27
2011
Daniel Murphy Can Flat Out Rake
An article by Former Writers
In Monday night’s thrilling 4-2 defeat of the Reds, we were reminded yet again just how much Daniel Murphy has evolved as a hitter. With his two doubles, including his two-run scoring double in the 7th, Murphy now sits just four doubles behind teammate Carlos Beltran for the National League lead. Quietly, the young 26-year-old utility man has become one of the best overall hitters in the National League here in 2011. Murphy remained red-hot last night and picked up another three hits in the Mets 8-6 win over the Reds.
For the season, Murph is batting a career best .313, ranking him top ten in the league. However, that average sat at just .239 in the middle of May, but since that time the Jacksonville, Florida native has kicked it into gear and has been raging hot ever since. The Jacksonville University alum has steadily continued to raise his average month by month, in May Murphy batted a steady .281, then in June he topped that total hitting .330 for the month, and here in the July Daniel has been able to raise the bar by batting an impressive .344 with five days left to go in the month.
What’s been even more impressive has been number 28′s knack to come up with the big hit, both with runners in scoring position and runners in scoring position with two outs. To date, Daniel is batting an impressive .337 with runners in scoring position, but when the pressure is at its highest Murphy seems to rise to the occasion, hitting a mind blowing .380 with runners in scoring position with two outs.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a lefty or a righty on the mound as the 394th draft selection from the 2006 MLB Draft, is hitting .309 against the righties, and has only fallen off four points when facing the lefties, batting .305. Consider this, in 2009, primarily as the Amazin’s everyday first basemen, Murphy struggled mildly against the lefties, batting a dismal .223 compared to this seasons .305.
This may be a small sample size, but a sign of things to come not only here in 2011, but in the future for the talented left handed batter. Prior to the All-Star break, Daniel was batting a solid .305 while compiling an On-Base+Slugging percentage of .776, post All-Star break, all Murphy has done has continued to find ways to improve his numbers at the plate, batting .326, while raising his On-Base+Slugging percentage to .910 in that span.
Given that 1st basemen Ike Davis is all but done for the season, combined with the way Daniel Murphy has been able to rake, one would expect to see the talented 26-year-old primarily manning 1st for the Mets for the remainder of 2011.
What I’m interested to see is what happens to Murphy when Ike Davis makes his return hopefully in 2012. There are a number of options manager Terry Collins will be presented with, but what we could see is a platoon situation with Daniel Murphy and Justin Turner at second base. However, with the injuries that have plagued both Ike Davis and David Wright this season, it may not be such a bad idea for Murph to get time at both 1st and 3rd base next season once a week at each position to give both guys a blow here and there to keep them fresh.
Again this just pure speculation on my part, but with the way Daniel Murphy has hit this season, as he only appears to be getting stronger as the season wears on, certainly the fiery Collins may look to get the utility infielder regular playing time all along the diamond for the 2012 season.
About the Author: Former Writers
24 Comments + Add Comment
NL East Standings
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Braves | 24 | 18 | .571 | - |
| Nationals | 23 | 20 | .535 | 1.5 |
| Phillies | 20 | 23 | .465 | 4.5 |
| Mets | 16 | 24 | .400 | 7.0 |
| Marlins | 11 | 32 | .256 | 13.5 |
Last updated: 05/18/2013
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Verbose.
How is this verbose? That makes no sense I back up the argument very logically.
Murph is an interesting situation. I’ve liked him since he came up and would be very interested to have as an everyday player but where to play him. His natural position was third but so far he looked the worst there. He mans first pretty well but come on that’s Ike’s spot. Well that leaves second and Turner is having a good year. It looks like it is time for a trade or something.
I believe Murphy is going to play 3-4 times next year at 2ND Base and then will get a spot start once a week at 1st and 3rd, so Collins will I believe will look to get his bat in the lineup 5 times a week. Plus I’ve heard the Mets have no intentions of trading Murph and they see him as big part of their future.
murphy can play 3rd, 1st and 2B for us.. that is a huge plus!! huge!!
That’s great! Let’s trade him to an american league team in need of a DH while he has some value. Senor’ brickhands as Keith Hernandez said the other night “has no position”. I love that he’s hitting, but again, the ball will find you. This team is going nowhere at .500 and should get something from an AL team for a guy, who I must admit is on fire. And at the right time, trade deadline time. But being a realist, I know that with Davis out for maybe the year, someone, albeit “brickhands” Murphy, must play first. Duda is no more than AAAA type player and Collins knows that.
lmao, i take it you don’t like murphy.. his defense is shady at best, but he’s an agressive baseball player, that’s what makes him good, is a luxury to have a player that can hit and play 3 or more position.. be happy SR1, he is on fire since mid may!
