If At First You Don’t Succeed, Your Name Must Be Daniel Murphy

There has been much debate since the season ended for the Mets, on whether the Mets should get a first baseman or stick with Daniel Murphy.

Here is how Daniel Murphy ranks among all qualifying National League first baseman with 450 or more at-bats.

As you can see from the above chart, Murphy is woefully deficient in not just one or two offensive areas, but  all of them.

I found it odd that some saber friendly Mets fans are so quick to defend Murphy on his inability to draw walks and wonder if they applied a double standard where Jeff Francoeur was concerned this season. Murphy’s walks worsened significantly in the second half, registering just 13 passes compared to 25 in the first half.

The fact is that Daniel Murphy ranks last in OPS, On-Base Percentage, Batting Average, Walk Rate, and Runs Scored.

He ranks second to last place in Slugging Percentage, Homeruns and Runs Batted In.

There doesn’t seem to be one area in the offensive department that would justify and support an argument for keeping his job at first base. There doesn’t seem to be a defensive argument either despite this new fangled stat that suggested he was the second best defensive first baseman in the league. (I’m not kidding.)

At best, Murphy appears to be a poor mans Eddie Kranepool, who set the bar for below average first baseman who were able to stay gainfully employed as a starting first baseman.

His on-base percentage suggests that he should be nowhere near the top of the order.

His slugging percentage suggests that he is not a middle of the order bat either.

So why the fuss over a player who is ideally a 7 or 8 hitter at best in the Mets lineup?

Can we please focus on getting a legitimate power bat at first base in the off season, and leave Daniel Murphy either on the bench or back in AAA where he most likely belongs?