15
2011
Daniel Murphy Feeling Healthy In Preparation For Season
An article by 
Daniel Murphy spread the holiday cheer by donning the big red suit as Santa Claus for the Mets Kids’ Holiday Party at Citi Field. He joked that he hopes everyone doesn’t think he’s a better Santa Claus than a baseball player.
Most importantly, Murphy said that both his knees are feeling good in anticipation for spring training.
“I’m done with my rehab, and now we’re really into the strengthening phase,” he said. “I always have that one cut that I need to make to trust it again, and I had that a couple of weeks ago.”
Santa Murphy spread some holiday joy.
Heading into spring training, it seems that it will be Murphy manning second base for the Mets. Ruben Tejada will shift to shortstop due to the departure of Jose Reyes, so Murph becomes the man at second.
Though he’s concentrating on getting as much work in at second base as possible, that doesn’t mean that he’s not going to work at other positions. Also, being the frontrunner to win the second base job doesn’t mean that he’s not going to work.
“I still got a lot of work to do at second base, and there’s a lot of room for improvement,” Murphy said. “My understanding is that I’m going into spring training as a second baseman with a good chance to win the job.”
He said he definitely needs to work more on the double play, but he feels much more comfortable now after working at it the past year than he did last year at this time.
Regarding the new dimensions at Citi Field, Murphy said he didn’t think it would turn him into a better power hitter.
“I’m going to try to hit the ball as hard as I can as many times as I can,” he said. “If it happens to run out of real estate, that’s kind of a bonus for me.”
Murphy also addressed his injury history in that it was mostly bad luck. While he takes the blame in that he must put himself in a better position, he admitted the first injury was from a dirty slide. As the offseason progresses, he will focus on the double play pivot extensively.
The team has discussed briefly the possibility of having Murphy lead off, now that Reyes and Angel Pagan are gone. Murphy said that he would only lead off once per game and would let the circumstances of the game dictate his approach.
Speaking of Reyes, Murphy said it will be strange to play against Jose after being his teammate, but the game itself comes before personal relationships with opponents.
“When we play him…he’s on the other side now,” Murphy said. “He’s a Marlin now. As far as I’m concerned once the bell rings, you’re on the other side.
He did say that he’d have Reyes and his $106 million pick up the tab if they go out to dinner in Miami.
Rather than worry about his individual stats, Murphy has one goal: 95-100 wins. Though that may be a tall order this season, he’s excited with the potential of this team.
“I want to win a pennant, and there’s no better place to win it than New York City so it’s about time to get to it, I think,” said Murphy.
Believe or not, Murphy is the fourth longest-tenured Met behind Johan Santana, David Wright and Mike Pelfrey. However, he said he still feels like one of the younger guys and is looking forward to playing with a young new core.
Murphy was recently mentioned in trade rumors with the Dodgers showing interest. He took this as a compliment in that other teams are interested in his talents.
But he is committed to the Mets and thinks that if the team stays healthy, they can put the negative stigma of the past few seasons behind them.
As spring training approaches, Murphy hopes to transform himself into what he considers an above average first baseman to a competent second baseman.
About the Author: Jim Mancari
Jim Mancari hails from Massapequa, N.Y. He recently earned a Master's degree in Journalism at Hofstra University. He is a devout Mets fan and takes pride in his team, despite their lack of success over the last few years. Like all Mets fans, Jim has plenty of hope. He also writes as the sports reporter for the Brooklyn Tablet newspaper and the senior editor of metroBASEBALL Magazine. Click my name to view my personal website.
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“Once the bell rings your on the other side” – Daniel Murphy
“Ding”
“I think more scoring makes more sense because it’s more entertaining,” he said. “A little more offense will not only be a plus for the players but also the fans.”
Now we know why Alderson is putting Murph at 2B. Winning? Who cares? It’s about making those silly fans happy with lotsa runs!
Any sane or normal human being who knows anything about baseball knows Murph does not belong at 2B and with knee braces no less. It’s going to fail again mark my words.
IMO this is Alderson’s call and not Collins.
I could have sworn that I read in an accounting textbook somewhere that teams win games by scoring more runs than their opponents. Could you, A Real Baseball Man, clarify that? For my spreadsheets?
Great job on this Jim. I really love Murphy. He is a solid hitter with a great clue of what to do at the plate. Murph’s a gamer and tough kid that is willing to do whatever the team asks. He has also shown that he can come through in the clutch in parts of two seasons. That said, playing him at second base seems like a recipe for disaster and I would have rather have seen him get another shot in left field (with Bay moving to CF), than putting him back at 2B.
Joe, with Duda in RF, I think that would have just been a horror show. Bay played a good LF last season, but that is a low bar. Whoever does end up in CF this season will not only have to cover his position, but give support to a very raw right fielder. Otherwise, Benji Molina would be able to hit triples in Citi Field.
The whole offseason is being handled the wrong way IMO. I would have done what I could to move David Wright and a prospect for young major league ready SP. Done my best to wine & dine Jose Reyes and tell him I wanted him to be a part of the Mets future that I though him and Tejada at 2B would be a top tier defensive duo up the middle for years to come. You just don’t know if he would have taken a little less to stay here. I don’t care what anybody says beause we don’t know that because no effort was made.
I would have went with Murphy at 3B because of his ability to hit under pressure. For all his defensive laps & mental gaffs he is an excellent clutch hitter while Wright is a softee & major choke artist who folds in big spots offensively and defensively
As usual, some good ideas repeated ad nauseum.
Lather, rinse, repeat
preheat oven to 450 degrees, place cookie dough 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet, now go bake some cookies
I looked up classy in the dictionary and all it said was “see Bayonne Mets Fan”
At least they’re good ideas.
Much better than copying and pasting several of your own quotes from previous posts putting them on a newer post for the purpose of trying to pass them off as quoted official sources. An all time MMO classic!
And u of all people should not be talking about repeating yourself since until recently ur main job here on MMO was to remind people that Reese Havens was going to be the starting 2B last year only to have that shot down by my prediction. You’re still crying about that
Ad nauseum.
What’s the difference between you and a brick wall?
I crush you with less pain when i come down on you hard
So the ‘crusher’ declares himself a better GM than Sandy and he writes crazy responses to anyone who questions him. It’s commonly called a nut job.
and what do they call people who copy and paste their own quotes from previous posts and try to pass them off as official statements from periodicals?
BTW has that baseball team for William Jessup University doing?
So, you’re plan is to basically lose Wright and Reyes in the same week? Because that is what would have happened.
And what kind of prospects would you have gotten for Wright? According to you he ” is a softee & major choke artist who folds in big spots offensively and defensively”. That can’t be very attractive to other teams. You would have to be dumb enough to think a dope watching the games on TV knows more than any MLB GM to think you could make a deal like that to benefit the Mets.
and the plan according to donal is to just try to bad mouth every poster who is not in love with lord sandy and his coolie donal.
hey, jimmy, how does Hoss Radbourn at 8 years $150 million sound? Think your mancrush will be down with that?
Haha like Reyes is clutch? If “clutch” is so important why waste your time with Reyes? He’s was always terrible when the Mets were actually playing important games. He was great in 2011 on a going nowhere team (after a terrible 2010) but always folded up in years it actually mattered
Gotta give it to the kid. I hope it works for him this time. I also like the idea of Murphy batting lead-off, I had never really given that any thought.
Batting Murphy leadoff is a horrible idea and just plain stupid baseball sense. One of Murphy’s best traits is the ability to get big hits in big spots. He bears down tremendously with runner’s on base and is as good a clutch hitter on this team as anyone can be. To bat him leadoff takes his best asset away from him. Terrible idea.
Just depends on who is here. While yes Murphy was a good clutch hitter, so was Angel Pagan…
You have to put someone with a decent OBP in those top few spots, I know you are not a big fan of stats but lets break away from those thingees and say someone who is able to get on base a lot. On the roster who has a better chance of doing that while also not completely clogging up the bases?
Angel Pagan is no where near the clutch hitter or hitter that Murphy has become and Murphy’s ability to drive in runs in big spots is much more important and related to winning games than his ability to get on base.
I’d prefer to have Murphy in a position to be driving runs and winning games than being left on base in scoring position while the hitter after him strikes out.
Yeah I’m not too thrilled about Murph in the leadoff slot either. What about something like this….
Torres, Tejada/Thole, Murphy, Wright, Davis, Bay, Duda, Thole/Tejada
I’m not sold on either Tejada or Thole in the 2 hole just yet. Thole makes good contact but is a double play waiting to happen. At least Tejada could potentially move runners over.
Hitting Murphy third balances out the order. Though it’s not Murderer’s Row, Murphy, Wright, Davis, Bay, Duda could do some damage (if all healthy)
But giving 600 PAs to a doubles machine like Murphy has you starting the game with a runner in scoring position for the heart of the line up.
I’d role with:
Torres, Murphy, Wright, Davis, Bay, Duda, Tejada, Thole.
Though, I will say I’d have no issue with this either:
Murphy, Torres/Tejada, Wright, Davis, Bay, Duda, Torres/Tejada, Thole.
either way it’s going to be a terrible team because the GM is doing a horrific job with his moves so far this year and even worse last year….. even though it’s heresy to question his decision making process here.
A smarter GM who wanted to win would have made smarter moves with this budget and the Mets would be a better team because of it. Sandy says the fans want lots of runs and it’s exciting though so let’s put Murphy at 2B. Either way it’s a disaster
Appreciate your time in typing. That said, I’m going to focus on what we’ll see happening with the team vs. doom and gloom and not being able to put 1 + 2 together to get 3 in order to understand the situation that the team is in.
Merry Christmas.
yep, that’s better than trying to use your own mind and question Sandy Alderson’s moves.
Appreciate your time in typing. That said, I’m going to focus on what we’ll see happening with the team vs. doom and gloom and not being able to put 1 + 2 together to get 3 in order to understand the situation that the team is in.
Merry Christmas, again.
I know exactly what’s going so stop trying to bail out. A different GM probably makes smarter baseball personnel decisions with the same low budget.
But of course it’s not possible since Sandy made the only decisions that could have been made with this budget. No other player acquisitions could have been possible, right?
But hey, Sandy said the fans want to see lots of runs so lets throw Daniel Murphy at 2B even though he proved he can’t play it….and catcher is a “year to year proposition”
whatever he says…
Appreciate your time in typing. That said, I’m going to focus on what we’ll see happening with the team vs. doom and gloom and not being able to put 1 + 2 together to get 3 in order to understand the situation that the team is in.
Merry Christmas, once, twice, three times a lady..
I guess copying and pasting is easier than coming up with your own ideas other than Sandy’s.
All together now bow your heads:
In Sandy we trust. Every move he makes should not be questioned. Thou shall not want.
There’s some humor, Joe
Torres won’t play more than 100 games. Check out his history and age.
Frankly, I don’t know if Davis will be back for opening day. My frame of reference is Kendrys Morales, who also busted his ankle, and the Mets PR machine, who always underestimates the recovery time of its injured players.
Also, Wright, Davis, Bay, Duda means the Mets are lining up for an record year in K’s
Torres may not even be the Opening Day CF. This FO is good at keeping its player acquisition under wraps until the last minute.
Honestly, Torres is probably just holding the spot down until we know how Captain Kirk is.
I agree with you on this Donal. I don’t feel it is a given that Torres will be the everyday CF when all is said and done.
different injury. Ike didn’t break his ankle.
My problem with batting Torres lead-off is that one he is not going to be in every game and his OBP is a weak point.
Murphy, Torres/Thole,Wright, Davis, Bay, Duda, Tejada, Thole/Torres I guess could be considered.
Wow, what a lightweight lineup!
Oh yeah, it would magically be a heavyweight lineup if Reyes was back. Of course that is if he was actually on the field.