Postseason: Konerko vs Beltran/Upton Home Run Decimal Sabermetrics
By Brian Draus
On to the last member of the study, that being B.J. Upton (now Melvin Upton Jr.)
B.J. Upton Postseason 2008
10/5 (ALDS Game 3): @ Chicago White Sox: L 5-3: 0.9509
10/6 (ALDS Game 4): @ Chicago White Sox: W 6-2: 0.6808
10/6 (ALDS Game 4): @ Chicago White Sox: W 6-2: 0.6889
10/11 (ALCS Game 2) vs Boston Red Sox: W 9-8: 0.6808
10/13 (ALCS Game 3) @ Boston Red Sox: W 9-1: 0.9393
10/16 (ALCS Game 5) @ Boston Red Sox: L 8-7: 1.1302
10/18 (ALCS Game 6) vs Boston Red Sox: L 4-2: 0.6808
Of the three in the study, Upton had the worst HRD at 5.7517. He also brought up the rear in regards to DPA, with a score of 0.8217. Here are some reasons for that: All but one of Upton’s homers were hit in the third inning or earlier, which hurt his score. Another negative for Upton would be his protection, who was Carlos Pena every time, and he had a WAR above 3.0 in 2008.
In that case, he is deemed to be good protection, harming his score in this formula (more to be explained later). The Rays as a team didn’t play as well as the White Sox and Astros, considering the fact that they only went 3-3 in the games that Upton went deep. Speaking of the Rays, they won the American League Pennant, however lost to the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 in the World Series. Upton didn’t hit a single home run in that series.