Bruce Miles Piece on the Big Murt

[David]

Pretty good piece from Bruce on Matt.

 

http://www.dailyherald.com/sports/story.asp?id=284097

 

 

A patient approach

 

MESA, Ariz. — For you mavens of new-school statistical baseball thought, Matt Murton is your man.

 

Even though the Cubs’ left fielder is only 25 years old, every at-bat is a game within the game:

 

•First pitch just off the plate, Murton lets it go for a ball.

 

•Second pitch high, ball two, and Murton is in a hitter’s count.

 

•Third pitch, swing and a foul.

 

•Fourth pitch, thwak, line drive to the gap.

 

And that might be a short at-bat for Murton.

 

 

What stood out most about Murton was his patient approach at the plate on a Cubs team where free-swinging was the method preferred by former manager Dusty Baker.

 

Even more impressive with Murton, each at-bat looks like it begins with a plan.

 

“It just depends on the situation,” he said. “More so than anything, you’re trying to stay through the middle of the field and give yourself the best chance to hit any pitch they’re going to throw. If you’re looking to hit the fastball and pull it, you’re a lot more susceptible to that ball away and more susceptible to that breaking ball.

 

I love that he's writing about this kind of stuff and trying to get this school of thought out to the mainstream. Unfortunately, I doubt that the general public will be very receptive to this stuff anytime very soon. I bet he gets tons of emails from old-school types asking what the hell he's talking about or why he would write a whole article about someone's patient approach at the plate instead of taking jabs at Aramis Ramirez's hustle.

[PrimeTime]

Thank God the days of hacking at everything courtesy of Dusty and Clines are over..Hopefully the rest of the team can start working the count and take walks for once

[Mark Priors Calves]

nice article, i hope murton can get a fair amount of ab's this year.

[Soriano12]

Loved the little jab at Dusty Baker in the article. 8-)

[Mephistopheles]

and to think, Matt isn't an elite walker.

[MPrior]

I really think Murton could blossom into a very important player to this team - I doubt he'll ever be a superstar, but he should be consistently good to very good. And that's a type of player you love to have around, cause they're unlikely to get too expensive - I think it's in the best interests of the Cubs to do everything they can to nurture his growth here.

[MPrior]

and to think, Matt isn't an elite walker.

 

I know. Quite an indictment of the Cubs' overall team, isn't it?

Edited February 24, 2007 by MPrior

[Guancous]

I really think Murton could blossom into a very important player to this team - I doubt he'll ever be a superstar, but he should be consistently good to very good. And that's a type of player you love to have around, cause they're unlikely to get too expensive - I think it's in the best interests of the Cubs to do everything they can to nurture his growth here.

 

Murton's upside = .900 OPS.

 

I think he'll likely end up as Mark Grace plus 10 more homers a year. I'll take that in a heartbeat.

[Bruce Miles]

As always, thanks for the link. Actually, I got a lot of nice comments on the piece, and they weren't all from the sabermetrically inclined folks. Matt was really, really good to work with when I interviewed him. He's a guy you definitely pull for.

[Pushfrog98]

Thank God the days of hacking at everything courtesy of Dusty and Clines are over..Hopefully the rest of the team can start working the count and take walks for once

Clines did do some good things... wasn't he the one responsible for altering D-Lee's stance/approach to the plate that lead to his breakout 2005 season?

[woodchip2153]

Thank God the days of hacking at everything courtesy of Dusty and Clines are over..Hopefully the rest of the team can start working the count and take walks for once

Clines did do some good things... wasn't he the one responsible for altering D-Lee's stance/approach to the plate that lead to his breakout 2005 season?

 

IIRC, D Lee got his stance from studying Richie Sexson.

[RichHillIsABeast]

Thank God the days of hacking at everything courtesy of Dusty and Clines are over..Hopefully the rest of the team can start working the count and take walks for once

Clines did do some good things... wasn't he the one responsible for altering D-Lee's stance/approach to the plate that lead to his breakout 2005 season?

 

Dusty and Clines didn't kill our OBP by ruining individual hitter's plate discipline. They killed it with their input on personnel selection.

[goonys evil twin]

Thank God the days of hacking at everything courtesy of Dusty and Clines are over..Hopefully the rest of the team can start working the count and take walks for once

Clines did do some good things... wasn't he the one responsible for altering D-Lee's stance/approach to the plate that lead to his breakout 2005 season?

 

Dusty and Clines didn't kill our OBP by ruining individual hitter's plate discipline. They killed it with their input on personnel selection.

 

Their swing early swing often mantra certainly contributed to the problem. Dusty openly mocked patience and the value of walks.

Edited February 23, 2007 by goony's evil twin

[David]

Thank God the days of hacking at everything courtesy of Dusty and Clines are over..Hopefully the rest of the team can start working the count and take walks for once

Clines did do some good things... wasn't he the one responsible for altering D-Lee's stance/approach to the plate that lead to his breakout 2005 season?

 

Dusty and Clines didn't kill our OBP by ruining individual hitter's plate discipline. They killed it with their input on personnel selection.

 

Their swing early swing often certainly contributed to the problem. Dusty openly mocked patience and the value of walks.

 

Agreed.

[UMFan83]

As always, thanks for the link. Actually, I got a lot of nice comments on the piece, and they weren't all from the sabermetrically inclined folks. Matt was really, really good to work with when I interviewed him. He's a guy you definitely pull for.

