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Dave Cameron on a young superstar nobody's talking about ... yet:

One of the stories of the first few weeks of the season was the struggles of Justin Upton. The 21-year-old began the season by going six for his first 36, striking out 12 times in failing to hit the ball out of the park. After an 0 for 3 performance on April 21st, he found himself on the bench for a few days, and there was some talk that he might get optioned back to the minors to get himself straightened out.

That wasn't necessary. Since getting re-inserted into the line-up on April 24th, Upton has hit a modest .397/.462/.754. 23 of his 50 hits have gone for extra bases during that stretch, and his .450 wOBA for the season now ranks him in a tie for 3rd highest in major league baseball. Upton's showing remarkable power for a player his age, as his .290 ISO is one of the highest marks in the league. When you see a player that young hitting for that much power, you have something remarkably special. Here's the list of major league players who have posted an ISO of .250 (minimum 100 PA) or higher before turning 22:

Eddie Mathews, Adam Dunn, Mel Ott, Willie McCovey, Ted Williams, Albert Pujols, Gregg Jefferies, Alex Rodriguez, Bob Horner, Jimmie Foxx, Frank Robinson, Hal Trosky, Joe Mauer, Babe Ruth, Darryl Strawberry, Joe Dimaggio.

That list includes eight Hall of Famers, plus a bunch of Hall of Fame talents and only two disappointments in Jefferies and (arguably) Horner. It's too early to know how we'll wind up classifying Upton, but it's pretty clear that the odds are in his favor. But what's amazing to me isn't how well Upton has played; considering what he did in the minors, and in the majors last season, we had to figure he was going to hit big, and soon. No, what continues to amaze me is how poorly some of Upton's teammates have played.

It's almost June, and Chad Tracy's hitting .184/.246/.333 in 38 games. It's almost June, and Stephen Drew and Eric Byrnes both have .211 batting averages. And most amazing of all: It's almost June and Chris Young, playing center field almost every day, is hitting .169/.213/.305 in 46 games. A star in the minor leagues, Young's been a disappointment in the majors since Day 1 because he has utterly failed to control the strike zone, resulting in a .306 career on-base percentage entering this season.

When a guy hits homers and plays good defense in the middle of the pasture, you can almost live with a .300 on-base percentage. You can't live with a .213 on-base percentage, regardless of what else he does. Young is still young and he's supposed to be getting better. He's not. Last year was no better than the year before, and this year's worse in every respect. Players don't follow presumed trend lines precisely, but it's fairly rare to see a player head in the opposition direction with this kind of enthusiasm. You might even say that it's fairly amazing.