Wow. So the Cubs World Series hopes rest on the who wins the classic good/evil battle between Cliff Floyd and Matt Murton. Alright then! :lol: No, but a 25 year-old player is likely still going to improve. A 34 year-old is very likely to regress.
AVG OBP SLG
Floyd 0.261 0.346 0.465
Murton 0.302 0.368 0.456
These are three year averages for Murton and Floyd (only MLB AB's). Who would you rather have playing? I'd rather have both guys playing, each in the appropriate situations. Murton's likely to improve, and he's also likely to be a Cub for a while. He'll get plenty of ABs, plenty of chances to improve this year, plenty of chances to contribute. I'd play Murton almost every day. He has upside whereas Floyd does not. Moreover, since Murton is likely to be a Cub for a long time, it would behoove me to develop him as quickly as possible. Otherwise, we might bring in another veteran over him. Since, you know, he doesn't have experience. Since I'd play Murton almost all the time, when would you play him? And what is the cost to the franchise since Murton's development will be stunted. And, how many outs do you sacrifice with Floyd's lesser OBP? Actually you are wrong here.....Murton is not expected to be a starting OF for the future from what I know. The two outfielders they're expecting in the future are Pie and Colvin. Once Pie comes up, he will be the CF and Soriano will move to LF. Colvin will then go to RF. This is the reason for the limited play time of Murton. I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous. You can't give someone limited time because you think a player thats currently in A ball will take his place. Counting on Pie is one thing, but you can't count on A ball players. And Pie will probably either take Jones' spot, or Soriano will switch to RF and Pie will go to CF, probably the latter.