Juston Upton minus the first 10 games of the season...

[sundevil04]

In his first 10 games of the year he was on FIRE batting .385 (15/39) with 6 HR's and 10RBI's.

...Since then he's batting .228 (36/158) with 8 HR's and 19 RBI's.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Who cares?? The Dbacks are 2.5 games up on the Giants. We have a brutal 10 day, 10 game stretch starting today with 4 in St. Louis.
We've got our own issues with key players on the DL, and key players/positions continuing to underperform (Prado, Montero, Kubel, Second Base).

Seriously... why continue to look back? Particularly at a trade where it's already been established that the majority of fans believe was wrong and that Towers got abused?? Those people aren't going to change their minds no matter what Upton, or Prado for that matter, end up doing... Let it go dude...

 

[Brian]

Who cares?? The Dbacks are 2.5 games up on the Giants. We have a brutal 10 day, 10 game stretch starting today with 4 in St. Louis.
We've got our own issues with key players on the DL, and key players/positions continuing to underperform (Prado, Montero, Kubel, Second Base).

Seriously... why continue to look back? Particularly at a trade where it's already been established that the majority of fans believe was wrong and that Towers got abused?? Those people aren't going to change their minds no matter what Upton, or Prado for that matter, end up doing... Let it go dude...

Word.

 

[Dback Jon]

Who cares?? The Dbacks are 2.5 games up on the Giants. We have a brutal 10 day, 10 game stretch starting today with 4 in St. Louis.
We've got our own issues with key players on the DL, and key players/positions continuing to underperform (Prado, Montero, Kubel, Second Base).

Seriously... why continue to look back? Particularly at a trade where it's already been established that the majority of fans believe was wrong and that Towers got abused?? Those people aren't going to change their minds no matter what Upton, or Prado for that matter, end up doing... Let it go dude...

Equal time?

 

[DWKB]

Montero's the one we're paying $10M to suck at the plate. I think this type of focus should be on him. Talk about getting a pass. I bet right now he'd kill to hit .230 with 8 HRs

 

[Avondale Red Rage]

Who cares?? The Dbacks are 2.5 games up on the Giants. We have a brutal 10 day, 10 game stretch starting today with 4 in St. Louis.
We've got our own issues with key players on the DL, and key players/positions continuing to underperform (Prado, Montero, Kubel, Second Base).

Seriously... why continue to look back? Particularly at a trade where it's already been established that the majority of fans believe was wrong and that Towers got abused?? Those people aren't going to change their minds no matter what Upton, or Prado for that matter, end up doing... Let it go dude...

June is going to be a good, tough stretch. Cardinals, NL West, hopefully a breather against the Marlins, then finish the month with tilts against the Nats, Reds, and Braves. Hudson could be back by the end of the month, and lets hope Skaggs builds on his 1st outing with a strong showing.

 

[sundevil04]

Who cares?? The Dbacks are 2.5 games up on the Giants. We have a brutal 10 day, 10 game stretch starting today with 4 in St. Louis.
We've got our own issues with key players on the DL, and key players/positions continuing to underperform (Prado, Montero, Kubel, Second Base).

Seriously... why continue to look back? Particularly at a trade where it's already been established that the majority of fans believe was wrong and that Towers got abused?? Those people aren't going to change their minds no matter what Upton, or Prado for that matter, end up doing... Let it go dude...

Well somebody got their panties in a bunch. So sorry to upset you sweatheart. Following a former player of his calibur is something many fans would be interested in. Feel free to get lost.

 

[thirty-two]

Well somebody got their panties in a bunch. So sorry to upset you sweatheart. Following a former player of his calibur is something many fans would be interested in. Feel free to get lost.

Panties? Sweetheart? There are women who post here, and I don't appreciate your response.

That said, I appreciated your original post as I do want to keep up on former D-backs, especially because Justin was a longtime D-back.

 

[sundevil04]

UPDATE - J Up since April 12 (first 10 games) batting .222 with 9Hr and 27 RBI in 243 AB's. Extrapolate that out over a 550+ AB season and you get a whopping 18hr's and 55 RBI's for the full season!

Ill eat crow, I HATED the trade when we made it. It's starting to look like the front office knew something I didn't.

 

[DWKB]

UPDATE - J Up since April 12 (first 10 games) batting .222 with 9Hr and 27 RBI in 243 AB's. Extrapolate that out over a 550+ AB season and you get a whopping 18hr's and 55 RBI's for the full season!

