Justin Upton and Brandon Phillips

After sweeping the Oakland Athletics to salvage a homestand that had them fall short against the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros - the Angels picked up couple of veterans for the team's September push to get into the Wild Card game.

While Angels lost speedy outfielder Cameron Maybin to the Astros - picking up Upton gives the Angels the middle of the order bat to complement Mike Trout.

Phillips should give the Angels a boost at second base for the last month of the season - he's simply an immediate upgrade over the likes of Kaleb Cowart and Cliff Pennington, still putting up the solid, dependable batting numbers with some athleticism left after playing in 16 seasons in the big leagues.

Random thoughts - the Kate Uptons...err Justin and B.J. Upton

I thought Justin would be a superstar years ago, but he has never quite played at that level consistently and it seems like he's always had 'up and down' numbers - I have several assorted certified autograph cards of the Justin that I should put together as a 'mini-collection,' with other more common inserts I've pulled.

The luster as a potential superstar faded off B.J. a long time ago, but he was a key free agent signing coming into the 2013 season - B.J. can't be as bad as he was last year, though he is what he is while there is still hope Justin bumps up his game as he enters his late 20's.

2014 Topps Target $9.99 hanger box break #2

I won't list the base cards because I feel like they are redundant - but I pulled a Justin Upton short print, so that's my 'big money, three dollar hit' on eBay.

I'm listing the other inserts / parallels I pulled - I just grabbed a random hanger box and didn't realize some boxes don't actually have the Target red bordered parallels in them [unless explicitly marked on the box], so I was out of luck there.

#24 Manny Machado - Red Hot Foil parallel
#229 Justin Upton - image swap SP
#UC-35 Ken Griffey Jr. - Upper Class insert
#FN-17 Wil Myers - The Future is Now insert
#50YD-2 Gerrit Cole - 50 Years of the Draft
#SV-4 Adrian Beltre - Super Veterans insert
#205 Seth Smith - Yellow
#49 Enny Romero - Yellow

Featured autograph - Justin Upton

I picked up a Justin Upton certified autograph because he has a nice signature when he takes the time to write it out- while not a personal favorite, he's been sort of a enigma [though not as up-and-down as brother B.J.'s MLB career] and like everyone else I'm still waiting for him to take his game to a whole new level, where he is locked in for pretty much an entire MLB season.

Ranking the 30 MLB teams on my watch - Atlanta Braves #9 of 30

It's been impressive how they've turned out players to contribute to winning teams - but maybe they just don't have the means to get a few more impact players to get them further in a playoff run.

The Braves have me feeling a little meh - first baseman Freddie Freeman has developed into a young star at 23, but guys like Jason Heyward, Justin Upton and B.J. Upton leave something to be desired.

Some of their established veterans have moved on or may not be with the team in 2014 - Chipper Jones retired after the 2012 season, Tim Hudson got hurt in 2013 and may need to prove himself on another team for next year while catcher Brian McCann maybe someone else's big free agent signing.

This guy is no Chris Shelton -

1.) Mr. Justin Upton is just crushing the baseball right and it is interesting how fast things have come together for this phenom - we don't really know if he can keep up his torrid start, but there is something to be said about a 20-year old Major Leaguer putting up superstar numbers.


2.) From his amateur days, everyone said he was going to be a superstar - his hot start has separated him from guys who maybe good prospects, who maybe projected to be all-stars. He is beginning to fulfill his immense promise and looks to be a superstar.


3.) Chris Shelton was a guy who hit something like 10 home runs in the first month of the season for the 2006 Detroit Tigers - everyone thought he was going to be a future superstar, but he didn't match the production and is an a 'AAAA slugger' type in the Texas Rangers' organization. Shelton had the talent to play in the Major Leagues once, but I doubt he has much in common with Upton.