Tonight’s Mets loss came from a variety of factors. One, Carlos Beltran failed to slide when he really needed to when attempting to score after going from second to third on a fly ball. Two, Oliver Perez couldn’t find home plate with a lead.
And three, tonight was yet another reminder that Daniel Murphy is not a major league outfielder, as he fell down while misjudging a catchable fly ball off the bat of Brendan Ryan that ended up as a triple and the winning run.
Murphy’s a major league hitter, but as yet there’s no reason to think he’s the kind of offensive one-man wrecking crew that can justify an iron glove in left field (see: Ramirez, Manny). He’s more of a Ty Wigginton or Melvin Mora type of hitter, a tweener who is only as good as the defensive positions he can handle. And right now, he’s not even adequate at a position on the far left end of the defensive spectrum.
Also, neither here nor there, I was playing “who looks like who” tonight…doesn’t Pedro Feliciano remind you of David Paterson? Partly it’s superficial – they’re both light-skinned black men with sketchy beards – but they also share a certain Will Ferrell-ish set of the jaw to complete the picture. A similar and totally unrelated thought: Johan Santana reminds me of Mike Hampton, with his small jaw and semi-pointed 1930s movie-villian goatee.
3 thoughts on “Murphy’s Law”
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Obviously, Manuel needs to play somebody everyday. But it’s hard to imagine how Church, who is good in all aspects of the game, is losing ABs not just to the immobile Sheffield, but to Murphy, who combines the instincts of Dave Kingman, the balance of Lonnie Smith, and the arm of Johnny Damon.
Fire Jerry Manuel!
(Look, it’s inevitable that people will be calling for it. I might as well be the first.)
Yesterday there were 5 shutouts (a rarity in itself in this era) in MLB. They were all by 3-0 or closer (1 x 3-0, 2 x 2-0 and 2 x 1-0). Is there any way to find out the last time this happened? Hell, I’d be curious as to know the last time there were 5 shutouts in one day let alone all of them being nail biters. I thought the Hardballtimes.com might comment on it but there was nothing there. Maybe tomorrow. It seems like it would be enough of a statistical curiosity that someone, somewhere would comment on it.