Nieve Applesauce - Sheffield gets cortisone, Daniel Murphy is the new Olerud, and thank you Pat Burrell

by Joe Budd on Jun 25, 2009 10:03 AM EDT in Applesauce

At what point can we say that Fernando Nieve is more than just lightning in a bottle? 5 starts? Also, welcome back Nick Evans. Glad to see that horrid start in triple-A has ended. You're only 3 home runs behind David Wright... Now, let's see if I can keep my perfect record of watching Met games at work. I'm pretty sure they are 0-523 when I have the game on in the background here.

Meet the Mets

Gary Sheffield sat for the 3rd straight game last night after getting a cortisone shot in his knee. Sheffield emphasized that he will not be going on the DL.

Daniel Murphy = John Olerud? That would be nice.

Mets Merized links the Met DL woes to the World Baseball Classic.

Jenrry Mejia had his first bad outing in 4 Double-A starts, giving up 5 earned runs in 5 and 2/3 innings. He still struck out 7 batters. Binghamton looks like a team to watch because, in addition to Mejia, you've got Ike Davis putting it together.

Where is Joe McEwing now? Managing for the White Sox system in Winston-Salem. And pranking his players.

NY Sports Dog shows some awesome foresight in criticizing last night's lineup.

CC Sabathia had a good bullpen session, keeping him in line for the start tomorrow night.

Around the NL East

Pat Burrell can help the Mets sometimes too. The Tampa DH homered and drove in 3 in last night's Ray win over Philadelphia.

The Phillies apparently had a deal in place with the Rockies that involved JA Happ, Ryan Spillborghs, and Jason Marquis.

The Red Sox continued their domination over the Nationals last night, beating Washington 6-4. David Ortiz continued his impeccable Carlos Delgado impersonation with a home run and 3 RBI.

The Yankees knocked Kenshin Kawakami out of the game with a line drive and continued their assault, beating the Braves 8-4. Alex Rodriguez woke up and knocked in 2.

Bobby Cox is old and popular.

Ricky Nolasco is making it look like it's 2008 lately by continuing his strong June. Nolasco pitched 7 innings, striking out 7 Orioles and allowing 0 ERs in the Marlins' 5-2 victory.

Around MLB

I wish the Mets had the Rays' problems.

The offensively challenged White Sox humbled the Dodgers with six homers.

Lookout Landing lets the air out of the YES online streaming news.

John Smoltz will make his Red Sox debut today against the Nationals.

An off-duty cop was allegedly assaulted after an Angel-Rockie game causing the officer to open fire and hit 2 of his assailants.

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Daniel Murphy = John Olerud

is the ridiculous assertion to end all ridiculous assertions. John Olerud, independent of his lofty status as “My All-Time Favorite Met”, had the second-best three-year stretch of any player in franchise history (trailing only Carlos Beltran’s 2006-2008).

I like Daniel Murphy, but any comparison to Olerud beyond “they both play first base” borders on the absurd. Call me when his WAR gets out of the red.

by Eric Simon on Jun 25, 2009 10:24 AM EDT reply actions

what, not convinced by cerrone's "analysis"

cerrone says it seems like murphy plays good first base and feels he can end up hitting 320, 15 to 20 HR, 30 or so doubles and no more than 80 strike outs. i beleive thats very olerud-esque, is it not? how can you aregue with that flawless logic?

cerrone: his science is too tight.

Lets hope that when gut check time comes again the Mets will pass it with flying colors.

by kendynamo on Jun 25, 2009 10:30 AM EDT up reply actions

cerrone be droppin' science

dropping it all over

King of the bling come to lay down the evidence//Not George Bush, L-Millz be da president

by Sam Page on Jun 25, 2009 10:31 AM EDT up reply actions

from what I gather...

both hit left handed

by HotChipWillBreakYourLegs on Jun 25, 2009 10:34 AM EDT up reply actions

Of course

Now the comparsion makes sense!!

