B.J. Upton's two seasons

The Rays' B.J. Upton is a 2013 free agent and it seems to have taken him some time to realize it.

We all know of ballplayers who have great contract years but through August 10; Upton wasn't one of those players.

After the game on 8/10 Upton was hitting .242 with 10 homers and was slugging .378.

You can see above there were very few spots on Upton's power graph that he exhibited hitting strength.

Oddly, one of the weakest parts of Upton's game was on pitches right down the middle.

An overall .284 average isn't bad, but it needs to be better on pitches right down the middle because a batter simply won't hit as well on the corners. But what you see above, is Upton's .284 with four homers and a .453 slugging pct.

But things have changed for B.J. Upton from 8/11 to 10/1.

As you can see, from the slugging graphic above, Upton started owning the plate. Since August 10, he leads the majors with 11 homers and has slugged .616 with an OPS of .916.

But the difference is huge on Upton's ability to hit those mistakes by pitchers when they throw the ball down the middle of the plate.

On pitches in the middle of the plate, Upton has hit .328, slugged .776, with an OPS of 1.126 with eight homers.

Those are the numbers that will end up bringing the ka-ching to Upton's next contract.