February 10, 2012

Now Available for 2012


THT Essentials:

Now Available



The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2012, an annual "must buy" for all baseball fans, is now shipping. Read this article to learn more about it.
Fangraphs Player Search:

THT's latest book


Third Base: The Crossroads is THT's new e-book, available for $3.99 from the Kindle store. The good news is that anyone can read a Kindle book, even on a PC. So enjoy the best from THT in a new format.

And here's the full roster.



Dish TV Packages options for all televised baseball games.



Or you can search by:

Sports Tickets

Gear up for baseball season with Chicago White Sox tickets and New York Yankees tickets. LA Angels tickets, Houston Astros tickets, and Atlanta Braves tickets are hot sellers! You can get Boston Red Sox tickets, San Diego Padres tickets or Chicago Cubs tickets for your favorite baseball fan. Coast to Coast Tickets has the best MLB tickets like Minnesota Twins tickets, LA Dodgers tickets, Milwaukee Brewers tickets, New York Met tickets and St. Louis Cardinals tickets.
Championship Tickets






Creative Commons License
All content on this site (including text, graphs, and any other original works), unless otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Part of the USA Today Sports Media Group

Player Profile: My street accident, B.J. Upton

by Mike Silver
August 12, 2009



Mike is currently working in Public Relations for the Colorado Rockies' AAA affiliate, the Colorado Springs Sky Sox - much in part to his experiences at The Hardball Times.

A recent graduate of the UMass-Amherst Sport Management Program, Mike can also be found at Firebrand of the American League (firebrandal.com) and Statistically Speaking (Statspeak.net). If you have any questions or comments, you can reach him at mjasilver AT gmail DOT com. He would love to hear it.

Comments

Derek Carty said...

Welcome aboard, Mike!  Great to have you on the team.

Posted 08/12  at  04:05 PM
Mike Silver said...

Thanks Derek. It’s good to be here. And thanks for the comment, it was getting a little lonely.

Posted 08/12  at  04:15 PM
Adam said...

Mike Cameron is a very underrated fantasy player… Especially if your league uses CF eligibility.

Posted 08/12  at  04:25 PM
Jason B said...

Good article - one minor fix - “waiting with baited breath” should be “waiting with BATED breath”.  As in, abated, or halted.  Not baited, like a fishing line.

Keep up the good work! For Upton to become Cameron, he would need a lot of people to basically give up on him, such that he flies under the radar (as Cameron tends to, some of which may be due to his age).  At Upton’s younger age, with the potential he’s flashed, he will always go considerably higher than Cameron because of what he *might* do one day. Cameron is a known commodity at this point, but someone always seems willing to jump in earlier than they should on a player like Upton, on the off-chance that “this is the year he puts it all together”.

Posted 08/12  at  04:56 PM
Paul Moehringer said...

Well Upton got off to an awful start this year, but since the beginning of June he hasn’t been that bad.

He’s hitting around .260 since June, but I think he’s biggest problem is that he’s trying to turn himself into a 40 home run a year guy, and that’s just not going to happen.

Upton loves that low-inside pitch.  But what happens when you get a low outside pitch instead?

Answer if you try to upper cut pull it, your going to wind up flying out to right field, which is exactly what B.J. Upton is doing this year, and for his entire career for that matter.  Check his hit chart if you don’t believe me.

He hasn’t forgotten how to hit the changeup.  Pitchers have just figured out he’s probably going up to the plate looking for that low inside fastball every at-bat.  So they give him the low outside change up, he’s early on it, and he flies out to right.

If he ever wants to be anymore then a .270 hitter with some power, he needs to learn how to be a hitter to all fields, instead of trying to be Mark McGwire.

Otherwise, he’ll be a very good player, may even make an all-star team or two in his career, but he’ll never be considered an elite outfielder, and I think that’s the far more likely route he’ll take for his career.

For fantasy owners in a keeper league.  He’s a nice player to have, but he’ll probably never be somebody who you will be able to build a team around.  He’s a tremendous athlete though, and there’s definately going to be people out there, where that’s all they’re going to see.  I’d look to trade him.  You’ll get a much better package in return then he will ever provide you with.

Posted 08/13  at  06:37 AM
Chad Burke said...

He got hot in June and it carried into July but he has been pretty awful again since the break.  I had a tough dilemna with him in that I am in the thick of things for the title and have a couple of people I could catch in SB with Upton my biggest source of steals for that team.  I ended up giving up a bit of power and trading for Nyjer Morgan so hopefully that will boost my speed. 

I thought I’d be pretty well set for speed with Reyes and Upton in my early picks and a few other guys late that had the potential to steal 20 bags but Upton’s been the only guy on my roster stealing bases.  Tough to bench him and lose a category but he’s killing my OBP lately.

Posted 08/14  at  11:50 AM
Page 1 of 1
Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.




The best online source for major league baseball tickets is Ticket City.