by meigs1414 on Jun 25, 2009 10:35 AM EDT up reply actions

I don't see the flaw in the logic

I mean look at this Olerud-esqe season:
2007 – 1B – .320 – 43 Doubles – 22 HRs – 74 Ks, this player mirrors Olerud in every way…oh except that he’s fucking Dmitri Young and had a WAR of 1.8 for the season.

by Sokojoe on Jun 25, 2009 10:38 AM EDT up reply actions

OBP and defense

Murph can handle 1st (probably 2nd) and should bump his OBP

Nothing can get by him; especially in a small room: Mike Francessa

by GenJackRipper on Jun 25, 2009 10:52 AM EDT up reply actions

Word up

I just wanted to point out the flaw in Cerrone’s cherry picked stats.

by Sokojoe on Jun 25, 2009 10:54 AM EDT up reply actions

Oh, far be it from me

to defend Matt Cerrone in any capacity

Nothing can get by him; especially in a small room: Mike Francessa

by GenJackRipper on Jun 25, 2009 10:58 AM EDT up reply actions

But he's a switch hitter!

And black. Doesn’t fit Cerrone’s mold.

by All Shook Down on Jun 25, 2009 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions

Describing Murphy's potential as similar to Olerud

simply because of batting average and number of home runs does a huge disservice to Olerud’s monumental discipline at the plate (Murphy’s walk rate isn’t terrible and could develop but it’s not close to Olerud’s yet) or his tremendous 1B defense (the fact that the Mets have declared him more comfortable at 1B than in LF doesn’t mean he’s good there).

by JoshNY on Jun 25, 2009 10:53 AM EDT up reply actions

Though to be fair,

Murphy’s UZR/150 at 1B is 4.1 which is not half bad. Again, not as good as Olerud (8.2, 6.0, 8.7 in his final three MLB seasons), but not terrible.

But I will say again that I think the Mets have a potentially harmful mentality that a 1B who doesn’t hit for a lot of power isn’t such a big deal because they’ve had success with that type of 1B in the past (Hernandez, Olerud), neglecting the fact that the great OBP and incredible defense that those two played accounted for a lot of their value. Hernandez and Olerud are valuable players. Watered-down versions of them are league-average players, regardless of whether or not they “mean business”.

by JoshNY on Jun 25, 2009 11:01 AM EDT up reply actions

How in the hell

did Cerrone manage to use “i.e.” three times in like two sentences?

I hope he thanks the gods every night that he chose that domain name. He named it anything else, his site doesn’t last long.

"We must win and we must know how to win rather than win because we have statistical people."

by Evan_S on Jun 25, 2009 2:28 PM EDT up reply actions

also, two of them should've been "e.g."

by JoshNY on Jun 25, 2009 4:00 PM EDT up reply actions

there's also the slight fact

that Olerud never played a game in the minor leagues, came up and was worth 1.7 WAR as a 21 year old, 2.2 as a 22 year old, and 3.2 as a 23 year old, before blowing up and putting up an 8.5 WAR season as a 24 year old. Daniel Murphy, by comparison, was worth 1.2 WAR as a 23 year old, and let’s just say he’s not gonna be all that close to an 8.5 WAR player this year.

by cjmulrain on Jun 25, 2009 11:33 AM EDT up reply actions

Nitpick

if you’re going by WAR, David Wright has been worth 18.7 over the past 3 seasons, Olerud was worth 18.2 during his 3 years.

by cjmulrain on Jun 25, 2009 11:39 AM EDT up reply actions

John Olerud's plate discipline alone makes Murphy look like Jeff Francouer.

by twon8 on Jun 25, 2009 11:59 AM EDT up reply actions

This man needs to be stopped

I’ve been away from the Mets and boxscores this week, so when I saw that link on MetsBlog I expected to look at Murphy’s latest games and see a ridiculous hot streak. He’s raised his avg 15 points and hit a homer but it’s nothing to scream OLERUD about.

