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Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff Thing

Edgy MD Oct 19 2015 10:19 AM

Personally, I think folks are going to stop throwing him the curveball on the inside part of the plate starting right now. He's developed a great sense of when that baby is coming and his frequent interviews with the umps have really solidified his awareness of that part of the strike zone. But this guy deserves his own thread right now. And you deserve to post in it. Use this thread for your Daniel Murphy observations, hyperboles, anagrams, links to profiles of the dude, and pictures, descriptions and accounts of him and his playoff beard.

Fman99 Oct 19 2015 10:22 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Murphy hates curveballs more than anything, except, perhaps, the union of two men in "holey" matrimony.

Ceetar Oct 19 2015 10:25 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

they should probably throw him more sliders as he hasn't hit one in the postseason yet, but maybe that's just because they haven't given him a hittable one. they're working him almost exclusively away.

El Segundo Escupidor Oct 19 2015 12:02 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Ceetar wrote: ...... It's okay, the Cubs know exactly where to pitch to Daniel Murphy.

Farmer Ted Oct 19 2015 12:19 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

It was like listening to Crash Davis. http://m.mlb.com/nym/video/topic/947887 ... /?c_id=nym

Gwreck Oct 19 2015 12:39 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Spotted on Twitter

cooby Oct 19 2015 12:41 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

lolol

d'Kong76 Oct 19 2015 12:44 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

They'll be here all week folks, don't forget your bartenders and waitresses....

dgwphotography Oct 19 2015 01:14 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Farmer Ted wrote: It was like listening to Crash Davis. http://m.mlb.com/nym/video/topic/947887 ... /?c_id=nym I love listening to him after every game. It's great how he heaps praise on his teammates, and I loved how he said he was undressed in his third at bat...

Edgy MD Oct 19 2015 01:52 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

It's like he has little notes so as not to forget somebody and their specific contribution.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 19 2015 02:24 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

We've all experienced the ups and downs of Muffy over the years but none of us have ever seen him this hot. So exciting! He's just on another planet right now. I myself am guilty of having called for the the Mets to give up on him I don't know how many times, but will always salute how Metly he's become. I mean, the guy is A Met.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 21 2015 04:27 PM Daniel Murphy Deserves His Own Thread. Or Four.

Daniel Murphy is an exploding supernova, dropped into the heart of an =#FFFF00]erupting volcano, plowing through a bowl of hallucinogenic chili. [fimg=444]https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/vip/espn-grantland/img/grantland-logo@2x.png[/fimg] Daniel Murphy Wants It More http://grantland.com/the-triangle/danie ... s-it-more/ excerpt: Through subtle improvements in his hitting approach, he has reached the peak of his baseball career. And through the wonders of small sample size and the kind of playoff weirdness we see every year, he’s making himself into an unlikely legend. [***] Oh, but there’s more to say about the struck-by-lightning odds that Murphy has overcome to turn into Roy Freaking Hobbs. So much more. Murphy is just the fifth player in history to homer in four straight games within a single postseason.1 He’s also the first Met to hit five homers in a single postseason.2 In fact, with just seven playoff games under his belt, Murphy has already tied for the all-time lead for postseason homers by a Met, matching Mike Piazza with five. And among all the players in baseball history, only two blasted more home runs in their first seven career playoff games: Ken Griffey Jr. and Carlos Beltran. This article needs some updating. And then this: As Baseball Savant proprietor Daren Willman noted, of the 38,775 homers hit since 2008,3 only 20 have come on pitches as low as the one Murphy golfed off his shoetops [against Jake Arrieta].

batmagadanleadoff Oct 21 2015 04:36 PM Re: Daniel Murphy Deserves His Own Thread. Or Four.

