Delgado, who hit two home runs on Wednesday to bring his season total to 30, has said recently that...

Delgado, who hit two home runs on Wednesday to bring his season total to 30, has said recently that veterans can learn something about hitting by watching Murphy.

"He’s got a great approach," Delgado said. "You see him taking pitches, taking changeups, staying behind the ball, going to the opposite field."

Comments

Nice quote

The title of the article, "Rookies Murphy and Evans Complement Mets, and Each Other ", is a little perplexing. Do they complement each other in that Murphy seems to have an idea at the plate and Evans does not?

by Eric Simon on Aug 29, 2008 3:57 PM EDT reply actions

they dig each other's style

murphy: hey evans, i like your haircut.
evans: thanks for the compliment murphy. i like your shoes.

by kendynamo on Aug 29, 2008 4:27 PM EDT up reply actions

yes, they conveniently overlooked that

I mostly just enjoyed this as a totally fluffy puff piece, and a kind of surprisingly non-homophobic ballplayers-in-platonic-love story. We should enjoy these Evans and Murphy meet-cute stories while they last, because Evans is not going to be a major leaguer for much longer, while Murphy gives every appearance of being ready to stick around. Maybe next season we can get a bunch of breakup stories, about how they miss each other and talk on the phone every day?

by anonymous on Aug 29, 2008 4:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Evans/Murphy

Evans is 22 and was brought up ahead of schedule because the Mets were in need of healthy bodies to plug into the lineup. He and Murphy (who’s just about exactly a year older) both played the entire 2007 season in Port St. Lucie, and both played the vast majority of 2008 (before their callups) in Binghamton (Murphy had 3 games in Brooklyn and 1 in New Orleand; Evans played exclusively for the B-Mets).

2007 lines (Port St. Lucie):
Murphy: 135 GP, .338/.430/.768, 11 HR, 42 BB/61 K
Evans: 103 GP, .374/.476/.850, 15 HR, 53 BB/64 K

2008 lines (Binghamton)
Murphy: 95 GP, .374/.496/.870, 13 HR, 39 BB/46 K
Evans: 75 GP, .365/.561/.926, 14 HR, 26 BB/64 K

The fact that Evans’ BB/K numbers got worse from A to AA is a concern, but at the two previous levels, he outperformed Murphy. He’s a year younger, so maybe he’s not ready yet. On the other hand, maybe he’ll never be able to hit major league pitching. I think fewer than 100 MLB plate appearances earlier on than the Mets expected him to be getting MLB playing time (I’m figuring he would’ve been a September callup this year) is probably too soon to judge whether he’ll figure it out though.

by JoshNY on Aug 30, 2008 12:32 AM EDT reply actions