A Tale of Two Outfielders: Murphy vs. Cruz

From Joey’s defensive barometer

Nelson Cruz (+10.6 UZR, +11 +/-)
David Murphy (-0.9 UZR, 1 +/)

and really like what he’s done with his game this year. He’s becoming a rather valueable player and could viably fit into our future as a key player depending on who we deal and who we keep going forward. However, as its been stated, Cruz’s value to this team is almost astronimical. He might just be this teams most valueable player when you consider his contract/team control and his production both offensively and defensively. And even at 29, Cruz might even have some upside to his hitting numbers, i could see him increasing his batting average as his BABIP is still rather low this year… He could become a .900 OPS defensive stud RF, a true monster… In fact, he’s pretty much there already.

and skipped right to the comments.

you could probably find obscure stats to prove that Vance Law was a better baseball player than Babe Ruth, but I digress.

I dare you

you called him inconsistent when he’s had one bad month of baseball.

most of us spend way too much time following baseball, keeping a pulse on every tiny bit of information that we can grab about the Texas Rangers. You need to realize that before you try to get into an argument with the entire community over who’s better and which stats matter.

My advice, just take a seat for a little while. Read some of the main page threads, actually read them and try to understand what we are talking about. Get to know what we actually use when we talk about player valuation, cuz you are not gonna get anywhere trying to say one player is better because he has more runs scored or a better batting average. We arent all jackasses to everyone, just the ones that come on here thinking they have a salient point when they really have no idea what they are talking about.

who does not realize how dumb his posts are. Go back to the horrible mavs blog or that mediocre cowboys blog. This Rangers blog is usually for informed fans.

And hurlerhurley.

My frustration is with the typer of hitters this team has produced in mass quantities since my childhood—the power hitter. In my opinion, Cruz is just another one of those guys.

So?

We could sit here all day and find stats to prove anything.

And you don’t want to bother using any useful stats because it would hurt your argument, yes?

If you wanted, you could probably find obscure stats to prove that Vance Law was a better baseball player than Babe Ruth, but I digress.

Cool. Go try and find me a credible stat that says this. I’ll wait.

Once on base, how often does he score? The other stats, generally speaking, are strictly situational.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

Thats not the problem.

and have no idea that you’re doing it

“It’s what each player gets out of their potential that matters.”

This statement is absolutely absurd.

It may be irritating if a player isn’t living up to his potential, but from the standpoint of who plays over who it doesn’t mean ANYTHING. The better player players.

And Cruz shouldn’t even be a factor, Murphy should be in the lineup by playing over either Byrd or Jones vs righthanders, and vs left he doesn’t particularly need to be in the lineup because hes not good against lefties, rather hes living up to his potential against htem or not.

they are giving you a little more shit than you deserve, but dont let them run you off. I suggest inserting this into an “AM things” post when the thread steers to Cruz and Blalock. 20+ HRs at the break seems to me That Cruz is applying himself and using his potential.

Also, I’m with Bucky. I liked the title.

You paint him as if he’s a blind one legged crippled who snuck into the major leagues on the bottom of someone’s shoes. The guy was drafted 17th overall in 2003. He’s not a blind begger. Plenty of people had very high hopes for him. You might could say that he’s finally living up to potential but the idea that he’s all heart and no talent is absurd.

Player B uses all of his potential, Player A does not.

But Player A is still better, so it doesn’t matter.

/argument

Who do you think has helped the rangers more this year?

cruz has not exactly been deified here. going back even to last season when he was tearing it up in the minors there has been plenty of skepticism over what he could accomplish in the majors. some thought he would be DFA’d by June or that we should have traded him in the winter.

but the statistics don’t lie. cruz has been solid in all facets of the game over the first three+ months. he has the potential to be a true slugger in the middle of a dangerous lineup, and he has been very adept in the outfield. He’s also affordable and has several more years of team control.

the reactions you are getting are not meant as a knock against murphy. they are trying to get you to acknowledge the reality that murphy’s production is just not going to approximate cruz’s. we like murphy here, too, and if you made this same fanpost and replaced cruz’s name with murphy’s and muprhy’s name with i dont know…..jason botts or somebody, youd be getting this same response. don’t worry about it too much, just keep reading other people’s posts and be aware that any strong claim you make here will be challenged, and if you’re SABR-literacy is not up to speed, you may have trouble fending off those challenges.

use the reply function

You should just stop being stupid.