Daniel Murphy is in the midst of a great season. He started off slow, but his recent hitting rampage has parked him in the top 10 in the National League in batting and is one of the Mets best hitters with runners in scoring position.
He's also the most frustrating player to watch. While Murphy has shown great discipline at the plate, he needs a serious time out for his play in the field. Murphy handles ground balls like their hand grenades. He may look more comfortable at the corner infield positions, but even Murphy makes David Wright look like a gold glover.
Murphy is also potentially the worst base runner I've seen in the last decade. The guy cannot grasp the fundamentals of being on base. He's been thrown out a third base more times than I can count. He's stealing bases in odd situations. He tries to take an extra base when Beltran or Wright or coming up next.
And don't even get me started on his attempted drag bunt the other night with no outs and Wright on second.
What is wrong with this boy? And why is it he only seems to hit well when others are injured? Two years ago was the same thing. Wright, Reyes and Beltran were all hurt and all of a sudden Murphy starts hitting .300?
He's an enigma. I can't question what he's doing at the plate. He's easily the hottest hitter in baseball since the middle of June and he has shown discipline in going the opposite way. But why can't he get the rest of his game on track? Is he the next Dave Kingman minus the home run power?
Daniel Murphy needs some training in the fundamentals. Maybe this comes with experience and age. For the meantime we have to live with his Magoo-esque blunder in the field and on the base paths because we certainly can't live without his bat right now.
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