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.