JABO: The Making of Postseason Legend Daniel Murphy by Owen Watson - October 19, 2015 We watch playoff baseball in part to see the stars of the game write their legacies. Whether they become legends or eventual disappointments, the October stage grants them a chance to produce the alluring commodity we most crave in this wild month of baseball: narrative. We know the names. Reggie Jackson; Kirk Gibson; Carlton Fisk. We can see their postseason highlight reels in our heads just by reading the words on the page; we know the accompanying commentator clips so well that the audio plays along with them. They’re more than legends — they’re woven into a historic fabric, embedded in our consciousness as touchstones for the game’s future. Somewhere in our minds, amid the grocery lists and afternoon meeting agendas, Gibson is pumping his fist as he rounds the bases. Fisk is waving it fair. And a Yankee Stadium crowd is yelling “Reggie. Reggie. Reggie.” They’re all there, because they’re now part of who we are as a collective baseball mind. And so we come to Daniel Murphy, who’s not yet one of those household names. An important part of the Mets during the past few years, yes, but never what anyone would call a superstar. Only now, after fueling another Mets win in the NLCS over the Chicago Cubs by homering in his fourth consecutive game, he’s becoming something else — a one-man show, a phenomenon, a postseason hero in the making. This is happening because most professional baseball players are capable of doing extraordinary things for short periods of time. The greatest among them are able to stretch those periods, shortening the downtime between each episode. However, sometimes we need to recognize when someone’s performance is not just a hot streak; oftentimes there have been legitimate improvements made, and those coincide with a streak at just the right moment, like crucial at-bats over a few playoff series. That’s exactly what’s happening to Daniel Murphy, and it’s cause for us to look deeper into the forces behind his incredible run in this year’s playoffs. To begin with, Murphy made a conscious decision to pull the ball more often in 2015. Take a look at the percentage of balls he has hit to the pull side since 2008 (as a note, he missed all of 2010 due to injury): Tending to hit more toward the opposite field for most of his career, Murphy showed more aggressiveness in increasing his pull rate to around league average (40 percent) in 2015. This formed one of two major improvements in his offensive game this past season; the other was a major jump in contact rate that cut his strikeouts almost in half. Look at how his contact rates have changed over the past three years ("O" stands for pitches outside the strike zone, while "Z" stands for pitches inside the strike zone): Read the rest at: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/jabo-the ... el-murphy/

El Segundo Escupidor Oct 21 2015 04:47 PM Re: Daniel Murphy Deserves His Own Thread. Or Four.

Two is fine! For me, the magnitude of his achievement will fully sink in only after the playoffs. I wanted to change my avatar to this, but i am so very superstitious:

Zvon Oct 21 2015 04:56 PM Re: Daniel Murphy Deserves His Own Thread. Or Four.

Totally ripped off your caption. I owe you one Batmags! [fimg=400:1f23rdnw]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VspC6J9ideE/VigaF5aLx7I/AAAAAAAAiR4/R8KMHYZLrsE/s912-Ic42/2015mfcNLCSgm3-MERCILESS-z15.png[/fimg:1f23rdnw]

Edgy MD Oct 21 2015 05:08 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

The real puzzler is how Terry, given all his options, went against all the data and not only started Murphy against lefties going into the playoffs, but batted him fourth and then third, night in and night out, no matter who was on the mound, and Murphy has made him look genius, night in and night out.

Benjamin Grimm Oct 21 2015 05:21 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Really? I would have been VERY surprised if Terry had sat Murphy against lefties in the playoffs.

Edgy MD Oct 21 2015 05:27 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Me, too. His pattern was established. But it still went against the data, and he still surprised to some extent by consistently placing him in the heart of the order, and he still got rewarded for his faith to an extent nobody would've predicted.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 21 2015 06:26 PM Re: Daniel Murphy Deserves His Own Thread. Or Four.

Zvon wrote: Totally ripped off your caption. I owe you one Batmags! [fimg=400]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-VspC6J9ideE/VigaF5aLx7I/AAAAAAAAiR4/R8KMHYZLrsE/s912-Ic42/2015mfcNLCSgm3-MERCILESS-z15.png[/fimg] You're definitely gonna hafta make me another Bob Miller card for that.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 22 2015 01:56 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Mets Sketch Journal Guy has a lot of catching up to do. Here's his last entry. It's from August. It's Murphy related. Because everything's coming up Murphy. Remember that play (below)?

Edgy MD Oct 22 2015 04:45 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Too much glory for Joe to keep up. They're re-writing the story faster than he can draw it. Here's a more recent one: [fimg=750:ty8s9ptl]https://metsinpeace.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/daniel-boom.jpg[/fimg:ty8s9ptl]

Farmer Ted Oct 22 2015 06:20 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

The best was Murph getting the MVP trophy next to Jeffy, who was stone-faced the whole time ("holy shit, I don't have money to pay that guy. Please don't look at me"). Where's that Find Jeff Wilpon thread? That could use some updating.

Edgy MD Oct 22 2015 06:23 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Boom!