Ill eat crow, I HATED the trade when we made it. It's starting to look like the front office knew something I didn't.

A) you're cheating at stats

B) how do you explain Prado when talking about the intelligence of this FO?

 

[JS22]

The thing that worries me about Upton, and IMO, shows that he'll never be a true superstar, is that he has been awful this year unless he has something to prove.

At the start of the season he came out on fire. Trying to prove everyone wrong. He started to slow down (In a HUGE way) once people gave him recognition. Made him a shoe-in for the MVP, etc. Then he goes into a HORRIBLE slump that has lasted almost 2 months now. But when the Dbacks come to town it's like he has to "prove them wrong" and puts up pretty decent numbers in the series.

 

[DWKB]

The thing that worries me about Upton, and IMO, shows that he'll never be a true superstar, is that he has been awful this year unless he has something to prove.

At the start of the season he came out on fire. Trying to prove everyone wrong. He started to slow down (In a HUGE way) once people gave him recognition. Made him a shoe-in for the MVP, etc. Then he goes into a HORRIBLE slump that has lasted almost 2 months now. But when the Dbacks come to town it's like he has to "prove them wrong" and puts up pretty decent numbers in the series.

Upton has just lost his swing, which he has a propensity to do. That's the concern of the kid. I think the idea that he has to "prove something" is just looking for more meaning than there is and it seems to get attributed to this kid more than your average MLB player. I don't think baseball works that way unlike say, basketball.

 

[sundevil04]

A) you're cheating at stats

Explain yourself

 

[DWKB]

Explain yourself

You can't take out the positive factors in a sample set and extrapolate from the remaining data. It's called cherry picking and it's poor form.

Upton full data set puts him on pace for around 30 HR, 100 runs scored and 85 RBI or a 2009/2011 type season. That doesn't mean he will finish with those numbers but it has more of a foundation than the ones you came up with.

 

[82CardsGrad]

A) you're cheating at stats

B) how do you explain Prado when talking about the intelligence of this FO?

To be fair, Prado essentially a 7 year resume (5 if you knock out the first 2 years where he had less than 100 at-bats). In those 5 seasons, he batted over .300 4 times! It really wasn't a stretch to assume that he would at least come close to that as a Diamondback...

 

[devilalum]

A) you're cheating at stats

B) how do you explain Prado when talking about the intelligence of this FO?

How is that cheating? Seems pretty standard to me.

Not sure what you mean about Prado but he has been disappointing to say the least. He has increased his BA over the last month or so but I can't recall a single game when he had a really clutch hit or carried the team. The booth crew goes on and on and on about how wonderful he WAS but we haven't SEEN much of that at all.

 

[JS22]

I wonder if it's just going to go down as pretty much a wash for both teams. Upton will never quite reach the potential that he shows in stretches, and Prado will continue his career as a solid player who's a good clubhouse guy. Although, Prado is not the same guy this year that he's been for most of his career.

 

[DWKB]

To be fair, Prado essentially a 7 year resume (5 if you knock out the first 2 years where he had less than 100 at-bats). In those 5 seasons, he batted over .300 4 times! It really wasn't a stretch to assume that he would at least come close to that as a Diamondback...

The devil is in the details I think. Prado has only played over 150 games once. The past two years he spent the majority of his time in LF. Add on to that that he's on the wrong side of MLB age peak and you've got a lot of risk. He's currently on pace to equal his GP career high and he's playing the vast majority of his time at 2B/3B. Two positions MUCH more demanding than LF. It looks like he just can't handle what is being asked and the offense is a byproduct. Something the FO should have factored in and if they did, they seem to have factored wrong. They get paid for these decisions, there isn't much room for "who knew" and a shrug.

How is that cheating? Seems pretty standard to me.

Not sure what you mean about Prado but he has been disappointing to say the least. He has increased his BA over the last month or so but I can't recall a single game when he had a really clutch hit or carried the team. The booth crew goes on and on and on about how wonderful he WAS but we haven't SEEN much of that at all.

See my post above about stat cheating.

As for my point about Prado. If you give credit to FO for seeing JUp slump, do you not also give blame for Prado horrible year?

 

[82CardsGrad]

The devil is in the details I think. Prado has only played over 150 games once. The past two years he spent the majority of his time in LF. Add on to that that he's on the wrong side of MLB age peak and you've got a lot of risk. He's currently on pace to equal his GP career high and he's playing the vast majority of his time at 2B/3B. Two positions MUCH more demanding than LF. It looks like he just can't handle what is being asked and the offense is a byproduct. Something the FO should have factored in and if they did, they seem to have factored wrong. They get paid for these decisions, there isn't much room for "who knew" and a shrug.

