B.J. Upton for left field/lead off

[Hondo]

Hey guys,

I have wrote about Greinke, Reyes, Justin Upton, and Now I will write about BJ Upton...

I think the guy has a lot of skills... Power/Speed... K's way too much though... but posts a .345 OBP for his career... Last 2 years have been belove avergae .313 & .322 in 2009 & 2010... But in 2007-2008 had a .386 & .383...

Rays need a 1B... Rays need to shed payroll... Upton 3 Million in 2010 will get a bump in the 5-6 Million Range...

I think he would be a good player to acquire...

Yonder Alonso for BJ Upton striaght up... I think the Trade helps both Teams...

Reds get a LF who can Lead off...

[brm7675]

Rays are going to want proven talent, Yonder to this point has not shown enough to warren them getting just him. I could see Yonder and maybe either a Leake or Wood, which if the case i wouldn't do. I would go with maybe Fransico/Bailey for him...

[Hondo]

Rays are going to want proven talent, Yonder to this point has not shown enough to warren them getting just him. I could see Yonder and maybe either a Leake or Wood, which if the case i wouldn't do. I would go with maybe Fransico/Bailey for him...

I wouldnt trade Leake or Wood for him but I think Alonso would get it done... A payroll slashing move for the Rays for sure and get a replacement possibly for Pena at 1st Base in Alonso...

Do you think Upton would be a good addition? For left field and lead off?

[Pony Boy]

I wouldn't trade Yonder straight up for BJ Upton. Too light of a hitter to play a corner OF position and we have a better CF in Stubbs. We should be targeting a player with more bat and less glove than Upton.

[Hondo]

I wouldn't trade Yonder straight up for BJ Upton. Too light of a hitter to play a corner OF position and we have a better CF in Stubbs. We should be targeting a player with more bat and less glove than Upton.

I was skimming the teams for players available... BJ Upton has some upside... He hit 24 Homers 3 years ago and I believe he would find more POWER at GAB plus his glove would be great in Left, not to mention he would be a Lead off hitter...

[Pony Boy]

Double post...

[brm7675]

I wouldn't trade Yonder straight up for BJ Upton. Too light of a hitter to play a corner OF position and we have a better CF in Stubbs. We should be targeting a player with more bat and less glove than Upton.

Okay whom do we target?

[Pony Boy]

I was skimming the teams for players available... BJ Upton has some upside... He hit 24 Homers 3 years ago and I believe he would find more POWER at GAB plus his glove would be great in Left, not to mention he would be a Lead off hitter...

I just feel like we would be paying for something that we don't really need with Upton. We don't really need a CF type defender in left. We need a great bat and a capable glove, not a great glove and capable bat. Upton would be much more valuable to a team that needs a CF, which fortunately is not us.

[Hondo]

I just feel like we would be paying for something that we don't really need with Upton. We don't really need a CF type defender in left. We need a great bat and a capable glove, not a great glove and capable bat. Upton would be much more valuable to a team that needs a CF, which fortunately is not us.

This Team needs a LEAD OFF HITTER so he has to play either SS or Left Field...

[nmculbreth]

This Team needs a LEAD OFF HITTER so he has to play either SS or Left Field...

If that is true why would the Reds have an interest in BJ Upton? I don't understand why anyone would be clamoring for BJ Upton when the club already has Drew Stubbs, who profiles to be a similar player. If you're uncomfortable with the thought of Stubbs leading off, why would you want to add Upton?

[brm7675]

I wouldnt trade Leake or Wood for him but I think Alonso would get it done... A payroll slashing move for the Rays for sure and get a replacement possibly for Pena at 1st Base in Alonso...

Do you think Upton would be a good addition? For left field and lead off?

A) why would the Rays want an untested player for a decent ML talent?
B) He is okay but kinda expensive and is kinda a head case, I would pass

[brm7675]

This Team needs a LEAD OFF HITTER so he has to play either SS or Left Field...

So you don't think Stubbs or Phillips can fit that bill?

[Hondo]

So you don't think Stubbs or Phillips can fit that bill?

We have already spoken about Phillips. Bat .306 in the 2 hole to .251 in lead off...

I think BJ Upton has a Higher OBP than Stubbs and has hit .300 before...

I am not saying he isnt similar too Stubbs but this team needs to make an improvement somewhere... This is a player available that fits OF and Lead off... AVAILABLE

[Quatitos]

                                                                                                                                           
Year                      Age            Tm            Lg   G   PA   AB   R   H  2B 3B HR RBI  SB CS  BB  SO   BA  OBP  SLG  OPS OPS+   Pos
2004                       19           TBD            AL  45  177  159  19  41   8  2  4  12   4  1  15  46 .258 .324 .409 .733   93 65D/7
2006                       21           TBD            AL  50  189  175  20  43   5  0  1  10  11  3  13  40 .246 .302 .291 .593   56     5
2007                       22           TBD            AL 129  548  474  86 142  25  1 24  82  22  8  65 154 .300 .386 .508 .894  136  84/D
2008                       23           TBR            AL 145  640  531  85 145  37  2  9  67  44 16  97 134 .273 .383 .401 .784  108  *8/D
2009                       24           TBR            AL 144  626  560  79 135  33  4 11  55  42 14  57 152 .241 .313 .373 .686   82    *8
2010                       25           TBR            AL 154  610  536  89 127  38  4 18  62  42  9  67 164 .237 .322 .424 .745  105    *8
6 Seasons           6 Seasons     6 Seasons     6 Seasons 667 2790 2435 378 633 146 13 67 288 165 51 314 690 .260 .345 .413 .758        102
162 Game Avg.   162 Game Avg. 162 Game Avg. 162 Game Avg. 162  678  591  92 154  35  3 16  70  40 12  76 168 .260 .345 .413 .758        102

Upton did have some really good years in 07 and 08, with 07 being his best year. Since 08 he has had his average go down each year and the only part his game he has seemed to improve on is his base stealing, with 42 steals and 9 CS being very impressive.

He seems to suffer from some of the same problems that Stubbs is ridiculed for in terms of his ability in the lead off spot, high SO numbers and too much power to be wasted at the top of the order (not something I believe in but enough people think that 20 HR potential is wasted in the leadoff spot). Now, moving out of the AL east would probably give him a bump in his overall batting stats.

For the price it would take to land him (I would imagine that it would be a steeper price than just straight up for Alonso), I would prefer the Reds don't try and make a sideways move like this since Upton and Stubbs are so similar and Upton seems like he would only provide around a ~.750 OPS, not enough for a corner spot. If we were to pursue another outfielder I would rather pursue Fred Lewis as a platoon mate for Gomes and part time leadoff hitter split with Stubbs.

[Nathan]

For some reason, and I can't put my fingers on it, I don't want anything to do with either of the Upton brothers. There's something about them I don't like.