New Studs on the Block takes a look at players ready to make the leap from "possibly productive fantasy player" to "must-have fantasy stud." This is not a "you've never heard of this dude, but ... " series -- these should be names you already know.Sunday, Justin Upton was named to the National League All-Star team for the first time in his career. If you've been following this for even the slightest amount of time, you know this isn't going to be his only trip. In fact, he better get used to not having any vacation days during baseball season, because he's going to be a perennial selection.
We have to admit our highlighting him as a New Stud on the Block is a tad bit overdue, but, hey, better late than never, right?
The likely reason we neglected Upton to this point? It's easy to take his sort of talent for granted without some perspective as to how great he's looking to be. He's only 21-years-old and he's already one of the best hitters in baseball. The traditional fantasy categories are being filled with ease by the five-tool superstar. Heading into Monday, Upton ranked 21st in the NL in batting average (.300), 17th in home runs (14), 26th in RBI (45), 12th in runs (49) and 20th in stolen bases (10). You can't find many fantasy players who provide such multicategoricality (yes, that's a word -- just not in the dictionary yet).
It's true his BABIP is a pretty high .364, but we have a unique situation here. Upton is awfully young and still growing. It's not unheard of for a player to keep this high a rate on balls in play, especially with such a high ISO number. If you aren't a number cruncher, let's go through it step-by-step. Isolated power is a measure of extra base hits per at bat. So, it's like slugging percentage, except you don't get credit for singles. Upton has one of the higher ISO numbers in the league, which explains why his batting average on balls in play is high. It's because he finds the gaps or hits it over outfielders' heads often. He has 19 doubes and 4 triples to go along with those 14 bombs.
Considering Upton's on-base percentage is up to .378 this season, he's quickly learning the strike zone.
Put it all together and his OPS is .919, which is good enough for 14th in the National League. And he's only 21 and relegated to a pretty anemic offense (the Backs are 13th in the NL in OPS).
In fact, there are some stat-lovers out there making a case that we are likely watching the beginning of a Hall of Fame career. I'm not going to argue. I'll just sit by and wish he was on one of my fantasy baseball teams this year. Come next year, he's not going to last long in drafts.
Justin Upton is a stud. And he's going to be for a long, long time.
