Ok, I really botched the submission and screwed up all the quotes...sorry about that. But this is worth a click through to get a summary of the recent drama in Arizona with the owners comments about Drew and Upton.

If you give a rats arse about whats happening with the Diamondbacks that is....which I know many don't.

shoe

an interesting contrast in reaction is milwaukee where folks are frustrated but to date no fingerpointing

frankly i am surprised

as to arizona this is a good article

thanks

I usually don't go in for owners calling out players, but I think Kendrick is right to express this level of frustration. Upton has been the biggest disappointment int he league this year, especially after the gains he made last season. I don't know enough about the Drew situation, so maybe Kendrick crossed a line.

Could it be that expectations weren't as high in Milwaukee due to the loss of Prince ?

(I have no idea...just wondering)

I usually don't go in for owners calling out players, but I think Kendrick is right to express this level of frustration. Upton has been the biggest disappointment int he league this year, especially after the gains he made last season. I don't know enough about the Drew situation, so maybe Kendrick crossed a line.

The thing about Upton is he is not dogging it. Even the manager and General Manager have acknowledged he might be trying and working too hard. So I don't get what purpose the comments about Upton served. But compared to the comments on Drew, they were far less inflammatory.

The comments about Drew were a direct attack on his integrity. It FEELS like he crossed the line, but there could be additional information that we don't know what could change my mind.

shoe

likely though given the division folks figured the team could drop 5-9 games and still be in it

goldschmidt looks great

hope kirk is over platooning the kid

just realized his stance is mcgwire's

wonder if studied mac or it just happened?

I usually don't go in for owners calling out players, but I think Kendrick is right to express this level of frustration. Upton has been the biggest disappointment int he league this year, especially after the gains he made last season. I don't know enough about the Drew situation, so maybe Kendrick crossed a line.

Upton had a thumb injury early this season, and has hit for very little power this year, I'm sure there is some connection, his HR/FB% is about 30% lower than his average over the last 3 years. My theory is that the thumb still bothers him, and Gibby realized that a couple days off to rest it and not risk inflaming it again is the best solution.

But the thumb may not be the big issue. Upton is having a career high line drive rate this year, while his BABIP is pretty much a career low. So that says maybe the thumb was never that big a problem and he's just hitting liners at the wrong spots and fly balls to the deep parts of parks.

But the big picture is Upton is still a plus defender (best RF range in baseball) and baserunner, and his OBP is still acceptable (.340) despite his lack of power. He's still contributing at an above average pace to the team, if nothing changes he'll finish with over 2 WAR on both BBRef and FanGraphs measures. So if during the worst slump of his career he's still an above average player, I'd say he's fulfilling his destiny. The slump will end, and he'll go back to being a 5- 6 WAR player. The only problem is fan expectations are that he's a perennial MPV candidate and future HOFer, but I think he's just a notch or two less than that and not likely to improve from here on out.

Of course they could move him to CF. It would be insane to think how far above average his bat would be at that position, and he obviously has the range. Perhaps the challenge would also lead him to improve his game, esp. his ball handling and throws, he definitely has the arm for center as well. But even if he doesn't improve I still wonder why they've never slid him there, I don't think CY's defense is so stellar that there would be a drop off.

CY's defense has always graded out much better under BIS system Rdrs, than UZR and total zone. But all 3 systems had him negative in 2007 and 2009, but solidly in the black since 2010. And part of that was positioning. Especially in 2007 I remember the team had everyone playing really deep as Chase Field is a doubles and triples factory, so they figured that it's better to give up singles than xbh. So that hurt his numbers as I believe the extra singles given up hurt the fielding numbers for young more than the xbh taken away helped.

All that said...Young has been a 9-10 WAR player over the previous two seasons, and on a similar pace this year. And it's mostly been defense, and it doesn't matter which system you look at.

Young is really good out there. He gets good jumps, makes excellent reads, takes good routes, seldom drops the ball, and makes a lot of really good running catches to the deepest parts of the ballpark. But he has a noodle arm. Thats always been the drawback, and drag on his numbers. With a better arm, he is a gold glove winner.

I don't know that Upton would be a better defender in CF than Young. I doubt it. He does not get as good of reads, and would likely be fooled off the bat a lot more in CF. And he certainly is less sure handed, and with more balls being hit to CF than RF, the higher error count would be a pretty glaring issue.

Maybe there would possibly have been a slight overall advantage to have gone with a configuration of Young in LF, Upton in CF, and Parra in RF, but I doubt it. Certainly not enough upgrade on paper, (if there would be one at all) to justify messing with everyone's head.

I don't know that Upton would be a better defender in CF than Young. I doubt it. He does not get as good of reads, and would likely be fooled off the bat a lot more in CF. And he certainly is less sure handed, and with more balls being hit to CF than RF, the higher error count would be a pretty glaring issue.

Maybe there would possibly have been a slight overall advantage to have gone with a configuration of Young in LF, Upton in CF, and Parra in RF, but I doubt it. Certainly not enough upgrade on paper, (if there would be one at all) to justify messing with everyone's head.

As usual, you make sense. But in the world where CY didn't exist, JUp in center would have been an interesting experiment.