1.) He works cheap.

2.) He was improving as the year went on.

3.) He can be the one year stopgap to Ike Davis.

4.) With a decent season he boosts his trade value.  800 ops is doable.

5.) If he does breakout, Ike Davis can move to right where his arm plays well.

6.) He works cheap.

acesfull86 wrote: Plays some solid D over there as well.

now we're getting into fantasy territory.  but if this is the road we're going down, I can contribute:

Murphy can hit 35 HRs and 50 doubles!

decent D and an 800 ops is quite doable.  It's not a fantasy.

DuffyDyer wrote:

 

acesfull86 wrote: Plays some solid D over there as well.

now we're getting into fantasy territory.  but if this is the road we're going down, I can contribute:

 

Murphy can hit 35 HRs and 50 doubles!

How is it fantasy?  He did.  He's not Keith Hernandez, but he's solid.

He hit 12 homeruns last year...between 1B and 2B, the Mets hit 13 homeruns!!

No way, no how does that get it done.

They need more power bats. Defense is great and all, but what good does it do them when the team gets 12 hits, scores 2 runs....and the Phillies get 6 hits and score 5 runs??

They need more power to compete.

95 homeruns vs. 220+....I don't care what defense you have on the field. You will lose.

interestedobserver wrote:

1.) He works cheap.

 

2.) He was improving as the year went on.

 

3.) He can be the one year stopgap to Ike Davis.

 

4.) With a decent season he boosts his trade value.  800 ops is doable.

 

5.) If he does breakout, Ike Davis can move to right where his arm plays well.

 

6.) He works cheap.

Depends on what we do to address other areas of need.

Murphy is passable at 1B if we sign Holliday and upgrade RF or bring in a catcher that can actually hit, but we can't go into 2010 with Murphy, Francoeur, and Santos in the starting lineup - along with the pitcher, that's way too many easy outs.

Why don't fans realize that JF/RF is more of a position where long-term and short-term improvement is needed both offensively and defensively????

If the Mets sign Holliday, they Mets will be perfectly find w/ a Murphy/Garko platoon at 1B in 2010 until I. Davis is ready.

EddyBarzoon wrote:

He hit 12 homeruns last year...between 1B and 2B, the Mets hit 13 homeruns!!

 

No way, no how does that get it done.

 

They need more power bats. Defense is great and all, but what good does it do them when the team gets 12 hits, scores 2 runs....and the Phillies get 6 hits and score 5 runs??

 

They need more power to compete.

 

95 homeruns vs. 220+....I don't care what defense you have on the field. You will lose.

Only three teams hit more than 220 home runs this past season.  The Dodgers ranked 23rd in HR and they won 95 games.

Point is, you don't have to be an elite HR hitting team to be successful, and there were obvious reasons why we finished with such a paltry total this past season.

Of course we need power, but lets not act like we're the worst offensive team in baseball just because we're coming off the most improbable of all injury-plagued seasons.

He had an awesome season.

220 homers in a bandbox is not the same as 220 homers in Mets Stadium.

And it would be a lot easier to find the dollars to sign Holliday if Murphy is at first.

honestly if we add power in the OF ( in addition to wright improving his power numbers) i have no problem with holding onto murphy as a 1B man. His power numbers were not great however it was his first FULL season. I would not trade him for overbay becasue for a 2nd year player his stats are not far off from overbay and murphy is much cheaper.  Overbay averages about 16 hr a year......can murphy maybe hit 4 more hr next year and 40 doubles..i think so. and i think he can also improve on his OBP. The mets give up on youn gplayers too much i dont see why we should not give murphy a chance. I would even hold onto him and try to sign delgado and have him spot delgado and others.

interestedobserver wrote:

He had an awesome season.

 

220 homers in a bandbox is not the same as 220 homers in Mets Stadium.

 

And it would be a lot easier to find the dollars to sign Holliday if Murphy is at first.

That's true, and the Mets need to start doing a better job of off-setting contracts with quality players.

You could argue that Murphy isn't the kind of quality player that you'd want in your lineup, but he's really no worse than Jeff Francoeur, yet he comes at a fraction of the cost.

EddyBarzoon wrote:

He hit 12 homeruns last year...between 1B and 2B, the Mets hit 13 homeruns!!

 

No way, no how does that get it done.

 

They need more power bats. Defense is great and all, but what good does it do them when the team gets 12 hits, scores 2 runs....and the Phillies get 6 hits and score 5 runs??

 

They need more power to compete.

 

95 homeruns vs. 220+....I don't care what defense you have on the field. You will lose.

I see your point but I'd still like to point out that Delgado did hit 4 HR at first, Tatis had some, and some of Murphy's HR's came out of left field, no pun intended.

DocK16 wrote:

 

EddyBarzoon wrote:

He hit 12 homeruns last year...between 1B and 2B, the Mets hit 13 homeruns!!

 

No way, no how does that get it done.

 

They need more power bats. Defense is great and all, but what good does it do them when the team gets 12 hits, scores 2 runs....and the Phillies get 6 hits and score 5 runs??

 

They need more power to compete.

 

95 homeruns vs. 220+....I don't care what defense you have on the field. You will lose.

 

Only three teams hit more than 220 home runs this past season.  The Dodgers ranked 23rd in HR and they won 95 games.

 

Point is, you don't have to be an elite HR hitting team to be successful, and there were obvious reasons why we finished with such a paltry total this past season.

