About Today ….
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- August
- 7
-Nick Evans started in place of Carlos Delgado, who has cooled the past few days. Delgado got a breather today and Jerry Manuel will be aware of keeping him fresh. It was unrealistic to believe he would keep up that pace.
-Daniel Murphy’s first week in the majors has been something special. I would like to see him get the bulk of the time from here on out. Should he finish the season hot, he would likely go into the offseason as the starting left fielder. That would be one shopping item the Mets could cross off their list (to replace Moises Alou), and they can concentrate on pitching.
-David Wright did what special players do, and that’s come up big after a rough stretch. When Wright literally talked his way into staying in the lineup, he justified Manuel’s faith.
-Sure, Johan Santana might have won a couple by getting a break here or there, but six blown saves is kind of hard to fathom.
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on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 8:09 pm by John Delcos.
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Any word on Ryan Church and his check-up today?
Slow your roll on Murph, JD.
It’s hard not to like what the kid has done so far. He clearly looks like he has an idea up there, but let’s not pencil him in as the starting LF for ‘09 just yet. Recall the blistering start from Mike Jacobs a few years back. Let’s let him take his hacks, root hard and just see what happens.
Was this thread started by the same John Delcos who used to run this blog?
I think what everyone finds really encouraging about Murphy is that unlike some guys who got off to insane starts (Kevin Maas, Benny Agbayani, Mike Jacobs) he’s not just jacking homers, presumably off pitchers who don’t have scouting reports. He’s hitting the ball to all fields, being patient, and generally looking like he knows what he’s doing at the plate. Obviously he’s not going to hit .500, but he’s certainly looking like a major league hitter right now.
If Church does come back, it’ll be an interesting dilemma if Murphy and Tatis are both still hot (obviously a pleasant dilemma to have). From a hitting standpoint, the best lineup would have Murphy playing 2B as he was before he was called up, though supposedly he’s a bit of a butcher in the infield so I don’t know if that would work.
In any event, it’s nice to see the Mets throwing caution to the wind and playing the kids in a way they haven’t in recent years (remember last year when we had to suffer through Brian Lawrence because the Mets were too scared to call up Humber?).
We missed you John, It was an eventful day nonetheless. On the field and on the blog.
In addition to the 6 blown saves he also has losses in 4 games in which he only allowed 1 earned run : Apr 6, Jun6, Jun23 and Aug 2. He should have a lot more wins than he does.
BTW Lastings hit a couple of dingers tonight.
I am really curious how many ER Santana has “given up” while sitting in the dugout. Seems like the ‘pen has let a ton of those runs in…on top of blowing his wins.
Yeah, here’s hoping, right?
Even then, though, they still need a first baseman who can play a whole season without running red hot and ice cold like a psychotic and a catcher who can hit his way out of a wet paper bag…
But as much as they can concentrate on free agent pitching, it’d certainly be nice.
yeah, i really like murphy so far as well and in another thread i advocated him getting the bulk of the playing time so as to see what kind of success he can have vs. lefties, but the idea of penciling him in to start next year in left is flawed for several reasons.
1. he is a gap to gap hitter and especially early in his career he probably will not hit many HR’s, maybe being optimistic somewhere in the 12-16 range for a season which is a bit low in the production dept. for that position (then again we have what, between 1-5 HR from a LF this year).
2. he’s a lefty. and with Church and even possibly Delgado back next year that would be a very lefty heavy lineup.
ideally the mets would find a righty power hitter to play LF next year and would give Murphy the chance to win the 2b job. of course with Castillo’s albatross of a contract that seems unlikely.
best bet is that he plays a utility role, making a few starts a week at different spots and i’ll bet even though he’s a rookie, given the approach he takes, he’d be a decent pinch hitter too.
Dan Murphy meet your clone… Ty Wigginton. Besides going into next year no matter how hurt he has been, I expect Fernando Martinez to be the starting Left Fielder. If Murphy keeps it up he would gain extra value as a trade chip in the offseason.
Hey Steve the Original, there is one glaring problem with that clone…...its called having an eye for the strikezone. Ty WIggington may have had the worst eye I have ever seen up there.
Wiggy has a .359 OBP so far this year and has improved in that category. It’s not what I meant anyway…Murphy, like Wiggy will be a very nice utility player with decent pop who will never put up numbers capable of a starting left or right fielder. They aren’t going to play him at 2b, and there is no room for him at 3rd. Again, best we can hope for is a successful end of season from Murphy so his trade value gets increased.
In this day in baseball where 2Bs and SSs are hitting 30+ HRs does the unwritten rule that a corner outfielder has to be a HR hitter still hold true? In my opinion no, who is to say that a guy that could be a .300 hitter/.400 OBP player who may only hit low double didge homers better learn to play the middle infield or center? I think thats stupid but what do I know?
Chad Bradford was claimed by the Rays yesterday and I for the life of me can’t understand why the Mets didn’t put in a claim for him. With the way this bullpen has been, there would certainly have been room for him.