 

Which makes it harder to accept that at best he will be platooning with Cliff Floyd this upcoming season.

[Abe Frohman]

Matt Murton just seems like the perfect #2 hitter to me. Just like Todd Walker was last year. I just don't understand how you would rather have a Jacques Jones, Neifi Perez, etc. in the 2 hole when you have a guy like Murton who would only benefit your leadoff man's attempt to disrupt the pitcher with a stolen base.

 

That's what I think.

[goonys evil twin]

As always, thanks for the link. Actually, I got a lot of nice comments on the piece, and they weren't all from the sabermetrically inclined folks. Matt was really, really good to work with when I interviewed him. He's a guy you definitely pull for.

 

Which makes it harder to accept that at best he will be platooning with Cliff Floyd this upcoming season.

 

I would say, at best (for him) he's going to get 500 PA, which is hardly a low figure.

[Danny82]

As always, thanks for the link. Actually, I got a lot of nice comments on the piece, and they weren't all from the sabermetrically inclined folks. Matt was really, really good to work with when I interviewed him. He's a guy you definitely pull for.

 

Which makes it harder to accept that at best he will be platooning with Cliff Floyd this upcoming season.

 

"At best"?

 

What are you talking about?

[Mark Priors Calves]

As always, thanks for the link. Actually, I got a lot of nice comments on the piece, and they weren't all from the sabermetrically inclined folks. Matt was really, really good to work with when I interviewed him. He's a guy you definitely pull for.

 

Does it benefit you when we specifically click the link to open it? If so, please post that, I'm sure many (more) people will open your articles if its a benefit to you?

[BigbadB]

As always, thanks for the link. Actually, I got a lot of nice comments on the piece, and they weren't all from the sabermetrically inclined folks. Matt was really, really good to work with when I interviewed him. He's a guy you definitely pull for.

 

Which makes it harder to accept that at best he will be platooning with Cliff Floyd this upcoming season.

 

"At best"?

 

What are you talking about?

 

Floyd's going to get his chances to play a lot. The lack of lefty bats in the line up is the main reason why. You and I may agree that a lefty bat in the line up isn't really all that necessary if the righty bats are just as good or better than the lefty bats. But, there is an old school line of thinking by the managers that you have to have lefty bats in the line up.

 

I'll be happy if Murton gets 500 at bats.

[karenmac]

I :love: Bruce!

 

Seriously, great article. It makes me all the more glad that I chose a Murton jersey for the holidays.

[Bruce Miles]

As always, thanks for the link. Actually, I got a lot of nice comments on the piece, and they weren't all from the sabermetrically inclined folks. Matt was really, really good to work with when I interviewed him. He's a guy you definitely pull for.

 

Does it benefit you when we specifically click the link to open it? If so, please post that, I'm sure many (more) people will open your articles if its a benefit to you?

 

I don't know if it benefits me or not. I'm sure the more hits the better, but I'm just glad people are reading and discussing.

[Wheelimus]

As a server admin in the "real world", lol, I think I can share that it's safe to say the hits help. The newspaper runs the site and no doubt gets reports of unique views and total hits and the like. Even if it's not something they care about a lot, us admins have a tendancy to find that kind of thing fun (we're nerds) and it's not unusual where I work to share any jarring traffic stats with your boss.

 

In other words, if the hit stats for Mr. Miles article makes the folks who run the papers server think "damn, what did he write?", it's probably going to be told to the higher ups.

 

And you can never have enough "way to go"'s with your boss!

[Amazing_Grace]

Thank God the days of hacking at everything courtesy of Dusty and Clines are over..Hopefully the rest of the team can start working the count and take walks for once

Clines did do some good things... wasn't he the one responsible for altering D-Lee's stance/approach to the plate that lead to his breakout 2005 season?

 

Dusty and Clines didn't kill our OBP by ruining individual hitter's plate discipline. They killed it with their input on personnel selection.

 

Well, it can't have helped. A lot of times the 'take' sign is called from the dugout, as is the 'green light' to swing at whatever. Which do we suspect Dusty called more often. OK, now which did he call with Neifi Perez at the plate, and is that appropriate?

 

I agree that even the best coaches can't turn free swingers into walk machines, but they can influence the overall approach that a team takes at the plate through things like that, and through simply asking players to do the 'little things' like raising their P/PA by a few points or showing them what situations they're likely to see a pitcher's pitch and try to get them to not swing at it. With young, unestablished players that are still developing, I think a coach even at the ML level can have some influence. Even older players occasionally change their approach. Sosa improved his approach at the plate a lot when he had his first monster season in 1998.

[Mark Priors Calves]

As a server admin in the "real world", lol, I think I can share that it's safe to say the hits help. The newspaper runs the site and no doubt gets reports of unique views and total hits and the like. Even if it's not something they care about a lot, us admins have a tendancy to find that kind of thing fun (we're nerds) and it's not unusual where I work to share any jarring traffic stats with your boss.

 

In other words, if the hit stats for Mr. Miles article makes the folks who run the papers server think "damn, what did he write?", it's probably going to be told to the higher ups.

 

And you can never have enough "way to go"'s with your boss!

 

That was along the lines of what I was thinking. If it helps Mr. Miles, I don't think people have a probably clicking the link just to add to the hit total.