Edgy MD Oct 22 2015 12:52 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Suitable for framing. [fimg=700:vjwik9ay]https://metsinpeace.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/murph-o-matic.jpg[/fimg:vjwik9ay]

batmagadanleadoff Oct 22 2015 05:07 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T Edited 3 time(s), most recently on Oct 23 2015 03:24 AM

Farmer Ted wrote: The best was Murph getting the MVP trophy next to Jeffy, who was stone-faced the whole time ("holy shit, I don't have money to pay that guy. Please don't look at me"). Where's that Find Jeff Wilpon thread? That could use some updating. [fimg=955]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5791/22405244705_8e2ca1fbc5_o.jpg[/fimg]

Zvon Oct 22 2015 05:17 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Farmer Ted wrote: The best was Murph getting the MVP trophy next to Jeffy, who was stone-faced the whole time ("holy shit, I don't have money to pay that guy. Please don't look at me"). Where's that Find Jeff Wilpon thread? That could use some updating. [fimg=955]https://farm1.staticflickr.com/718/22382551922_035d069a0c_o.jpg[/fimg] Jeeze. We already have a winner! That is freakin' awesome. One of my favorite flicks too.

Benjamin Grimm Oct 22 2015 06:42 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Here's the thread where this stuff can be found: Find Jeff Wilpon in History

batmagadanleadoff Oct 22 2015 07:15 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Oct 23 2015 07:06 AM

[fimg=855:kyprmtco]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5712/22220349368_585b17b08f_o.jpg[/fimg:kyprmtco]

batmagadanleadoff Oct 22 2015 11:26 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

This one's downright sacreligious. [fimg=655:y9eg49ze]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5739/22215710768_9f2c736976_o.jpg[/fimg:y9eg49ze] [fimg=333:y9eg49ze]http://blogs-images.forbes.com/jimclash/files/2015/07/disraeligears.jpeg[/fimg:y9eg49ze]

Benjamin Grimm Oct 23 2015 04:59 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

You're putting these in the wrong thread. If you want them to be part of the "permanent collection" you should put them in the thread mentioned above.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 23 2015 05:18 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Benjamin Grimm wrote: You're putting these in the wrong thread. If you want them to be part of the "permanent collection" you should put them in the thread mentioned above. Thanks. It said archived so I figured it was a closed thread. I never go to that section. I have a thing against this forum's archives, but I see that those are active threads. Are we supposed to post there? It looks like up until your recent post in the Jeff thread, no one's posted there in almost a decade. To tell you the truth, I barely knew that section existed. As far as I'm concerned, when a thread is archived, it might as well be sucked into a black hole the way the search engine here works. Nice find. I was just poking around that thread after following up on the link from your message above. Man that Dinosaur Jesus is a real pro at this.

Benjamin Grimm Oct 23 2015 06:41 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

batmagadanleadoff wrote: As far as I'm concerned, when a thread is archived, it might as well be sucked into a black hole the way the search engine here works. You can find things in the archives using Google.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 28 2015 02:26 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Hope this doesn't jinx the Great Murphy, but look who's on this week's cover of SI: [fimg=454:28jjy5w4]https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5745/21916357344_8c94f628a1_o.jpg[/fimg:28jjy5w4] Trivia: Who was the last Mets position player to appear on his own SI cover -- not a group shot?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 28 2015 05:28 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Sports Illustrated covers used to be great because they let the photos speak for themselves. Now the shot is only one element in some overall design strategy, and so it's ok to completely mess with it. Not a good cover IMO. I think the last solo Met was uh, Piazza

batmagadanleadoff Oct 28 2015 05:33 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Sports Illustrated covers used to be great because they let the photos speak for themselves. Now the shot is only one element in some overall design strategy, and so it's ok to completely mess with it. Not a good cover IMO. I think the last solo Met was uh, Piazza Also a WS preview. Since this cover, there were a few group shots (2006 - Capt. Red Ass) (2007 - Minaya and Mets) and pitchers (Johan, Dickey in civvies and Harvey) but no position players. SI covers blow compared to what they once were. They're cluttered messes nowadays that look like sports versions of Cosmopolitan Magazine. The Murphy cover's not that bad actually -- relatively speaking. I've seen much worse among recent ones.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 28 2015 05:50 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Geez that Piazza cover is also awful. "New York Special Edition" makes me think there was probably an alternate cover they issued for college football fans that week. Regionalizing covers of course was terrible thing too. I know only too well the era of the weekly print product has long since left us.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 28 2015 06:21 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Geez that Piazza cover is also awful. "New York Special Edition" makes me think there was probably an alternate cover they issued for college football fans that week. Regionalizing covers of course was terrible thing too. I know only too well the era of the weekly print product has long since left us. That was a special cover for, I think, NY only. The regular cover, again, if I remember correctly, was of an NFL quarterback -- I'm thinking a Chief or a Raider. Inside that mag, the contents was the same no matter what the cover. And there were two versions of the "NY" cover. Here's the other: [fimg=484]http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTYwMFgxMTYx/z/9tcAAOSwv0tVa1Fk/$_57.JPG?set_id=880000500F[/fimg]

