April 17, 2008
Double Machine
David Murphy helps the Texas Rangers to a 4-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays with three doubles on the night. He drove in a run and scored twice as he set up Gerald Laird for two RBI.
Murphy now has 20 doubles in 186 career at bats, one double every 9.3 at bats. That's a very good rate. That works out to 65 doubles over 600 at bats. He's getting a full time job at age 26, near the peak of his career. We could see him among the league leaders in the category if he can stay in the lineup.
Kudos to Roy Halladay who allowed eleven hits tonight but pitched a complete game to save the bullpen. He received some defensive support as the Jays turned three double plays, but Padilla prevented any offensive support.
Posted by David Pinto at
09:45 PM
|
Games
|
TrackBack (0)
Small sample. Murphy's doubles rate per at-bat in the minors (on a much larger sample) was only about half his major league rate so far. At his minor league rate, Murphy would get 28 doubles in a 500 at-bat season.
In general, during his brief time in the majors, Murphy is playing way over his minor league stats. His major league OPS is .880 compared to his minor-league .750.
He may be coming down to earth right now. His 2008 OPS is .828. I wonder if he can keep the number over .800 in anything like a full season. But as long as Byrd and Catalanotto aren't hitting at all, he'll get plenty of playing time with the Rangers.
Boston gave up him and Gabbard for Gagme - He wasn't going to get much of a chance to paly in Boston but they could use Gababrd and at least thye could have gotten something for them.