Upton not closer to the majors...

[warrick95]

Latest News Jun. 21, 2005 - 9:09 am et


It doesn't sound as if B.J. Upton will be returning to the majors any time soon.
''Honesty, right now, he's got to continue to progress,'' general manager Chuck LaMar said. ''I wish I could tell you that we are going to call him up tomorrow. But right now, he may not be quite as far along as we thought he would be at this time last year.'' Upton has been outstanding offensively this year, but continues to struggle on defense.
Source: Tampa Tribune




Doesn't that suck. Again, our team is not going anywhere. Does it really freaking matter where he's making errors? The only positive about this is that it's setting arbitration back until later...when our other prospects will be closer to being ready.

[Dawgpound 1613]

I honestly don't know the answer to this - but does he have more of an issue fielding or throwing? If the latter, why not move him to 2nd?

[raiders_umpire]

his main issue fielding from what i have seen of him is mainly more mental..... upton has an absolute cannon of a arm,,,but i would venture to guess that almost half of his errors are throwing and not fielding... even if he bobbles the ball at SS, his arm is good enough to throw most any runner out easily at first, but he tries to throw it over there at a 125 mph speed and throws it away... i have not seen anything mechanically wrong, as he sets his feet well and throws from a 3/4 to over the top angle...... and another thing i have noticed is that his fielding affects his hitting... if he makes a error in the field, on most nights he will also go hitless from that point on as well....and usually with BJ once a error comes, and few more comes along with it,, which makes u think that his error problem is more mental than anything else....


but i do believe he will make a good major league SS as most of the errors are easily correctable with just some good ole experience.....

[warrick95]

Both. He has all the tools to play there, but he simply gets careless on routine plays. He has the skills for sure. Upton gets streaky with fielding and goes on these tears where he's perfect, but then commits many errors after messing up on one.

[Dawgpound 1613]

Well, as with Sax and Knobloch, even the throws from 2B can be problematic if mental.

Good to hear that they are more mechanical - these things can be fixed with proper coaching. I hope they don't affect his confidence, though - which seems like it might be an issue.