The Next Big Thing: Colt Dupree's Road to the Show || MLB 12 The Show

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A Phenom Rising
Dupree Ready For Chance

Plaintown, OK -- Baseball. It's who he is. It's what he does. What else is there? In a town of just 2,500, one stoplight, and one gas station there isn't a lot to do. You either fish, hunt, or play sports to pass the time. Dupree, a three sport star at tiny Plaintown High School, had his pick of after school pursuits. Holding scholarship offers from a handful of division one schools in both basketball and football, the choice was an easy one for one of the best high school baseball players in the country. Dupree, a 6'5" 225 switch-hitting outfielder did it all on the field. On the days he wasn't manning center-field, Dupree was pitching shutouts on the mound. Oh, and there's the legendary tape-measure home runs he hit during his brilliant four year career.

It became clear, in just his sophomore season, Dupree was a special talent. After seeing spot duty in the outfield and on the mound as a ninth grader, Dupree became a full time starter the following year. His impact was felt almost immediately. In his very first game that season Dupree went 4/4 with two home runs, a double, and knocked in five runs. That was just the beginning as Dupree batted .408 with 11 home runs and 52 RBI in leading his team to the state semi-finals where they lost to the eventual state champions. Dupree would go on to amass 44 home runs, 209 RBIs, and hit .418 in his three years as a starter.

"I love the game. I don't know, maybe going to college for a few years where I could get a degree while playing a couple of sports would be fun, but baseball is what I love. Sure, the money played a part in my decision, but I' ready to get my career started. I feel my game is ready." Said Dupree. The Pittsburgh Pirates made him their first selection in the 2011 June draft. Spending the year at the low A level, Dupree had his ups and downs but showed plenty of promise. While the batting average struggled (he hit just .258 in 419 at-bats) the power was there as he hit 13 home runs despite spending the first half of the season on platoon duty. It was enough, however, for the Pirates as they called him up late in the season to their AA affiliate, the Altoona Curve. He will being the 2012 season as the team's starting left-fielder. "He's just a special player. Kids with his tools and raw power don't come along often. He's certainly the type of player that can anchor a lineup on a playoff caliber team. I don't know how long we'll get to keep him but we definitely plan on getting the most out of him." Said Curve manager P.J. Forbes.

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Colt Dupree Tracker

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Reserved Two

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Just a brief rundown. I plan on doing updates either every 10-15 games. I may just do them every two weeks of the season. I'm thinking about probably just doing Colt Dupree blog for the updates. I'm not going to play every game, at least not while I'm in the minors.

I'm using OSFM v.2 rosters and TNK's Realism sliders. Hitting difficulty is set at veteran for now.

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Blog Entry #1
April 5-21, 2012

April 5 | Opening Day
Even though I got a few ABs up here in Altoona last season it still felt like this was my first game. I was as nervous as I've ever been in my life and definitely wasn't in store for what happened. I definitely struggled some. The game lasted 14 innings and I got seven at-bats, but only one hit. Good new is that one hit was an RBI double. Bad news, though, is I struck out a couple of times and hit a couple of really weak grounders. There was a couple of balls I crushed but they were right at a fielder. That's just how it goes sometimes, I guess.

April 6-9
Man, I did I get hot. I followed up the 1/7 performance on opening day with two 2/4 games and had a 2/6 showing in a 13 inning game. I blasted a game-tying home run in the top of the 12th. It was measured at 420-feet. It never gets old crushing a ball well over the fence. That's what the video up there is of.

April 10-14
I stayed hot during this stretch. I went 7/18 and hit my second homer of the season and the team went 4-2. Hopefully I can keep this up. So far I'm just making good contact and hitting the where the defense isn't.

April 15-22
There's just nothing better than getting in a groove early in a season and staying hot. What can I say? Right now I'm just seeing the ball really well and making great contact. Hopefully I can keep it up. We've been up and down so far 18 games into the season. Our record is currenty 10-7 and we're 4.5 games back of the redhot Bowie Baysox who are off to a 14-4 start. Wow. Anyway, I got my first triple of the year. I hit a ball into deep center field that I assumed was just going to be a double; but the center-fielder gambled and tried to make a diving catch. He missed and I was able to slide into third base without much contest. So far there's not a lot to complain about. I'm really enjoying the season so far. I attached a couple of pictures of the current standings and my stats to date including my last game.