Who Needs Lohan, its not a rule. Its about production, period. Ichiro used to produce big time w/o HRs. If we get LF who hits like Wade Boggs (with the high OBP to go with it) of course we’ll take that. Its just that its easier to get there with 30hrs than with 170 singles and 100 walks.
Production is a bit hard to quantify as well Taylor. Think about a guy like Carlos Beltran. By the end of the season he will be a 30/100 guy (maybe not this season with the HRs) each year, but is he really producing? There are 100 guys id rather have up in a big spot than him! So is he really that procutive when he hits his slow rollers to the right side infield with 2 on and 2 out? I guess I’m just a big proponent of the guy that can hit .300 and have good productive at bats every time he is up and not just judge a guy by his stats at year end…
Steve: The mets didn’t put in a claim for Bradford because they couldn’t. Players on waivers are offered to every team in their league first (this case the AL.) They start with the team with the worst record and work itself up to the top teams. For that reason, I don’t understand why the Red Sox didn’t claim him as their bullpen is in shambles too. The mets couldn’t claim him because they never had the chance.
I agree that LF is reserved for FMart. A little competition never hurt, and its always good to have backup for an injury plagued phenom who has yet to face pitching over AA level. I like the Idea of Murphy being a utility player for One year. (assuming fmart wins the lf job) Then theres only 2 years left on looies contract, and hopefully, his knees will heal up, and somebody will take his contract, if we pay half. Keep Delgado one more year then hand over to Evans, whose bat is coming around and who made a super play on that DP that Carlos could only dream about. Imagine an all organization infield in 2010 or Evan, Murphy, Reyes and Wright. Add FMart in LF, Pelfry and Niese in the rotation and Kunz closing. Who says we aint got no minor league?
Ray Evans has been pretty decent lately but if he is our 1B of the future im not so sure we will be much of a competitor. And having a liability in the 2B position costs you tons of runs over the course of a long season. I like Wright, Reyes, Reyes, and Texeira much better!!!
We’re not getting Tex, he’s got overpaid yankeee written all over him. That said, Evans is not our first baseman of the future and if Murphy was playing 2B we’d be lucky to get 15 home runs COMBINED from 1B and 2B. I love what I’m seeing from Murph and Evans, but I don’t think either one has any power. I agree with the above posters who said they’d make great role/utility players and may serve as a deep bench, something we clearly don’t have this year.
We have a really deep bench Bob, the problem is they’re all starting!!!!!
I would like texiera here too, but I think the Angels will keep him. There will be a huge bidding war if not, and I cant see Wilpon giving this guy a 10 year contract or anything close. We dont know that Murphy is a liability at 2nd base. We havent even seen him there yet, but he shows good agility and adaptability. A. Reyes will not hit consistenty in an everyday role. If the Mets thought he could he would be there everyday now. We need to see more from all of these players, but I see potential there.
Murphy has played a handful of games at 2nd. His defense at 3rd was not very good. It is unknown whether he could make the transition, though he did make some very nice plays there (along with a few errors, not unexpected).
Murphy batted .308 with 13 HR and 67 RBI in Bingy this year.
He has some power. Probably 20-25 hrs.
Bob: Well hopefully the Mets know something about Ryan Church that we don’t know. Because in that case they passed up on Brian Giles who would have made a very nice fit here.
tonight’s lineup:
Reyes, ss
Murphy, lf
Wright, 3b
Delgado, 1b
Beltran, cf
Tatis, rf
Easley, 2b
Schneider, c
Perez, lhp
I gotta disagree, Bob. Evans has demonstrated scary power in the minors. Generally speaking, power tends to be the last thing a hitter develops, yet Evans has been putting up impressive slugging numbers since being an 18-yr-old in rookie ball. He was slugging .561 in AA this year; to put that in perspective, the last Met to slug that much was Beltran in 2006, when he hit 38 doubles and 41 dingers.
Murphy is admittedly a tougher call. He’s probably the better pure hitter of the two, but he hasn’t shown the power Evans has. But, then again, he’s still young, and power tends to be the last thing a hitter develops.
Steve, I hope you are right about Church. He was supposed to have a battery of tests done yesteday, and still no word. Omar has been super quiet this year. My feeling is that after being burned in both the trade market and with the reaction to Churchs second concussion the front office is now overcompensating for its past mistakes. Kind of reminds me of the feds. When can we get on a plane again without taking our shoes off?
I don’t know what these young guys will do for the rest of the year or next, but I like what I see.
Many people have been begging for us to get younger and here they are. I do not think FMart will be here at the beginning of the year, maybe the middle.
These guys are here now and Murphy is on fire. If Murphy can stay productive we would have 5 OF we can play next year that are on the team now.
That would allow us to focus on pitching, however that plays out. If we can get a Tex, great. If not we are good. It also sets us up for the year after when we can have one or all of the 3 AA guys play 1B in the new Shea.
So far I hear the announcers say how patient Murphy is. Why would we trade him away? He seems to slot in well at #2 or perhaps 5/6. That makes our lineup better. With Church back – hopefully – we can have a good lineup again.
One day when FMart comes up we can have a very nice OF and have good productive players fight for playing time.
Now wouldn’t that be nice?