I dunno... Over the previous 4 consecutive seasons, he had 503, 651, 590 & 690 plate appearances. He batted .307, 307, .260 and .301 during those years. IMHO, that is a pretty solid track record. He turns 30 this October which is really when a player is in the middle of his prime playing years.
I really don't believe the Dbacks went too far out on a limb here, based upon Prado's historical performances... Of course, he is not at all comparable to the type of production Upton is capable of producing - and I really don't think the Dbacks saw Prado that way.
They simply knew they needed to part ways with Justin and in the end, Prado represented a value they were comfortable with (along with Delgado)... Given Upton's irratic - at best - performance this year and over the course of his career, I remain comfortable with the decision that was made... HOWEVER, it goes without saying that Prado's sub-par performance thus far has been hugely disappointing. There is no other way to say it - he has absolutely SUCKED thus far... But then again, so have Miggy, Ross, Kubel and others...

 

[DWKB]

I dunno... Over the previous 4 consecutive seasons, he had 503, 651, 590 & 690 plate appearances. He batted .307, 307, .260 and .301 during those years. IMHO, that is a pretty solid track record. He turns 30 this October which is really when a player is in the middle of his prime playing years.
I really don't believe the Dbacks went too far out on a limb here, based upon Prado's historical performances... Of course, he is not at all comparable to the type of production Upton is capable of producing - and I really don't think the Dbacks saw Prado that way.
They simply knew they needed to part ways with Justin and in the end, Prado represented a value they were comfortable with (along with Delgado)... Given Upton's irratic - at best - performance this year and over the course of his career, I remain comfortable with the decision that was made... HOWEVER, it goes without saying that Prado's sub-par performance thus far has been hugely disappointing. There is no other way to say it - he has absolutely SUCKED thus far... But then again, so have Miggy, Ross, Kubel and others...

You and I are looking at two different things. You're looking at performance and I'm looking at durability. Prado's PAs are good to look at if you want to validate his performance, but Games Played does a better job looking at his durability. Prado is a career lead off/second order hitter so his PA/G will be higher than avg, but an extra PA/G is not going wear on a player as much as an extra game.

I know you know that 3B/2B is more taxing on a player than LF. Prado hasn't played significant innings at 3B/2B since 2010 when he was 27. He's played more LF than any other position in his career.

The DBacks are running him in the red and his early season slump is going to be year long I predict because of wear on the body of a minor injury prone player. Prado is not young enough, durable enough, or athletic enough to handle a full season in the IF and I think his offense is struggling because of this. Looking at his player card and not being in the clubhouse it's the most logical conclusion I can make.

I think Tower's should have factored this in honestly and either he didn't and screwed up or he did and was wrong. I think the idea that Prado will be our 3B for the next couple of years and hit his rather empty .300 avg was the wrong bet personally and Towers screwed up. This isn't even about Upton.

 

[82CardsGrad]

You and I are looking at two different things. You're looking at performance and I'm looking at durability. Prado's PAs are good to look at if you want to validate his performance, but Games Played does a better job looking at his durability. Prado is a career lead off/second order hitter so his PA/G will be higher than avg, but an extra PA/G is not going wear on a player as much as an extra game.

I know you know that 3B/2B is more taxing on a player than LF. Prado hasn't played significant innings at 3B/2B since 2010 when he was 27. He's played more LF than any other position in his career.

The DBacks are running him in the red and his early season slump is going to be year long I predict because of wear on the body of a minor injury prone player. Prado is not young enough, durable enough, or athletic enough to handle a full season in the IF and I think his offense is struggling because of this. Looking at his player card and not being in the clubhouse it's the most logical conclusion I can make.

I think Tower's should have factored this in honestly and either he didn't and screwed up or he did and was wrong. I think the idea that Prado will be our 3B for the next couple of years and hit his rather empty .300 avg was the wrong bet personally and Towers screwed up. This isn't even about Upton.

It looks to me like he didn't start any games in the outfield in 2009 and 2010. it wasn't until 2011 that the Braves moved him to the outfield... That said, I definitely agree that playng the infield is far more taxing on a player than the outfield. My own left knee can attest to that!
And I didn't realize the Braves were using Prado as a leadoff and/or 2nd in the order hitter? I know he is always extremely low in strikeouts, but man - I just can't see anything about his game that suggests he should be a leadoff hitter.