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Blog Entry #2
April 22 - May 5, 2012

April 22-28
Hit my second homer this week. I didn't even waste anytime. First pitch I saw in the 1st inning I liked and sent it soaring. It's nice to jump on a pitcher like that. I briefly got my batting average over .400 20 games in to the season which I thought was pretty good but my manager reminded me it's a long season. 20 games isn't much shorter than the high school seasons I'm use to. Here, though, we've still got over 100 games left to play. Anyway, I started the week of with back-to-back two hit games and got my average up to .409, but it didn't last long. I followed that up with back-to-back 0/5 games. Yikes! I was given a day off after that, probably deserved it. Came back and went 1/4 with only my second walk of the season to wrap-up the week. My batting average fell all the way down to .346. One thing I'm having a hard time with right now is laying off of pitches. The difference between just a high school pitcher and AA pitcher is night and day. It's like I went from facing junior high kid to professionals, if that makes sense. I'm so use to getting good pitches to hit, and here it's just not like that.

April 29 - May 5
Started off the week with a 2/4 game and had a sac-fly RBI. That got my average back over .350. Got another day off after that. I know I need to "get my legs" so to speak but playing just one or two days in a row and then being benched is hard on me. I know my manager has his reasons and I'm not questioning him, but I just wish I could stay in the lineup more than two or three days in a row. Came back from the day off and went 2/7 in my next two games. Had an unconventional RBI, too, after getting beaned with the bases loaded. I guess I'll take an RBI anyway I can get it, but I've got a nice black and blue bruise on my back to show for it. Had another three hit game but followed it up with an 0/5 performance. Still, I'm hitting .357 30 games in. Hopefully I'll stay hot and maybe get called up this season sometime.

Anyway, I posted a couple of videos. One is of my first good defensive play as I threw a runner out at the plate and one is of my home run. Also attached the standings and my current stats. We're still in second place but if Bowie keeps playing like this we may never catch them. Until next time...

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Blog Entry #3
May 6-20, 2012

What I did (10 Games)
14/38, .368 BA, 9 RBI, 7 R, 2 2B, 4 HR, 4 BB, 5 SO

May 6-12
Well, we started the week off with a pretty big two game set against the Baysox. We started off four games back but, little did I know, we were getting ready to get hot as a team. We won the first game 4-1 and I went 3/4 with a home run and two RBI. We took game two 7-3 and I knocked a two-run double in the 7th to break a 3-3 tie. We went on to win three of four against Erie. I struggled a bit from the plate going 2/12 in the series but three wins moved us to just one game back of Bowie.

May 13-20
Just like last week we started this week off with another big series against Bowie; this time it was a three game set. While I've had some good games this year I earned my first two player of the game honors in games one and two of the series. I also had my first two home run game in the first game, going 2/4 with two RBI. My second home run came when we were tied 5-5 in the eighth. Didn't think I could top that but in game two I went 4/4 with three RBI, hitting another home run. I was definitely locked in. For some inexplicable reason I was back on the bench and not in the lineup for the third game of the series. Not going to lie, I went 6/8 with three homers and five RBI in the first two games and get benched? Anyway, the team didn't miss a beat and we won 5-1. That moved us into a first place tie! After my last blog entry we were five games back. We wrapped up the week with a sweep of Erie. I struggled going just 1/9 in the series but we were in first place!!

I posted a video of a 428-foot bomb in the first game against Bowie on May 8th. Even going to dead center it was a no-doubter as it hit he batter's eye about 3/4 of the way up. It's my furthest homer to date.

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Blog Entry #4
May 21 - June 3, 2012

What I did (11 Games)
14/43, .325 BA, 5 R, 12 RBI, 4 2B, 2 HR, 6 SO, 1 BB

May 21-27
This week got off to a good start, then bad in the middle, and ended with a bang. In the first two games against Harrisburg I went a combined 5/8 with three RBI, a homer, and two doubles. Followed that up by going 1/12 in my next three games and my average dipped back below .350, which isn't anything to sneeze at, but a 1/12 stretch is always a little upsetting. Especially since it was capped off by going 1/9 in the first two games in the Baysox series. Still, we split the first two games so not all was lost. After sitting out the third game of the Bowie series (a win) I capped it off with a 3/5 performance, with a double, a homer, and five RBI! I included a short highlight reel from the game.

May 28 - June 3
While I only had one hit to start the week against Richmond, in four at-bats, it was a double that knocked in three runs. I'm really starting to pile up the RBI now. After getting a rest in the second game against Richmond I came back and went 3/4 with an RBI in our 3-2 win. Unfortunately the week didn't end too well as we lost two of three to the Portland Sea Dogs. I went a whopping 1/9 in the series...ouch. Still, I'm hitting .352 on the season so I still feel pretty good about where I'm at right now. Hopefully the front-office and AAA manager and coaches are noticing and a call-up will come sometime this season.

The picture I put at the top was just because I thought the backdrop behind the right-field fence in Bowie was really neat. It's not everyday you see a roller coaster in the background but I liked it. As always, I'll wrap this up with my current season stats and the standings.