Opinions on Justin Upton?? + other random collectin thoughts

[WoundedDuck]

Basically I'm wondering what people's opinions of him are now that he's played a full season. Yes he's got a long ways to go, but he's young and has a lot of potential. Do you think he'll ever reach that potential and become a superstar? Can you name a current player that you think he could be compared to 10 years down the road?

I ask because I'm kind of at a crossroads in my collecting. Since getting back into it, I've mostly just tried to collect autos of the guys I like. But with my limited budget and limited trade bait, it sometimes makes growing that collection slow. I've enjoyed watching the posts by the player collectors out there of the stuff they pick up. I think it would make growing a particular collection a little more fun and doable with a limited budget.

Anyway, I'm thinking of becoming a Justin Upton "supercollector." Maybe not quite to that extent, but I'm not sure I want to spend the time and money to collect a guy if he ends up washing up. I know there are no guarantees (I collected Bo Jackson as a kid), but I wanted to at least get some other peoples opinions of the guy before I went crazy. He was kind of one of the first young guys I got excited about when I started back in the hobby.

Other guys I've really enjoyed watching since I've been paying more attention the last couple years are Jose Reyes, David Wright, and Hanley Ramirez. They all are a little more established, but also already have a little bit more of a following. I'd love to collect them all, but I just can't . Was also thinking of collecting Mike Piazza and/or Bo Jackson a bit since they were some of my favs as a kid and it'd give me a chance to go after some of the cool 90s stuff I've seen posted.

I also love all the prospecting info I get on these boards. It's a blast to read and feel like I at least have an idea of who's coming up and has a chance to be good at the major league level. However, it's making me want to pick up all these prospect autos instead of spending my money on the vet/retired autos that I really want most for my personal collection. I'm not in it to make a buck prospecting and I'd love to get the next big guys rc auto before he becomes huge; however, I feel like it's shifting my collecting focus away from where I want it.

In the end, I apologize for the long read if you've stuck with my meandering for this long. I guess I've just been mulling over some stuff and trying to decide what direction I'd like to take my collection in. I hope this hasn't come across as a long trolling post. Thanks for any opinions.

 

[bballcardkid]

This is the judgment year in my opinion. He will be 22 a little over halfway through the year which is still considerably young, but I think this will be the year that collectors determine if Upton is all he has been hyped up to be. I'm not quite sure what that will be, but at the very least I think he's an on off all star, at the very most a top 3 talent in the bigs.

 

[Brett Keith]

Provided he stays pretty healthy, he'll be a star. I think he'll have atleast a handful of seasons where he puts up "superstar" numbers. To become a consistant superstar and live upto his talent he needs to do pretty much three things. First, cut the K's, which I'm not particularly worried about, as he does have above average K-zone judgement, and simply needs to gain more experience. Second, he needs to learn how to steal bases, because he's the perfect example of how you can't get by on just great pure speed. Third, improve on defense, which again I'm not worried too much about since he's only been in the outfield since 2006, and has only been in RF since late in 2007. He has the range and arm to be dynamic.

 

[sportscardtheory]

The guy is only 21 years old... he had a bad season last year at 20, but still managed to put up decent numbers. He will cut down his strikeouts, and he will be a star in my opinion. I hope everyone dogs him... it will make getting his rookie stuff that much easier for me.

 

[WoundedDuck]

Thanks for the opinions guys....if I was to collect him and he became an off and on all-star I'd be pretty happy. I'm the kinda person that takes along time to decide though. It'd probably be easier if I grew up somewhere that had an MLB team 'cause I'd probably just collect my favorite guy from that team. Unfortunately I didn't have that luxury

 

[sportscardtheory]

Thanks for the opinions guys....if I was to collect him and he became an off and on all-star I'd be pretty happy. I'm the kinda person that takes along time to decide though. It'd probably be easier if I grew up somewhere that had an MLB team 'cause I'd probably just collect my favorite guy from that team. Unfortunately I didn't have that luxury

Me neither... I am from Buffalo, so I used to be interested in Indians players because of the Bisons. But now they are the Mets farm team, so I might have to pay more attention to them. I wish we had a ML team...

 

[95vr4]

Justin Upton has all the tools to be a superstar. 2009 will be the year for him to prove. I'll unload some if he makes the All Star next year. Otherwise, he still has time to prove, look what BJ did this year, Justin will only be better.

 

[darocker80]

too early to judge

 

[WoundedDuck]

either way....I think I'll be picking up his BC auto sometime after Christmas. I think it's the only rc auto that I don't have of him (not including parallels anyway). If he does well this year and I don't pick it up, I probably won't be able to afford it.