Mets Obsessed Like a Drug Addiction but Without the Highs

Oh Murph!

As a Murph Obsessed and sarcastic Met fan I can't believe I never saw ohmurph.com until today. The site dubs itself "The Onion of the Mets."

Today he capitalizes on Murph's classic behind the back play at first with a story of Murph filing for a patent:

Patent #016401-28, titled “The Murphy Reach Around,” prohibits other first basemen - from the Major Leagues down through Little League - from preforming a similar move.

Keith Hernandez is quoted as saying:

“Much like the Iron Lotus or the Triple Lindy, I always assumed the Reach Around was nothing more than a folk tale, made up by Jimmie Foxx during an all night bender in the 40’s.  Now, the name Daniel Murphy will become synonymous with the Reach Around.”

Go Murph!

The previous post on Oh Murph, Mark DeRosa, True Met is just as funny. I hadn't realized DeRosa went hitless and then got hurt right after being acquired by the Cards. Wonder how we escaped our destiny on that one.

Nicely done, guys, keep it up.

Young player left on third

To have a guy at third base, a young player like that, and not to get him in, we’ve got to do a better job.-- Jerry Manuel

So that was the problem. That they left a poor lonely 23 year old on third base. Strange quote.

Regarding Murphy, so he made the error that allowed the tying run, chased ball 4 to strike out in the first, came up with first and third and no out down 1 in the 7th and hit into a double play, and led off the bottom of the ninth of a tie game and couldn't get himself in.

OK, let's try that again. With the gameplan to use up Zambrano's limited pitch count quickly, Murphy had a 7 pitch strikeout and a 7 pitch walk. Made good contact in the fifth, then with first and third down one in the seventh ripped into line drive double play that would have been a go ahead double had the first baseman not been holding the runner on. Tied in the bottom of the ninth, he hit a lead off triple and got stranded. The day before he pinch hit with 2 on and lined a single to right, and then walked in his other at bat. So Murph's looking pretty good again, except for chasing one low and inside pitch and making his first error of the season trying to charge a ball for a play at the plate. Nobody's perfect. Hopefully he'll recover from that incident of being a yound man left on third base.

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!!

Keep Walking, Murph

I know it's silly to think about these things in the heat of a pennant race. And yet ... Daniel Murphy will be considered a rookie next year as long if he can avoid getting 31 at bats over the Mets last 9 games.

If I understand the rules correctly, a player is a rookie next year if he enters it without having done racked up any of the following:

1. 45 days on an MLB roster, NOT INCLUDING SEPTEMBER. So Murph, who was called up on August 2, is cool.
2. 50 innings pitched. With the Mets' bullpen desperation this could be an issue, but since Manuel rarely uses a reliever for more than one batter at a time, Murph would need like 150 appearances to have a problem here, so he looks pretty safe.
3. 130 at bats. Here's the problem. Murph has 99. The next 4 announced opposing pitchers are all righties. In any event, Murph has been hitting lefties so well that he might get a start even if a lefty is pitching. Fortunately for Murph (in this context) Manuel doesn't want to play Murph or Evans in right, so if Manuel wants to play Evans against a lefty (and assuming he doesn't want to bench Delgado right now), Murph would sit. Murph usually bats second, which will usually give him 4 or 5 plate appearances per game.

I wonder if the Mets clinch the division (or even just a playoff spot) if Manuel would let this consideration factor into his decisions of whom to start the last game or two. Manuel would presumably have bigger considerations, like giving regular days off. (With the division clinched, would he let Murph play 3rd? Right?)

Anyway, the solution is simple. Just walk, baby.

Then you can take the World Series MVP this year and the Rookie of the Year next year. Wouldn't that be cool.