B.J. Upton
*28 years old
*FA. I'll project 5 years/65 million.

If anyone has a more reliable source on a projection of his contract, let me know and I'll change it.

His last three years of WAR and UZR:

What you see here is consistency, which is usually what you don't think of when you think of B.J. Upton. As highly touted as he was, now at age 28 I think what you see is what you are going to get. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. He's a middle of the pack defensive outfielder that will provide run producing offense.

His last three years of avg, obp, and ops have been very similar, averaging a .243 avg, .317 obp, and a .752 ops. But if you pay the money for him, you aren't paying for his average and on-base percentage, you are paying for his pop and speed. Has 30/30 capabilities and has increased his HR totals each of the last four years, going from 11 up to 28 last year.

He's not someone you would want hitting leadoff, but someone you want hitting around the 6 spot, or maybe the 2 spot. Signing him leaves you with Prado or Simmons hitting in the leadoff spot while also leaving around $10M left to spend on a LF or 3B. I think it's likely that if we sign a FA CF or LF, the other will come via trade or will be short term FA solution because we can't really afford to sign two guys to 4 or 5 year deals.

Would definitely be within our financial budget to sign Upton to a deal and then pay the high prospect price to get someone like Willingham, who has an affordable salary. The question is, do we really need to add two high strikeout guys to a team that already strikes out way too much. One of the reasons while I think someone like Span would fit the mold of this team better, but the scenario above is definitely intriguing.