B.J. Upton On Batting 9th: "Almost like a kick in the face"

Why give the idiots in this town any more fuel? Ugh.

We don’t need someone with a bad attitude on the roster. DFA please

A few years back when BJ was making the transition from 3rd to the outfield a scout within the Rays rated him the best overall outfielder on our team. This was huge because he had never played a full season in the outfield and was already valued higher than CC. BJ’s path to the big leagues was rough due to being called up too early and poor management in Durham. Between his position changes and all the crap he’s been through with the Rays I can understand his frustration. This comment isn’t a big deal and if you’ve followed the Rays for a while, we’ve heard a lot worse. I’d like to see him bat 6th to potentially get more at bats over the course of the season.

8 Back in the standings now.

Not to mention the 11-2 beating. That probably doesn’t make him feel like rainbows and lollipops.

Should’ve been more, but cheerio good folk.

This week has gone almost perfect.

that of you really have to bash upton now, b/c these last two complaints are on par if not worse then anything CC has ever said.

and I’m a huge BJ fan and have support him everystep of the way.

that being said he needs to stfu and just worry about hitting the baseball right now. He is still extremely valuable to this team because of his defense and his speed when he does get on but if someone ask him a question about the batting order all he needs to say is I’m working to be the best I can be and help this team out. There is no need for him to talk about getting kicked in the face. All that it is going to do is bring on more criticism and if that kind of thing gets to him it is the last thing he needs.

Or maybe they’re too distracted by football to care.

Here’s hoping for the latter.

Made the mistake of listening to Silly-O on the way into work. Upton should either be traded or benched (according to mass public). He’s horrible, he’es never been good and he’s lazy (well that I knew).

Also, we picked up 1.5 games this weekend. A week ago (maybe 10 days) we were 5.5 out. We had to pick up a game every 10 we played. Now we’re 1.5 out with plenty fo time and some head to head series still. I’d say, though we got our ass beat yesterday, we’re still in great shape.

and get raked over the coals for it. What more would you want him to say? The prior criticism was that he wasn’t showing any emotion. Now he is and that’s not good enough either.

But there’s a lot of pre-swing movement with his bat. Not uncommon for hitters, of course, but in BJ’s case, he seems to just drop his hands enough before swinging (which is a bit too long to begin with) to misalign his stroke. Which is why he hits so many pop fouls, grounders, and whiffs. It’s a matter of inches, probably less in most cases.

Life is hard. And so am I. If you don’t start your hitting, I’m gonna die. Novoca-aine for the soul. Seriously, cut down the K’s, take a walk at least once a series and you’ll get better pitches to hit. Then hit them. Hard.

RaysRock2008 (8/10/2009 at 2:15 AM)
Did you see what BJ said about being dropped to ninth? And right after Maddon told his players to put the team before the ego?
That’s why, struggling or not, Carlos is so important for the team. He’s such a leader and takes things like that as an opportunity. He always puts the team first! BJ needs to sit a couple games for that statement.