Knuckle Curve » b_j_upton http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve Major League Baseball News from Spring Training to the World Series Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:44:39 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Upton or Cano? http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve/upton-or-cano/ http://www.everyjoe.com/knucklecurve/upton-or-cano/#comments Wed, 23 Jan 2008 17:59:34 +0000 Geoff Young http://www.knucklecurve.com/upton-or-cano/ Post from: Knuckle Curve

]]> Eric at Rays Anatomy has a fun post up debating the relative merits of B.J. Upton and Robinson Cano. I’m pretty squarely in the Upton camp on this one. Cano is a terrific young player, but much of his value is tied into batting average, and second basemen don’t always age well.

Upton, meanwhile, just posted a 136 OPS+ as a 22-year-old, which is ridiculous. In the history of baseball, 48 players have been that productive at that age. Only 11 of those seasons have come in the last 30 years:

  • Jack Clark, 1978, 152 OPS+
  • Eddie Murray, 1978, 140
  • Rickey Henderson, 1981, 150
  • Cal Ripken, 1983, 144
  • Ken Griffey Jr., 1992, 149
  • Vladimir Guerrero, 1998, 150
  • Alex Rodriguez, 1998, 136
  • Albert Pujols, 2002, 151
  • David Wright, 2005, 139
  • Miguel Cabrera, 2005, 151
  • B.J. Upton, 2007, 136

Basically Upton had A-Rod’s age-22 season. Works for me…

Post from: Knuckle Curve

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