Thomas was born in Jacksonville, Florida and began his baseball career at Mosley High School in Lynn Haven, Florida where he was a part of the state championship team in 2002. Played in Little League World Series 1996 with RL Turner Little League Panama City Florida\n', '

Thomas attended Auburn University, where he played right field and batted .328 on the 2005 team which lost to Florida State in the NCAA regional tournament. Then finishing his junior year, Thomas entered the draft and was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the sixth round on June 8 and signed on June 21, 2005. Initially assigned to the Oneonta Tigers in the New York–Penn League, Thomas was promoted to the West Michigan Whitecaps on July 13, and proceeded to appear in 51 games, hitting .284.\n', '

Thomas spent the 2006 season with the Lakeland Tigers, where he appeared in 132 games and hit .257 with 40 RBIs and 34 stolen bases. In 2007, he was promoted to Erie, where he hit .280 with 53 RBIs and 18 stolen bases. Thomas, along with fellow outfielder Matt Joyce, was considered a likely future major leaguer. Commenting on the two, then-Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski remarked that "We think they\'re both prospects...We\'re not counting on them for this year, but they\'ve got a chance to play at the Triple-A level (this season), depending on how they do this spring."\n', '

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