Murph may never be a big power source and may never draw a lot of walks, but his hitting prowess this season is starting to develop into a Keith Hernandez type of middle of the order bat…Keith didn’t have a lot of power, but combined with his clutch hitting, he had enough power to be an effective 80+ RBI guy…
ike davis is our first baseman.. that’s the only problem i got with your comment. but i can see murphy being a 80 rbi guy in the lineup..
I see Murphy as an 80 RBI guy on an american league team. Not the Mets. He has no chance of unseating anyone on the field. Again, love that he hits, but he has no spot defensivley and you can’t hide him anywhere. Take a chance and unload him. Met fans tend to fall in love with “their own”, however common sense must dictate what the Mets do going forward. 1)They’re a .500 team right now. 2)They’re not going to win a wild card this year. 3)Ike will be back next year. I’d say three strikes against Murphy. I have faith in Sandy. He is smart enough to know that Murphy has some value to an AL team right now! What the heck…the Indians are looking for a bat.
fair enough, but then again, with our pitching we need as much offense as we can, therefore you sacrifice defense with offense, that’s why a guy like turner, becomes more expandable if murphy keeps hitting this way.. wouldn’t you wanna have a guy whp can hit for 300 with 150+ hits, 40+ doubles, 80 rbi’s in your lineup??
Of course I would, but that’s assuming that said guy can field his position which Murphy can’t. Baseball is about pitching and defense. More importantly defense up the middle.
agree, i rather have tejada if you ask me.. but again, with this pitching staff, is good to have as much offense as we can have.. example yest’s game, niese pitches 5 innings, allowed 5 runs, AND WIN!! why? because we got offense.. having defense and pitching helps you wins championship, but what good is defense if you DON’T have good pitchers??
Can’t argue that. Somewhere there is a happy medium.
All opinion but no facts. LOL
Yeah. Your opinion has tons of facts attached? I’d like to think that Keith Hernandez and his umpteen gold gloves knows a thing or two about defense.
and what does Ike Davis have to do with Murphy’s hitting? I never said that Murphy plays defense like Keith…People make a huge deal about Murphy’s defense, while forgetting that guys like Justin Turner, David Wright and Angel Pagan make just as many mistakes; every time Murph screws up you hear about it, yet if Wright does the same thing it’s excused…
Obviously, Ike IS the Mets first baseman…but at the same time, Murphy is our Ty Wigginton: a guy that can give you solid offense while bouncing between several different defensive positions…while never going to be strong defensively at any position, will out-hit his mistakes for the most part…
yet if Wright does the same thing it’s excused…”
welcome to MMO, or any other mets blog for that matter..
Coming from a guy that if Wright hit 3 grand slams in one game and had one strike out, all you would talk about is how he had a strike out.
When, where, how is anyone excused for screwing up? This is just a sensational comment that sounds very juvenile. People have selective hearing around here.
No one, including Wright is getting a free pass.
Make him a catcher. I know that sounds easier said than done but it can be done. He was mainly a 3rd baseman in the minors so he has to have a decent arm, and apparently he’s very much a student of the game. His intensity is perfect for the position. Just a thought.
I’m all for finding a solution to keep Murphy beyond this season in the lineup, but catcher? No way that happens and it shouldn’t. The guy couldn’t even handle leftfield, what makes you think he can learn to catch in a crash course?
same could be said about Mike Piazza…couldn’t play defense standing up and with balls hit at him…and even as a catcher, couldn’t throw out an old lady with a cane trying to steal a base (and called a very predictable game)…yet, like Jeff Kent at 2nd base, he outhit his defensive flaws…
What is Josh Thole? A weak first baseman converted to catcher because he was never going to be good enough to play first base at the MLB level…but he’s acceptable as a catcher…
With all due respect, I think many people get caught up in the hype of particular players and for lack of a better term, the negative hype of players. Murph was not a second baseman before this year and all we heard during spring training was that he was horrible at second and had no chance of playing there. Lo and behold he did a pretty good job there and is already better than Dan Uggla. Sure he has room to improve defensively, but Turner, Tejada and Wright have contributed more to losses this year than Murphy has. He has a handful of errors and has made a number of spectacular plays in the field.
Example, 2 nights ago he knocked the ball down and scrambled to get the out at first. The Met announcers (who I love) were sort of mocking him for making it interesting. If you watch the replay, which I did many times, that ball was headed down the line and it either hit something or the spin of the ball kicked it towards second. He made a tremendous play to stop that ball. If you don’t believe that, go to Mets.com and find the replay and watch the trajectory the ball was on half-way towards first and watch it kick towards second a few feet before it hit the bad.
Just my opinion, but he has not hurt the team defensively and let’s be honest, he is one of the best clutch hitters they have had in years and without him offensively, they wouldn’t be where they are today.