It's Donnie Murphy time! Seriously.
by sec119 on Jul 16, 2007 1:38 PM PDT
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PrintUnder the assumptions 1) that Bobby Crosby is hurting the team with his bat and needs to be replaced, and 2) that there are no outstanding SS candidates in the farm system, I think it’s time to give Donnie Murphy a shot at SS.
For the moment, I'll focus on offense and make no claims about his defense, although I'll point out that he was originally drafted as a SS and played 59, 41 and 20 games at SS in 2002, 2003, and 2005 in the minors, resp., with an additional handful of games at SS in the last couple years. But first, a (brief?) retrospective on Murphy’s career, with stats from the baseball cube:
Murphy was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 2002 at the age of 19, where he played 28 games with A- Spokane and hit .303/.356/.431/.787. He was promoted the same year to level A Burlington, where he underwhelmed with .225/.300/.325/.625. The following year he started in Burlington, where he hit a much better .313/.397/.425/.822. Murphy was promoted to A+ Wilmington in 2004 as a 21-year-old, and produced a line of .256/.328/.404/.732 before he was a September call-up to Kansas City straight from A+. This is similar to us calling up ... 2B Justin Sellers from Stockton, if I’ve understood the ordering of our minor league affiliates correctly. As a point of comparison, Mark Ellis hit .327/.424/.452/.876 as a 22-year-old in Spokane, in 1999, and Ellis hit .302/.404/.411/.815 as a 23-year-old in Wilmington.
Anyway, Murphy started 2005 in AA Wichita, in the Texas League, hitting a decent .313/.362/.523/.885 before an extended July call-up to Kansas City where he failed to impress in 77 AB in 32 games with a line of .156/.241/.260/.501. Low BA, draws walks, sound familiar? And 2006 he spent the entire season in Wichita, where he hit .240/.300/.437/.737. At this point, John Sickels ranks Donnie Murphy as the 19th best prospect in the Royals Organization, with worries about health and a stagnating bat. I’m not sure what the health issues are, but with respect to the stagnating bat I’d argue that his natural development was stunted for half a season to a season by his call-ups too early to KC.
This year he’s quietly put together a batting line of .327/.394/.516/.910 in 41 games and 150 AB in AAA while riding the Oakland/Sacramento yo-yo. Keep in mind he’s only 24 years old. Despite the deflation in statistics that occurs from the hitter friendly PCL to the majors, Crosby’s set a low bar that Murphy should easily surpass, and Murphy looks to improve in the future as well. So my hope is that, after Murphy comes off the BL, he'll get an extended look from Geren and Beane as the SS of the near future.
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Remember, this is a front office
which called him up from A+. To paraphrase James's famous comment, they're dumb. You know, not bright. Slow. The fact that Angel Berroa got the playing time does not mean that he was the better player.
Sure, I'd play him. If nothing else, we know what the A's are doing right now isn't working. Might as well try something else. Worst case scenario, you lose. But you were going to lose anyway!
Give it a whirl.
Travis Hafner and Mark Teixeira
Couldn't beat out Angel Berroa for 2003 rookie of the year. Those guys aren't too bad.
But they were still in the major leagues, Murphy
wasn't then, and hasn't been since. He has had 3 years to beat out Angel.
by theblackpearl on Jul 16, 2007 3:13 PM PDT up reply actions
blame the front office
I'll grant you that Murphy had a down year in AA last year, but Angel Berroa had an OPS of .592 and still played in 132 games. The front office should have tried desperately to replace his suckitude, and not with Andres Blanco of .600 OPS fame. And I also posit that expecting the front office to replace an offensive black hole at SS is not an unreasonable request, or else the fortune of the A's in the second half is crystal clear.
Oh, why the hell not?
Play Donnie
....for a while, and send Bobby Crosby back to AAA for an extended rehab assignment (i know he has to clear waivers first or something). This is to rehab his batting abilities (not any injuries). Maybe he just needs to hit around some minor league pitching for an extended time to get back his rookie year numbers.
In the meantime we get an extended look at Donnie Murphy to see what his potential is at SS (or for that matter at the plate as well).
by baseballguy on Jul 16, 2007 1:45 PM PDT reply actions
His rookie league numbers?
As in a .240 batting average? Am I wrong, or is the consensus that Crosby won the ROY by default? The guy could become a good ball player---but he certainly is not one now. I think Murphy and Furmaniac (not a spelling mistake, a pun) should be given a shot. In fact, I think The Maniac is the better choice.
The Maniac
is a better nickname for sure, and has an easy choice for walk-up music, but he's also 28 and has put up lesser numbers in his 2nd go-around in the PCL (he's about .800 OPS now, was .840 or so for Portland two years ago). I'd say that Murphy has a little more upside than the Fur-Maniac.
I fully agree
Crosby really needs to either get the message and start adjusting, and giving Murphy the job will do just that.
And hey, if he hits and sticks there, we got our SS for the next few years on the cheap!
Move Chavez to short.
At least there his offense wouldn't be as big a liability. How well would his defense translate to SS? And which position is more important defensively?
Barton, Johnson, Murphy, Furmaniak, Mellilo: could any of these dudes play a decent third base?
Chavy is a GG 3B, so I doubt you move him...
as for those guys...
Barton: Terrible 3B
Johsnon: Terrible 3B
Murphy: Adequate, but can play SS
Furmainiak: Adequate, but can play SS
Melillo: Unknown, best suited for 2B probably
SO best bet, you stay with Chavez and put Murphy or Furmainiak at SS, their natural position.
Or if you want to be desperate, move Chavez to SS and play Buck at 3B, where he played in College.
Or you can keep Chavez at 3B where he is best, and attempt to play Buck at SS.
how good a college third baseman was buck?
