Justin Upton Not Concerned About Petco Park
- Updated: January 7, 2015
San Diego Padres new left fielder, Justin Upton, is not phased at the thought of playing at Petco Park.
“Everybody says it’s big. I don’t think so,” he said. “It usually plays pretty fair. It’s one of those places where if you hit a home run, it’s going to be a home run. I’ve enjoyed a bit of success here, and I enjoy playing here.
“I think the park’s great. It’s a great atmosphere. I mean, how can you beat playing in San Diego every day? The new guys are going to love it, the guys who haven’t played here.”
Upton was introdcued to the team today with Will Myers, Derek Norris and Will Middlebrooks. Some light was also shed onto the thought process behind the players and their new positions. Manager Bud Black explained the following to the media:
Padres manager Bud Black envisions Upton in left, Myers in center and slugger Matt Kemp, who was introduced three weeks ago, in right. All are right-handed hitters, and the hope is they’ll wear out left field at Petco Park.
Norris, a catcher, and Middlebrooks, a third baseman, also are right-handed hitters.
“We think, if you go position by position, we match up against teams in our division, we match up against other teams in the league,” manager Bud Black said. “Now it’s a matter of doing it between the lines. Anything can happen in the course of a year, but we feel pretty good about it right now.”
Will Myers was traded from the Tampa Bay Rays at the same time as the others, and he openly admit he didn’t know anything about the team, except that Tony Gwynn played there. He said this to ESPN.com:
“Everybody talks about how it’s a huge park, but some of the players I’ve talked to said it’s normal,” said Myers, the 2011 AL Rookie of the Year who came over from Tampa Bay in an 11-player, three-team trade. It plays fair. If you hit it, it’s going to go. If you don’t, it’s not.”
The team is also praising new GM A.J. Preller for all of his work:
“When we brought A.J. in, we found someone who embraced the task,” Fowler said. “He wasn’t afraid of the San Francisco Giants or the Dodgers. He just had this David-Goliath mentality that he wanted to do it. He had this sort of look and this swagger about him.
“We had confidence he would do what he said he would do, and he had priorities set up. We thought we’d get maybe 60 percent of what we were looking at. He basically got everything he set out to do.”
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