Also, Evans went yard? Fernando Nieve? Possibly taking 3 of 4 from the Cards? What a week.

by James Kannengieser on Jun 25, 2009 2:16 PM EDT up reply actions

+INFINITY

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Jun 25, 2009 8:09 PM EDT up reply actions

Does anybody else feel Evans is the 1B of the future, not Murphy?

by TheBigStapler on Jun 25, 2009 10:37 AM EDT reply actions

I vote for neither

King of the bling come to lay down the evidence//Not George Bush, L-Millz be da president

by Sam Page on Jun 25, 2009 10:47 AM EDT up reply actions

Seconded

by Eric Simon on Jun 25, 2009 10:49 AM EDT up reply actions

Well you guys are no fun

by TheBigStapler on Jun 25, 2009 10:58 AM EDT up reply actions

I just don't think

either has the bat necessary to carry the position. I like to dream a little bigger.

by Eric Simon on Jun 25, 2009 11:21 AM EDT up reply actions

I agree with neither

But I envision a championship caliber Mets team with both Daniel Murphy and Nick Evans on the bench because those types of players are better equipped to get a team through injury spells than the likes of Fernando Tatis, Ricky Ledee, Jose Offerman, Chip Ambres, Miguel Cairo and Ramon Martinez. A bench filled with not-quite prospects is much more effective and efficient than filling out a roster with corpses.

by All Shook Down on Jun 25, 2009 5:34 PM EDT up reply actions

But between the two?

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Jun 25, 2009 8:11 PM EDT up reply actions

Who do I like better between Evans and Murphy?

Eh, I’d give the nod to Evans because I love his power and he’s shown improved discipline as he’s gotten older. Also, he’s a really, really good defensive 1B, shown the ability to play the OF and he’s not a lumbering stiff of a corner player.

by All Shook Down on Jun 25, 2009 10:56 PM EDT up reply actions

IKEDAVISIKEDAVISIKEDAVIS

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Jun 25, 2009 8:11 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm a big Nick Evans fan

but in order to to get close to average first base production, I think Evans and Murphy need to be in some kind of pseudo-platoon in the future with Nick taking all ABs against LHP (more because he can crush them than Murphy cannot) and Murph and Evans sharing RHP duties. Since both of them can kind of play LF and Murph can sort of play 3rd, I think the disadvantage of using two rosters spots for one position is mitigated. The savings can then be used to sign a player like Adam Dunn or Derek Lowe. With all that said, Ike Davis is our 1B of the future.

by Sokojoe on Jun 25, 2009 10:48 AM EDT up reply actions

Ike Davis

…maybe…

Nothing can get by him; especially in a small room: Mike Francessa

by GenJackRipper on Jun 25, 2009 10:51 AM EDT up reply actions

Ike Davis: Your season has come.

Catch the Fever

by Sokojoe on Jun 25, 2009 10:59 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

The best thing to happen to first base on the farm

Since Mike Carp

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Mark Himmelstein on Jun 25, 2009 4:07 PM EDT up reply actions

~~Mike Carp~~ ~~J.J. Putz~~ uh, Billy Wagner? I’ve got nothing.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on Jun 25, 2009 8:12 PM EDT up reply actions

I like platooning them at 1B while spotting them at LF occasionally. Maybe we should just rotate the whole field every game like in volleyball.

by TheBigStapler on Jun 25, 2009 11:12 AM EDT up reply actions

Ha

They should rotate each inning. Then everyone gets to play every postion each game.

by blains2000 on Jun 25, 2009 12:28 PM EDT up reply actions

Evans can be a lefty mashing part time player, but he isnt' good enough yet to play everyday

That could improve, but right now an Evans/Davis platoon isn’t the worst thing in the world.

by twon8 on Jun 25, 2009 12:05 PM EDT up reply actions

Umm

If that’s the Ray’s problem, then the Mets do have the Ray’s problem.

Nothing can get by him; especially in a small room: Mike Francessa

by GenJackRipper on Jun 25, 2009 10:50 AM EDT reply actions

WBC

Australia Stefan Welch (who?)
CanadaShawn Bowman (who?)
Dominican Republic Jose Reyes
Mexico Elmer Dessens, Oliver Perez
Panama Ruben Tejada
Puerto Rico Pedro Feliciano, Nelson Figueroa, Alex Cora, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Beltran, Jesus Feliciano
United States J.J. Putz,David Wright
Venezuela Francisco Rodriguez