Could Chavez transition into a GG SS? Or would the move hurt his already waning offensive skills?
by tyler_durden on Jul 16, 2007 2:12 PM PDT up reply actions
Murphy would fill three holes
- SS
- Temper to fire up the team - he's irish afterall
- Drinking Buddy - see #2 since Kennedy will be gone soon
I don't know why everyone is so low on Murph
Murphy absolutely crushes lefties; but he's sit on the bench every time we've played one. He's only 24 and people are advocating for a 28 year old. He can't really go back down without taking ABs from Melillo or Petit. He's got an above .900 OPS in AAA (higher than Buck in AA last yr and Barton in AAA this year) and he plays the position where we've got a huge offensive hole. He has a good attitude and without him we would never have seen Pedro Feliz catch.
Uhhh... money is the only reason for Croz.
This will be a huge embarrassment for the A's organization. I don't think there is any doubt that Crosby needs an extended break to re-learn how to hit the baseball. He would be well suited for a minor league assigment with an emphasis on opposite field hitting. When he learns how to do so, his job would be waiting for him so it's really sad that the A's brass doesn't see it that way.
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 16, 2007 5:24 PM PDT up reply actions
Might as well play murphy
It's not like he can do much worse than crosby.
Start with the question,
"What do you have to lose to try Murphy at SS for a month and at least send Crosby the message that nothing will be handed to him?" Then, when the answer is "nothing," do it. At the very, very least Murphy should be platooning and starting against every LHP. His recent track record vs. LHP is pretty amazing.
Only one problem here
If Crosby is only starting against righties... and righties throw much better sliders to right-handed batters...
Well, it won't be pretty. The only time Crosby's been even vaguely competent (~.700 OPS) is against lefties.
If he's already failed to clear waivers to the minors, the only thing left to do is to bench him.
One season, Crosby was more woeful
against lefties. He doesn't hit lefties well because he is such a sucker for a changeup away (which he is out in front of, and pulls off of, and pops up more reliably than your average Jack-in-the-box).
To me, Crosby is awful against both lefties and righties, so if you have someone who rakes against lefties but not righties, then give Crosby the leftovers. Or start Murphy every day for a while--that's no problem as far as I'm concerned.
Crosby has failed to clear waivers to the minors?
Please explain.
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 16, 2007 5:26 PM PDT up reply actions
That's an IF
If the A's want to send Crosby down, because he has 3 years service time, they have to put him on waivers. If he gets claimed, they can either trade him to the claiming team, allow that team to take his contract per your standard waiver claim, or withdraw him from the waiver list and keep him on the 25-man roster. However, if they do the last, a. we'll never hear about it, and b. they can't do it again this year.
So it's actually possible that Crosby may have been put on waivers, claimed, and pulled back already. If so, the A's can't attempt to send him down again until next season unless they're willing to lose him outright to another team that claims him. If not, I think they should try it, now, and attempt to send him down. If it fails, it fails, and no harm done, but it's worth a try at least.
One small point:
If Justin Sellers is playing for Modesto, he's been traded.
But yeah, give Murphy a try. In fact, give the entire AAA team a shot.
On an aside, Richie Robnett is making noise that if he's not on the 40-man soon, he's looking to get picked up in the Rule 5 by someone else.
Kielty out, Robnett in: Me = happy.
Just what we need...
A guy with a 246/294/438 line in AA. Not to mention the 5:1 K:BB ratio.
Boy, that .294 OBP in AA...
Pretty awesome. I'd want that for my big-league club for sure.
He's not Rule 5 eligible until 2008 anyway. Simon says: dimwit. (That's like slapping a huge "trade me to a crappy team" sticker on the front of your uniform.) Lucky for him, the A's FO don't seem to mind that some of their scrub players hate them. (See: Halsey, B, and Melhuse, A.)
To be fair Millhouse is now a Ranger...
so we only have one guy mad at the FO now. FO sounds kind of funny in this particular case.
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 16, 2007 5:28 PM PDT up reply actions
The Royals calling up Murphy from Wilmington
would be far less remarkable than our calling up a player from Modesto ... given that the Nuts are a part of the Rockies system now (we moved our affiliation to the Stockton Ports a couple of years ago).
Baseball Prospectus rated Murphy's second base defense as between average and poor over the last few years and his reputation is as a poor defender. I'd have to imagine he'd have to hit quite a bit to make up for his defense.
I would think that we'd probably want to get more creative and move either Ellis or Chavez to short and let Murphy take their spot ... it's probably not something that we'd want to do mid-season, but it probably wouldn't hurt to let him get 100-150 ABs over the balance of the season to see if he should factor into our future plans.
I'm pretty much ready to call it on this season ... get whatever we can for Mike Piazza and Shannon Stewart (and Kotsay if there are any takers), tell Chavvy to rest up until next year and let some young guys audition for 2008.
Ellis can no longer play short...
His comeback from the torn labrum was nothing short of amazing, but it did have one long-term effect. It's been stated by several sources in the organization that Ellis' arm is no longer strong enough to play SS under any circumstances.
I'm not sure what the ultimate answer is, the only thing I'm sure of is that Crosby isn't it.
I know ...
I still think he'd be a better solution at short ...
I actually agree...
We would at least get a bit more offense from the position, and he would scoop up anything hit at him, but all those infield hits due to bounced throws would drive AN nuts inside of 5 minutes. ;)
Scutaro to SS??
Marco vs. RHP
Murphy vs. LHP
Crosby vs. himself
I'm not ready to call it on the season, but a message needs to be sent a la John Mabry pickup. Hitting .220 is not acceptable. We got rid of one guy who was, now only one to go (before we can raise the bar to .244).
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