Must have been like the bat boy or something…. crazy fella.

Evan Nicholas or something?

It’s one thing if you don’t have the talent on the team to compete, worse if you can’t find the talent from elsewhere, but it is inexcusable to have the talent right under your nose and misuse it or fail to use it at all.

Luis Castillo playing in every game when all of a sudden Murphy’s looking like an infielder with respectable range and hands. If he’s not playing winter ball this year, and he wasn’t going to be given a chance at second in September, it looks like that idea has either been blanked from memory somehow or simply dismissed.

Fernando Tatis getting 60+ PAs, Evans getting fewer than 20. Where is the utility in that? He was already pretty comfortably a Type B, and they might not even offer him arb anyway. Meanwhile, the team has needs this offseason at the same positions Evans plays. Wouldn’t it be useful to get as much information as possible so you can know what kind of platoon split would be tolerable for a left handed addition? And this ties in with Castillo/Murphy too. With Murphy playing 2B, the team would have needed both a 1B and LF, so especially against lefties, you can play both Evans and Tatis. Or you could go with Tatis and Sullivan, that’s an intimidating duo.

Brian Schneider playing, period, with Josh Thole on the roster. Yeah, lets not do everything we can to get a look at the catcher who would cost a few hundred thousand, instead spend at least twice that much, and still likely wind up with Omir Santos half the time. And instead, watch a guy who almost certainly won’t be around next year and appears to have little to offer anyway.

but the fact is that the defensive spectrum isn’t set in stone. Kelly Johnson is an example of a LF holding his own at 2nd base and this year Skip Schumaker was converted from a corner OF to second. While the early results were poor, Schumaker vastly improved with a UZR of -0.7 from May 17th on. There’s exceptions to every rule. With that being said pretty much everyone here at AA realize that Murphy probably can’t play second base; however, the Mets had no reason this past Sept. to not having Murphy prove the latter at the ML level since what he has shown is that his bat is very unlikey to be worth it at 1st base.

But to play the devil’s advocate, it’s not like he’s been in the majors very long. The argument for 2B is that he is still searching for his position. If he’s an average 3B, he may be an above average 1B (this appears to be true already) and he may be a below average 2B. It may be better for the team to pair his hitting ability with 2B where he is worse so that we can stick a much better hitter at 1B rather than have Murphy remain at 1B and sacrifice the opportunity to improve the offense overall.

we don’t really know how good he was at 3rd, since he never played it in the majors. And though it’s to the left of 2B, I don’t really think you can necessarily compare the outfield to the infield. I know it’s not a perfect example, but in high school I was a very good defensive 3rd basemen – I had a great arm, quick reflexes, and decent range. I was also good at 2nd. I was terrible in the outfield, though – I wasn’t very fast, and for some reason I always had a tough time judging fly balls (even as an infielder, pop ups were my least favorite plays by far. Give me a screamer down the line any day). Murphy always seemed like he had good range, he was just a little awkward and badly misplayed a few fly ball/line drives in the outfield, which doesn’t really tell you much about how he’d be at 2nd. Why not at least let him play a little bit there, to see how he does?

But in September, when there was nothing to lose, the issue is a different animal. We don’t know how good he was at 3B or 2B, he played those positions in the minors and in winter ball, respectively. What’s the harm in trying it when nothing else is on the line aside from perhaps gaining some information that could help the team in the following season, when things mattered again?

Also, UZR graded Murph as firmly above average at 1B, in fact he was one of the best in either league rating a 5.2 UZR/150.

Its not like Luis Castillo has been a defensive wizard. In fact he’s been awful. Murphy might be awful as well, but if his awfulness is comparably awful to Castillo’s awfulness, the difference between the two becomes about offense. Even assuming Castillo produces another .380 OBP season, Murphy clearly as superior power, and at the very least, would provide an interesting level of flexibility. I should be clear, if I had to guess, I do not think Murphy would be capable of being much more than a 1-1.5 WAR 2B at best, but that’s what Castillo is anyway at this point in his career.

You came to that conclusion even though you’ve NEVER seen him play a game at 2nd?

…. Daniel Murphy will never be that good of a player, that’s my honest opinion.

He’s a “tweener”, not enough offense for 1B, not enough defense for the OF let alone 2B. I think Kelly Johnson and Skip Schumaker are probably more athletic than Murphy.

3B isn’ t harder to play than 2B. 3B is more of a reflexive position with the additional responsibility of playing bunts, short-handedly speaking. 2B has more responsibilities, including cutoffs and turning the double play. That’s important. Uggla might not be that good of a 2B but he is more of a 2B than Murphy as he has played the position longer and has enough athleticism to be able to hold his own there. You can’t teach a player athleticism and the major leagues shouldn’t be a training ground for someone like Murphy. I think the Mets would do him a disservice if they tried him at 2B at the major-league level— the guy has gone through enough.

The Mets hyped Murphy up too much and there are some people that bought the hype, or they got themselves hyped-up over 100 or so at-bats. Murphy’s future, in my opinion, is as a back-up player, pinch-hitting and playing 1B against right-handed pitchers. If he has a modest career that will be more than I expect.

I’m sorry, I don’t think he’s that good. But people seem to like him, sort of like Francoeur, so he might hand around awhile.

BADLY. He can play all over BADLY.

garrett atkins
ryan garko

both hit lefties well, both figure to be butchers at first and both had pretty down years so they’ll probably be non-tendered/cheap

these 2 and cantu seem like the most likely options to me.

park/luck neutralized to .908, all in ARL appropriate leagues? I think your latter axiom here is flawed. Good teams correctly identify players who cost little and can provide quality production. Is it worth it to spend an extra million bucks plus just for a bit more security from a part time player?

The way I see it is Evans:

a. Has above average raw power
b. Makes an above average amount of contact vs. lefties
c. Is more apt to draw walks vs. lefties

The career minor league numbers support all three of these. Combine them, and you have a very reasonable platoon righty batter. If he whiffed at a 30% rate against lefties, it’d be one thing, but he doesn’t. And that allows him to make use of his raw power, and the walks are a good indication that he does see the ball better and also a nice means of stabilizing production.

A few more significant career minor league MLE OPSes:

Ryan Braun: .710
Jay Bruce: .732
Andrew McCutchen: .596 (.710 vs. LHP, .923 OPS vs. LHP in majors this year)

When you neutralize A-ball stats to major league standards, the results are never going to be pretty, because no one in A-ball hits .400 / .500 / .700.

Just for the record. Daniel Murphy’s minor league career MLE OPS vs. RHP: .634. By your logic, it seems the Mets have a larger problem in this theoretical platoon than Evans.

It wasn’t a year ago, as Evans is actually a year younger than Murphy. The thing about MLE’s is they’re not projection. For prospects, as in non-veteran minor leaguers, you expect MLE’s to improve in the upper levels, since the conversion factor is smaller, if they’re performing as well in Triple-A as in A-ball, the Triple-A MLE is going to be stronger. Almost every major leaguer is going to have stronger MLE’s from Triple-A and Double-A than A-ball. Its just the nature of the MLE function.

As far as Murphy is concerned, I agree with your point in a way, but at the same time, his MLE’s a year ago were no less relevant than Evans’ are now, and being that Evans is about a year younger, and his platoon half MLE is much stronger, he seems like a better fit as half of a platoon. He does have more raw power than Murphy, though his approach and plate discipline clearly lag.