Milwaukee Brewers first baseman (and a member of the 2007 La Crosse Loggers) Eric Thames hit his ninth and tenth home runs last night, continuing to show off an impressive display of hitting over the league’s first month.

By this point, the Thames tale is well known: bounced around between AAA and the majors, only to head overseas and dominate Korean baseball for four seasons. I was skeptical if he would be able to make the adjustment back to MLB pitching through the first series of the Brewers’ season, in which they saw plenty of high-caliber arms in the Colorado Rockies rotation and bullpen. He hit one homer through the first seven games, but then exploded for six homers in his next five.

Are they all going to come against the Cincinnati Reds? No, probably not, but he’s clearly comfortable hitting there.

I’ve adjusted my expectations for Thames now a couple of times over the past month. Entering the season, I would have been ectstatic with a 25 home run season. I then thought that 30 was definitely in play and then the thought of “You know, he just might hit 40!” certainly crept into my head more often than not. But as it stands right now, he has 10 home runs in 21 games, which extrapolates out to what would be a record 77 home runs. He’s most certainly not going to break Barry Bonds’ record of 73 long balls, but who’s to say 50 isn’t in play?

What’s encouraging is that he’s hitting all types of home runs. He’s crushing mistakes left out over the middle of the plate, but he’s also turning on inside pitching and going with pitches away, both for power. According to Sports Illustrated, it’s a combination of plate discipline and raw power. In my opinion, this pace isn’t sustainable, but it also isn’t a fluke.

Thames currently not only leads the league in home runs, but also slugging percentage (.910!), OPS (1.392!!), runs scored (24), total bases (61) and pretty much every advanced metric stat you can apply. He’s not just hitting home runs, but he’s a pretty complete hitter, too.

Although, I would love to see this exact group in the Home Run Derby this summer. Whoaaaaaa nelly.