I will give beltran more of a break then I will Murphy, simply because Beltran runs the bases very well.

Murphy imo, the love affair with him needs to stop. He has no position in the field. If you told me he's going to hit .335 with 25 hr's and 95 rbi then yes I could live with his defense and being absolutely lost on the base paths. he's not going to be that, he's a singles hitter playing a power position.

I give Murphy more of a break because he's a rookie.

FWIW, Hernandez and the other announcers have opined that Murphy is an excellent base runner.

As far as his fielding is concerned, I give him a few more months before I cast a judgment.

O'Day was claimed off waivers by the Rangers. So he won't be back with the Mets, nor will he be back with the Angels...yet. Figgy cleared waivers so I guess back to Buffalo he goes.

I will have to respectfully disagree with Hernandez and the others. The guy is lost on the base paths, he's been thrown out at the plate twice, has been picked off and has absolutely no speed.

And as far as the fielding, I can live with misplaying a ball off the wall, not making all the throws to the right spots or not getting into a corner for a ball. But everytime he makes a defensive mistake it costs us runs in a game.

I blame this more on Razor Shines than on Murphy. Shines was waving him home both times IIRC.

i like murphy, i think he will be a good major league hitter.

but he cannot play the outfield

he never played AAA. I think minaya pushed him because this was the reason he gave for not getting a bat last year at the break "OMG MURPHY IS TEH UNTOUCHABLE"

but what is anyone really expecting out of him this year? Here are his career minor league #s

http://www.baseball-reference.com/mi...d=murphy011dan

11 homeruns in A ball in 07 and 13 in AA last year. he played 1 game at AAA and didnt homer

at best, we can expect .290 with 10 homeruns for a corner outfielder who doesnt play good defense. It makes no sense

in the offseason, they tried teaching him 2b because they knew he didnt have the offense to be an outfielder. the experiment apparantly failed?, so they feel obliged to start him in the OF

Manuel pissed me off postgame when he said, "I am just gonna keep throwing the kid out there". Church has sat what, 3 times already? Ridiculous

give him a day off ... if not for the fielding blunder, then for the 2 baserunning blunders. They are not acceptable

No he didn't. He had home plate in front of him.

Really? This is news to me. My recollection is that Beltran, while a superior physical talent, does not do much well when it involves thinking. He is a great natural talent, but he is not an intelligent ballplayer.

if he was not an intelligent player he would not have the highest stolen base % in the history of the game. He knows how to run the bases extremely well. Not sure what you are basing your statement on.

drop the arguments about intelligence please...beltran made a mistake and it sucked, but thats one of the few mistakes youll ever see him make on the base pads

murphy is god awful in the field as expected. ya manuel really annoys me benching church who is gold glove caliber and hitting better, why murphy is untouchable from the lineup i dont really understand. however if murphy does not show improvement in the field i think this will change

I don't want Church benched either, but I think there may be two justifications for this approach (though I have no idea whether it's really part of the rationale or not):

First, Manuel might consider Church more of a known quantity than Murphy and Sheff right now, so be using this period of time to learn about them.

Or perhaps Manuel is treating Church and Murphy differently because they get motivated differently. Church seems to have responded to the occasional benching by playing better. Maybe Manuel thinks Murphy will respond better to him granting a boost of confidence by saying he'll play every day.

Just speculating here.

I do not think that Beltran wanted to barrel over Molina. Also, I do not think that Carlos wanted to risk injury and decided not to slide.

Lenny Dykstra would have knocked Molina out with a head first dive.

It took me while to get to this thread. I watched part of the Devils game last night. That tilted me hard enough, than I got to watch the end of this game.

Ollie pitched like Ollie, he imploded in the fifth inning. Murphy continues to make mistakes. Murphy has demonstrated that he can hit, however he not shown anything else. He made an atrocious play in the field, and had two base running mistakes.

Razor Shines ( I love the name, sounds like a porn star), should get fined for waving Murphy home.

Jerry should have brought Feliciano in to relieve Ollie, not Folsum.

The Cardinal know how to play the Mets. I grew up hating this team, and nothing has changed.

Lets see how John Maine does tonight. The Mets have some tough game coming up.

One thing that I do not think anyone has address yet. Would anyone consider switching Castillo and Murphy in the batting order? If Willie Randolph was still manager. there is no way that Murphy would bat second.

I probably will not watch much of tonight's game. I need to watch the Rangers play the Capitals.

I agree with you 100%, the coach takes the blame here, not Murphy.

I agree with almost all of this, especially the part about Beltran avoiding contact due to a fear of injury. That was the first thing that went through my mind and I'm surprised more have not talked about it.

but I prefer Murphy and Castillo where they are (though I did not at the start of the season). They are both doing quite well in their respective slots, and I see no reason to change.

I like Murphy more than most of you, but apparently Manuel (not to mention the announcers) sees him the way I do: someone with a high ceiling offensively. Hernandez calls him a future #3 hitter, and I agree. This is why Manuel is doing everything he can to help him succeed, including having him bat between Reyes and Wright.

If Murphy doesn't manage to become an adequate fielder by mid-season, though, I will concede we have a problem. But he is young, after all, and still learning the position.

god, so unlucky

why do we suck so bad with runners on

wait, haha, when the hell did schneider go on the dl?

umm walk pujols plz

wtf pitching to him

good lord thought that was gone

ugh wtf pitching to him

manuel is stupid

how the **** do we keep walking khalil ****ing green

Shrek with the arm this year!

lol perfectly placed by murphy

all fastballs to rasmus.

time for me to repeat my 2009 mantra: it's all the fault of the starting pitching

watching maine pelfrey figueroa and oliver perez makes 3 years 60 million for derek lowe look a like a steal.