B.J. Upton Takes His Place as One of Baseball's Top Young Stars

One of the best baseball stories of the year so far has been the emergence of Devil Rays second baseman B.J. Upton, who is sixth in the American League in both average (.351) and slugging percentage (.632). The second overall pick in the 2002 draft, Upton made his Major League debut as a 19-year old in the 2004 season, but had regressed significantly the following two seasons.

Upton's problems were mainly with the glove. A natural shortstop, Upton made 53 errors at the position in Triple-A in 2005. But the Devil Rays refused to move him to another place in the field, for reasons known mostly to themselves. He returned to both Triple-A Durham and shortstop for the 2006 season.

Last year, Upton began to see his hitting tail off, as he carried his defensive woes to the plate. He lost 34 points off his average and 96 points off his slugging percentage in his second stint at Durham. But injury problems in Tampa earned him another promotion to the Majors, where he saw all of his action at third base. He committed 13 errors in 39 games at third base, but at least the Devil Rays had him removed from the key defensive position of shortstop.

This year, the storyline from the Devil Rays in Spring Training was that Upton was going to make the team as a super-sub, meaning he would receive nearly full-time play, but would not have a set fielding position. One day he could be at shortstop, the next day he could be at third base and the following day he could be in the outfield.

This seemed to be a curious decision by the Devil Rays. Take a young player with fielding problems and make him learn multiple new positions at once at the Major League level. Perhaps that's an indication why the club has never topped 70 wins in a season in their nine years of existence.

But then the Devil Rays had a moment of clarity: why not dump second baseman Jorge Cantu, who last season batted .249 with a dismal .295 on-base percentage to go along with sub-par defense, and install Upton at second base? They made that decision at the end of Spring Training, sending Cantu to the Minors, and Upton has rewarded them in spades.

So far this season, nine of Upton's 20 hits have gone for extra bases. He leads the team with a 1.035 OPS and his 15 RBIs also tops the club. This is especially surprising, since Upton has spent the majority of the year batting in the ninth spot in the order. His highest spot in the lineup came when he batted seventh one game and he also spent one night hitting in the eighth slot.

Just as important, Upton has made strides defensively learning his new position. While he has already committed five errors, he's not made an error in his last eight games as he settles in to playing on the right side of second base.

Upton's real name is Melvin Emmanuel Upton. His father's nickname is Bossman and his son got tabbed Bossman Jr. which got shortened to B.J.

And B.J. Upton may not be the best baseball player in the family. His younger brother Justin was the first pick in the 2005 draft and is currently batting .323 with a seven-game hitting streak at Single-A Visalia.

The Devil Rays, with Upton, Delmon Young, Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli, feature one of the youngest groups of core hitters in the game today. If they finally break the 70-win plateau, B.J. Upton will likely play a key role.