OBP. He`s not a future All-Star, but could be a future big league regular, and, given the lack of catching depth in Toronto, that chance could come sooner rather than later. 2006 Primarily a first baseman in college (Taylor Teagarden was doing the catching for the Texas Longhorns), Thigpen has endeared himself to the Jays with very impressive plate discipline and the hints of power to come. He`s one of the youngest hitters in the system to reach Double-A, and another solid season could put him on the road to Toronto, where just like everywhere else, it`s impossible to have too many catchers who can hit.
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