Things Are Looking Up(ton)

19-year-old Justin Upton, the first overall pick of the 2005 draft, made his big league debut with the Arizona Diamondbacks August 2 at San Diego. After going 0 for 6 to start his career, he's 7 for 11 since, with 3 doubles, a triple, and a homerun.

Last night in his home debut against the Pirates, he finished a single shy of the cycle and the talk is, he's already made fellow right field prospect Carlos Quentin expendable because Chris Young has center locked down, and the team just re-upped with Eric Byrnes. Personally, I think that's awfully early in a career to anoint a teenager your starting right fielder for the foreseeable future, but if this pans out the way the D-Backs are hoping, this could be one hell of an outfield for years to come.

Justin is definitely off to a hot start (albeit in 17 at-bats), unlike his older bro, BJ, who turns 23 in a few weeks. He's just now hitting his stride in this, his third season in the bigs, and fourth total since debuting in 2004. It took the second overall pick of the 2002 draft more than 300 AB's, and all of 2005 in the minors, to get it. But now, he does.

He has 36 extra base hits this season, he's 13 for 19 in stolen bases, and he's somehow hitting .323 with a .401 on base percentage despite a nearly 3:1 strikeout to walk ratio.

Back when they were drafted, scouts said Justin's ceiling was a little bit higher than BJ's. It seems they still feel this way today. Based on what we're starting to see from these, still very young siblings, that's a scary thought.