Fantastic News; B.J. Upton Shouldn't Miss Any Time

by R.J. Anderson on Apr 19, 2009 7:26 PM EDT

Instead Upton is being listed as day-to-day, but should be in the lineup when the Rays play next, which is of course Tuesday in Seattle.

Upton has been excellent defensively but thus far has struggled offensively. His plate discipline is still wicked -- he's swinging out of zone on only 15% of pitches, just like last year -- but his contact skills haven't been there quite yet, and Upton has whiffed nearly 40% of the time. That seemed to have been improving over the last few games and to his credit Upton has still been walking and -- successfully -- bunting to get his way on board.

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Great News

Living in NY I don’t get to see the Rays in person very often. We were in St Pete last week for spring vacation, so I got the family tickets to see Rays-Yankees game #3.

It’s one thing to see Upton cover the field on TV. It’s quite another to see it Live. I couldn’t get over how much area he and Crawford were covering with ease. A few Yankee fans sitting in front of us kept commenting how much more impressive our OF defense was than NY’s, and I told them I felt one of the keys to our pitching staff was Bartlett-Upton-Crawford.

I’ll tell you though…have to admit Bret Gardner looks really good defensively. I think the Yankees have found their center fielder for the future. Thing is, I bet they get impatient and bring in someone else.

by RayFanNY on Apr 19, 2009 7:47 PM EDT reply actions

Gardner?

Call me when he figures out major league pitching.

by Lurch's Lobbyists on Apr 19, 2009 10:09 PM EDT up reply actions

Woohoo!

After that game, I needed a bit of good news…

"I never threw an illegal pitch. The trouble is, once in a while I toss one that ain't never been seen by this generation." - Satchel Paige

by Steve Slowinski on Apr 19, 2009 7:56 PM EDT reply actions

Thank god. Kapler in CF on a regular basis might be a bit too much.

by ReasonableDoubt on Apr 19, 2009 8:18 PM EDT reply actions

awesome awesome awesome

by daveh33 on Apr 19, 2009 8:20 PM EDT reply actions

thats so awesome

I was really thinking that even if it was nothing serious, Maddon would play it safe and have him skip the Seattle series. No Kapler makes me happy.

I think our everyday starters should be

C Dioner Navarro
1B Carlos Pena
2B Akinori Iwamura
SS Jason Bartlett
3B Evan Longoria
LF Carl Crawford
CF B.J Upton
RF Ben Zobrist (lets face it the random pop is much better than Kapler being dumb and Gross still not showing up for this year)
DH Pat the Bat

I wish Burrell could play a decent RF and Aybar would be DH

2010 Rotation: 1. Shields 2. Kazmir 3. Garza 4. Price 5. Davis with Hellickson knocking on the door, it keeps getting better and better

by joeybw on Apr 19, 2009 10:15 PM EDT reply actions