Justin Upton Must Love Arizona

by Peter Bendix on Aug 29, 2008 7:00 AM EDT Comment 1 comment

The Diamondbacks are getting ready to activate Justin Upton from the disabled list. Even though he's only 20 years old, Upton has put up a solid line of .242/.353/.433 with 11 homers in 329 plate appearances. However, his home/road splits are rather shocking.

In 171 plate appearances in the friendly confines of Chase Field, Upton sports a .324/.415/.586 line, with eight homers, eight doubles, and three triples. His 1.001 OPS at home is good for 11th best home OPS in the National League.

However, on the road, Upton has a miserable line of .152/.285/.265 with three homers, four doubles, and one triple. His .550 OPS is 158th (out of 165 players with at least 100 plate appearances) in the National League.

Justin Upton: 11th best player in games in Arizona, 8th worst in all other games.

But it gets worse.

Earlier this season, Upton played three games in the hitter's haven that is Coors Field. Upton had quite a series, going 6-for-14 with two homers. If you remove these three road games from Upton's overall road line, his line becomes: .115/.252/.195. That's a .447 OPS.

What do we make of this? Not too much, actually. As atrocious as Upton has been on the road (especially in places other than Colorado), he is still walking at the same rate. In fact, Upton has walked in 12.9% of his plate appearances at home, while walking in 14.5% of his plate appearances on the road. Upton has struck out more often on the road: he has Ked in 26.3% of his plate appearances at home, and has struck out in 32.9% of his plate appearances on the road. It's unlikely that Upton possesses much, if any, additional ability at home than on the road.

Chase Field is an excellent place for hitters. While Upton's splits may seem dramatic - and they really are, as he's been one of the 11 best or seven worst players in the NL this season, depending on where the game is being played - they are probably not indicative of anything more than a fluke.

Justin Upton will probably put up better numbers at home than on the road for most of his time in Arizona. But this is just silly.

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Upton's feelings towards home sweet home

Wow, I didnt realize that Upton was so good at home and so bad on the road. I mean most batters and pitchers are substantially better at home, but this is just incredible. As you have said, Im guessing this is a fluke, which over more at bats would shorten the gap between the two sets of numbers. I like your article a lot. Thanks.

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by sfgiantslvr on Aug 29, 2008 9:25 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs