Daniel Murphy's Second Slump

23Sep/080

Daniel Murphy's Second Slump

Daniel Murphy has finally proved he's a Met by entering into a slump in the final week of a pennant race. In his last 14 trips to the plate he reached base once (an opposite field RBI double) with 4 strikeouts.

After Murphy's first slump I suggested that pitchers had adjusted to Murph's patient approach of take a few pitches and go the other way, and that Murphy was going to have to start jumping on some early strikes and inside corner fastballs. And indeed he had just broken out of his slump by pulling a game winning double off of Brad Lidge. But then he returned to form and found renewed success, taking pitches and going the other way.

In trying to make out what I can from mlb.com's hitting charts, it appears that nearly all of Murphy's extra base hits, including both home runs, were hit the other way. But in this slump we've seen the opposite. On Saturday and Sunday Murphy didn't hit the ball the other way once. He flied out once each to center and to right (both were deep), hit 3 groundouts to second and one to first, and struck out 3 times.

Perhaps Murph has tried and failed to adjust to the pitchers, and really needs to go back to what he was doing, taking pitches and going the other way.

On a lighter side, given that I've been overanalyzing Murphy on ridiculously small sample sizes, I figured I'd go one step further and make suggestions based on his splits:

Murphy has a 1.493 OPS in 11 plate appearances in the 9 spot (as a pinch hitter). Perhaps the Mets should adopt a Tony Larussa strategy of batting the pitcher eighth and then use Murph at 9.
Murph will probably sit tonite, with a lefty starting. But Murph actually hits better against lefties -- 1.278 OPS (also 11 plate appearances) vs. .888 as a righty. [These numbers are probably related. All of Murph's appearances in the 9 spot and possibly all of his appearances against lefties have been as a pinch hitter, where Murph has been unreal, 1.465 OPS in 16 plate appearances.

OK, I'm a little too Murph-obsessed. But the man has captured my imagination and I'd just love to see him put it all together and join Wright and Reyes in a historically great infield for the next decade. Go Murph!!