 

Of course we need power, but lets not act like we're the worst offensive team in baseball just because we're coming off the most improbable of all injury-plagued seasons.

If the team wasn't so mentally challenged running the bases and performing simple baseball fundamentals, it wouldn't be as much of a concern. The lack of power has to be made up in other areas...but this team does not do that. THAT is why I'm stressing more power so much. A homerun doesn't know dumbness. A single, sacrifice, stolen base and SAC fly needs to be a little more IQ saavy. We don't exhibit that quality.

interestedobserver wrote:

1.) He works cheap.

 

2.) He was improving as the year went on.

 

3.) He can be the one year stopgap to Ike Davis.

 

4.) With a decent season he boosts his trade value.  800 ops is doable.

 

5.) If he does breakout, Ike Davis can move to right where his arm plays well.

 

6.) He works cheap.

I agree with everything except 2, 4, and 5.

EddyBarzoon wrote:

 

DocK16 wrote:

 

EddyBarzoon wrote:

He hit 12 homeruns last year...between 1B and 2B, the Mets hit 13 homeruns!!

 

No way, no how does that get it done.

 

They need more power bats. Defense is great and all, but what good does it do them when the team gets 12 hits, scores 2 runs....and the Phillies get 6 hits and score 5 runs??

 

They need more power to compete.

 

95 homeruns vs. 220+....I don't care what defense you have on the field. You will lose.

 

Only three teams hit more than 220 home runs this past season.  The Dodgers ranked 23rd in HR and they won 95 games.

 

Point is, you don't have to be an elite HR hitting team to be successful, and there were obvious reasons why we finished with such a paltry total this past season.

 

Of course we need power, but lets not act like we're the worst offensive team in baseball just because we're coming off the most improbable of all injury-plagued seasons.

If the team wasn't so mentally challenged running the bases and performing simple baseball fundamentals, it wouldn't be as much of a concern. The lack of power has to be made up in other areas...but this team does not do that. THAT is why I'm stressing more power so much. A homerun doesn't know dumbness. A single, sacrifice, stolen base and SAC fly needs to be a little more IQ saavy. We don't exhibit that quality.

Omar's teams have been far from perfect, and discipline and fundamentals have certainly been lacking since the 2006 season, but lets not pretend like Beltran and Reyes aren't expected to return, and that changes won't be made.

Had the roster been even remotely healthy last season we would've finished no worse than middle of the pack in HR, and that's with Wright's down year factored in.

We returned nearly the exact same roster in 2009 that we did in 2008, a year that saw us finishing second in the NL in runs scored - tied with the Phillies.

We were horrible in 2009, and there's no escaping that, but lets not act like we're the freakin' Royals.  The team lost three of its best hitters to injury last season, and received a sub-par performance from it's best.  That won't happen again.

----DocK16 wrote:

 "and the Mets need to start doing a better job of "off-setting contracts with quality players". You could argue that Murphy isn't the kind of quality player that you'd want in your lineup, but he's really no worse than Jeff Francoeur, yet he comes at a fraction of the cost."

This point/post should be nailed to OM's office and some fans' house (the JF lovers/settelers). It's simple math... 2+2 was 4 the last time I heard. $5M vs $575K...

I get that the Mets continue to be high on Murphy but what I don't get is their fixation on him playing first base. Does this front office ever think long-term or out of the box? If Ike Davis is considered to be the first sacker of the future, whether that is mid-2010 or 2011, then what do you do with Murphy afterwards?  My opinion is that the Mets need to not waste a valuable asset (because despite his growing pains, Murphy IS an asset because of his age and cost) and send him to AAA for the entire 2010 season to play second base with a view to developing an inexpensive internal replacement for Castillo in 2011 instead of wasting money this offeason to pay off part of Castillo's contract as part of a trade AND then sign an aging player in Hudson to replace him. And why do you ask do I not really want to spend large FA $$ this offseason? Because the 2011 free agents include such potential names as Cliff Lee, Berkman, Inge, C. Pena, V-Mart, Mauer, D-Lee, Crawford, Dunn, Beckett, Halladay, B. Webb, etc. Financial flexibility for 2011 is important!!

In AFL winter ball 2008, the Mets had Murphy playing second... and lets not even get into why he was playing there even though he had spent the previous half-season in the majors in left and was pretty much going to be handed the starting LF job for '09. Regardless, it was reported that Murphy did fairly well defensively at 2nd and of course he had a good winter season offensively. I think he has good infielders instincts and could become with work a good second baseman, probably not a GG but not a Dan Uggla either. The lack of power in his bat would be fine for second, I just don't think it merits him occupying a traditional power position like first. This creates a viable internal option since it seems like we haven't got any standout 2nd base prospects in the minors since Coronado, Malo, Satin, Pellot etc. aren't setting the world on fire, Havens seems to be struggling, and god forbid we even have to consider A-Reyes or A-Hernandez!

So what do we do about 1st in the meantime until Davis ready? well, we do have another option in Chris Carter who is a better hitter for power than Murphy and is hitting very well in the Venezuela winter league. As the Mets were probably planning to do with Murphy playing 1st, we could still pursue a right-handed platoon 1B via free agency or trade. Personally, I'd like for the Mets to send a middling prospect to the Fish for Jorge Cantu, or possibly sign him as a FA if he is non-tendered which is always a possibility with the Marlins. Yes, Cantu's power went down this past season but his OBP was up which should play well in Citi and he still had a 100RBI for the year.

Thoughts?