2004 Bowman, Freddy Thon

#BDP13 Freddy Thon

Here is a card that I got signed at a Kansas City T-Bones game last year. Freddy was playing for the Joliet Jackhammers at the time and I was able to get this card signed while he was walking from the clubhouse to the field. The clubhouses at Community America Ballpark are beyond the right field fence, so the players have to walk down the grass berm to get to the field. It is a little unusual, to say the least, but it is great for the autograph seekers.

Freddy was drafted by the Rangers out of Villanova in the 18th round of the 2004 draft. He played that summer with the Rangers Arizona League team and hit .291 in 51 games. He moved up to the Northwest League the next season and he hit .279, but he only played in 54 games. Still, he was bumped up to the Midwest League the next season and he did good enough to earn a mid-season promotion to the California League. He repeated the California League in 2007 and he finished the year hitting .284 with 11 home runs.

Apparently, that wasn't good enough for the Rangers and Freddy found himself playing for the Jackhammers in 2008. He must have shown some potential there because the White Sox signed him mid-season and assigned him to the Carolina League's Winston-Salem Warthogs. He was hitting .264 through 27 games before the Sox moved him up to AA. In Freddy's only taste of AA action, he hit .107 in 28 at-bats. After that, he was sent back to Joliet, where he still plays. That could change though since the fate of the Northern League is now in limbo.