batmagadanleadoff Oct 28 2015 06:28 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

This was the regular issue for that week for every state but NY.

Frayed Knot Oct 28 2015 06:31 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Trivia: Who was the last Mets position player to appear on his own SI cover -- not a group shot? I thought you were going to ask when was the last time SI had a baseball cover that wasn't the obligatory 'Preview' issue. I was going to guess early '90s.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 28 2015 06:43 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

Frayed Knot wrote: Trivia: Who was the last Mets position player to appear on his own SI cover -- not a group shot? I thought you were going to ask when was the last time SI had a baseball cover that wasn't the obligatory 'Preview' issue. I was going to guess early '90s. You mean who was the last Mets position player to make the cover of SI (not a group shot) -- on a regular issue as opposed to a WS Preview?

John Cougar Lunchbucket Oct 28 2015 06:47 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

batmagadanleadoff wrote: This was the regular issue for that week for every state but NY. I had classes in college with that guy.

Edgy MD Oct 28 2015 07:05 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

I don't know this Ben Reiter guy from Adam, but how strange and exciting that Tom Verducci didn't get that assignment.

Frayed Knot Oct 28 2015 07:09 AM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

batmagadanleadoff wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Trivia: Who was the last Mets position player to appear on his own SI cover -- not a group shot? I thought you were going to ask when was the last time SI had a baseball cover that wasn't the obligatory 'Preview' issue. I was going to guess early '90s. You mean who was the last Mets position player to make the cover of SI (not a group shot) -- on a regular issue as opposed to a WS Preview? No, I'm merely being a cynical wise-ass by implying that the last time SI had a baseball cover other than their yearly 'obligation' issue was at least 20 years ago.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 28 2015 03:12 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

That 7 train suddenly looks so old. Is that what the 7 train looked like in 2000? Time is flying.

Elster88 Oct 28 2015 04:23 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

I hope Murph does the whole travesty thing again. Two hard hit singles is nothing to fart at but I liked when he was doing his Beltran impression.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Oct 28 2015 05:16 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

batmagadanleadoff wrote: That 7 train suddenly looks so old. Is that what the 7 train looked like in 2000? Time is flying. Ah, the World's Fair Redbirds. Yeah, they were phased out just after this time (2001 or 2002, IIRC).

batmagadanleadoff Oct 28 2015 09:32 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: That 7 train suddenly looks so old. Is that what the 7 train looked like in 2000? Time is flying. Ah, the World's Fair Redbirds. Yeah, they were phased out just after this time (2001 or 2002, IIRC). Train buff, you?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr Oct 28 2015 09:48 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

batmagadanleadoff wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: That 7 train suddenly looks so old. Is that what the 7 train looked like in 2000? Time is flying. Ah, the World's Fair Redbirds. Yeah, they were phased out just after this time (2001 or 2002, IIRC). Train buff, you? Not SO much. I just remembered the retirement, and also, not too long ago, I read a kids' book about them to YoungerPooper, then got curious and did some more research.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 28 2015 10:42 PM Re: Daniel Murphy, Making a Travesty of This Whole Playoff T

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: That 7 train suddenly looks so old. Is that what the 7 train looked like in 2000? Time is flying. Ah, the World's Fair Redbirds. Yeah, they were phased out just after this time (2001 or 2002, IIRC). Train buff, you? Not SO much. I just remembered the retirement, and also, not too long ago, I read a kids' book about them to YoungerPooper, then got curious and did some more research. Ah! The World's Fair. Makes sense. Because when I wrote that that train looked old, I didn't mean that it looked old by today's standard, but that it looked old for 2000. It definitely looks like something out of the Wagner administration.