Atlanta Braves Signing BJ Upton: 3 Years Later

Are you a glass half full type of person? Or are you a glass is half empty type of person?

Either way, you are NOT going to like what you are about to read.

Brace yourself …. BJ Upton Sucks.

Ok! moment passed. Now that we have all gotten that out of our system let’s look at the positives….

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Mighty fine weather we’re having here in Antarctica huh?

Jun 29, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Atlanta Braves center fielder B.J. Upton (2) blows a bubble while waiting on deck against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. The Braves won 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Look guys; let’s not sugarcoat what we have here.

Fact: BJ Upton signed the largest free agent contract in Atlanta Braves History at 5 years and $75.25 Million dollars (that is an average of $15.05 Mil a year).

Fact: “Struggling” would be putting it very mild when talking about BJ at the plate.

Fact: This guy has to be the stain of the franchise and a clear indicator of the inadequate legacy left by Frank Wren.

Now that we have recognized and acknowledged the problem (1st step in recovery), how do we fix it?

Last year we released Dan Uggla (another turd dropped by Wren for someone to step on) and it cost us $18.9 Million dollars for the 2014-2015 budgets. BJ is going into year 3 of his deal. If we released him we would have to eat another $45.15 Million for 2015-2017. That is NOT a good business strategy.

So what do we do? Are we benching $45 Million or are we going to apply every necessary tool known to man towards fixing our ASSET.

Notice that word? Asset. Even though for 2 years he’s been mostly a Liability, he has shown he can be awesome when “on”.

Baseball Reference Stats (click to view in a separate window)

And in a Braves Uniform, he has shown flashes of greatness (ok, maybe not flashes, more like a twinkle). I can remember a few games (very few) that when he was aggressively running the bases and actually using his speed as an asset (there’s that word again) it was fun baseball to watch. Which leads me to my main points… (and this is all in good faith, no sarcasm or satire)

BJ has to stop swinging for the fences every time he comes up to the plate. He may even try using a lighter bat because it looks like he is dragging a sledgehammer to the strike zone (my bad, can’t help myself) with all of the swinging and misses he gets. Andrelton Simmons doesn’t have that problem. With Simmons the philosophy is still “See the ball, hit the ball” not “see the ball, swing and miss the ball COMPLETELY”, as with Upton.

If we are going to be competitive in 2015 two things have to happen with BJ or we will be eating more salary on the books with a player no longer on the roster:

#1 Need: BJ is going into his 31^stage year. Historically for hitters, this is on the downward turn after reaching prime age at 29 & 30. I REFUSE to believe that the last 2 years has been PRIME BJ Upton.

I think the following are reasonable stats to expect from him in 2015:

These numbers were WHAT WE PAID FOR. These are actual averages (estimates) from his playing days in Tampa Bay. These numbers represent what the value of $15 Million a year is worth on the LOW end. I think the issue now with most of us fans is “we have NOT been getting what we have paid for”.

#2 Need: Notice the stolen base average expectation number above? When we got him, he went from 31 stolen bases in 2012 (Tampa Bay) to 12 in 2013 (Bravos). That is NOT acceptable. Now most of you will say, he has to get on base to steal a base. I absolutely positively agree. But when you have the speed that this guy has, a walk is just as good as a double because when you give him 1B with the BB he should be stealing 2^nd at least a third of the time (if not more). That has not been the case.

In fact, we (the Braves) have not been applying an asset (there’s that word again) properly. Speed is the one thing you can NOT teach on the field. If you are not born with it, you won’t be able to acquire it via an outside source. It is God given and BJ has it in abundance. Why are we not using that?

It will be fun to watch to see what the new hitting coach Kevin Seitzer does with BJ. They should start working with each other YESTERDAY to fix him. We can’t afford another Dan Uggla situation going into the new stadium. We need to get our 75 Million dollar man fixed and back on the path of greatness.

But if we can’t get all the way to the mountain top, I am sure that most of us will settle for the numbers that we paid for.

Right?

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