Justin Upton's Greatness

by RJK on May 29, 2009 2:00 PM EDT in Baseball Comment 3 comments

Justin Upton's first hit in '09 came in the Diamondback's 8th game. When he stepped to the plate in the 10th inning on April 14th he was 0 for 15. Since that time he's hitting .381 and is on a run only rivaled by the currently inhuman Joe Mauer.

I was lucky enough to pick him up on May 1st in a shallow league. At the time he was hitting .250 with 2 HR and 8 RBI. Since then he's hitting a cool .393 with 25 runs, 7 HR, 21 RBI, and 5 steals.

Let's take a look at Justin Upton's greatness with a Did You Know segment:

Did you know that Justin Upton . . . .

- has a 1.000+ OPS against 7 of his 11 opponents in '09?

- is 21 yrs old and has a career .836 OPS? He's still the 3rd youngest player in the NL.

- has a career 1.098 OPS in the playoffs? Oh yeah, he was 19 in the 2007 playoffs.

- is hitting .395/.457/.778 from the third spot in the order? Guess where he's staying?

- has a OPS+ of 161 in '09?

- is Yahoo's 6th ranked fantasy player in May?

- is Yahoo's 9th ranked OF?

- leads the NL in triples with 4?

- is 2nd in the NL in XBH with 25?

- hit this frozen rope? You have to love the home run call

- hit this moon shot? Wally Moon would be proud.

- 's homerun's average 421 feet? That's 24 feet longer on average than the rest of the NL.

In March, I asked Chris Liss of Rotowire (known lover of Upton) who would be taken in the 10th round or later in 2009 drafts but would end up a being top 40 pick in the 2010 draft. His answer was Justin Upton.

Poll

What round does Justin Upton go in the 2010 draft?

1st-2nd

42 votes

3rd-4th

42 votes

5th-6th

17 votes

7th or later

2 votes

103 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Who will end up being better Justin Upton or Adam Jones?

"There are no next times when you're competing for big things." - Tom Izzo
Go Spartans

by msufan23 on May 29, 2009 3:25 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Great question

Jones’ defense makes it closer than we might think. I’d still be willing to bet that 2/3 of the GM’s would rather have Upton. For what it’s worth, Upton turns 22 in August and Jones turns 24. Both have a lot to drool over.

When I interviewed Jonah Keri back in March (http://bit.ly/UvK8u) he said Upton’s ceiling comp is Roberto Clemente or Strawberry in his peak years. Not bad company.

by RJK on May 29, 2009 3:34 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs