David Murphy is currently on the AA Portland Sea Dogs. The 23 year old power hitting left fielder was the Sox' first overall pick in the 2003 draft, coming out of Baylor University. Murphy has not had the type of progression that is generally expected of first round picks, but that has been due in large part to injury. He batted .261 in only 73 games last year, while missing about half of the season due to a foot injury. He wasn't necessarily going to get promoted to AA this season, but he has had a torrid spring, and Red Sox farm director Ben Cherington is pleased with what he has seen thus far. Murphy feels that "this is the most consistent I've been hitting since college. ... It's almost disappointing that spring doesn't count, because it's been a great one. I just have to carry that into the season."

Let's hope he can do so.

Here's a few links about Murphy:

Murphy's Sox Prospects Page

Article from April 1

Cambridge's Interview with Murphy

Through 5/3, Murphy has been struggling. He's not hitting for much power and his BB/K is at 1/3 right now. Hopefully this is just a small slump and he'll turn it around soon.

BB/K is still atrocious, and his power numbers have not come around at all.

I haven't found anything that says he's been working through an injury, so I'm not sure what the Sea Dogs should do from here. He's still starting virtually every game, so coming off of the bench can't be the issue.

This is quite the slump he's mired in right now.

How about an update? He's been hitting really well lately.

Jeff Horrigan, HERALD - The Minors: Murphy front and center again





The center fielder, who was the 17th overall pick out of Baylor, has turned it around this month and has played himself back into the Sox' future, while bolstering his value as a potential chip used by the parent club to land help for the pennant stretch over the upcoming days and weeks. Murphy entered last night hitting .393 (35-for-89) with 18 RBI and 17 runs scored in 24 games this month for Portland, including .455 (10-for-22) with two home runs and six RBI over his last five games.

Another in the Lowell Sun's Rob Bradford's series on Spinners alums:

Rob Bradford - Murphy's Law: Sox prospect hot again


PORTLAND, Maine -- The smile was the same -- toothier and more energetic than most. The batting stance hadn't changed -- arms and legs spread out, bat hanging to the hands by a thread. Even the body was relatively identical, maybe for the exception of a few extra pounds of muscle earned through two years of hard work.

...

This, it would seem, was the same quality of player who made his mark in just 21 games with the Spinners, starting with a debut which included two hits, two RBI and a walk. Murphy would leave Lowell for Sarasota that summer carrying a .346 average and a whole lot of admiration.

By the time the following spring training came calling, the good times had just kept on rolling for Murphy. Not only was he the proud owner of 10 bobblehead dolls in the image of his own likeness courtesy of the Spinners' promotion staff, but while sitting around his Fort Myers condo with his uncle one day a very special envelope arrived.

It was a check ... for one million dollars.

“It was really funny to look at that,” remembered Murphy of the second portion of his $1.6 million signing bonus. “We actually took a picture of it.”

From the Portland Press Herald:

Kevin Thomas - Turnaround earns Murphy team MVP honors





Murphy leads the team in batting at .285 and RBI with 71 and also has 14 home runs, despite the fact he was batting .217 on June 7. He turned around his season and showed the potential the Boston Red Sox saw when they made him a first-round draft pick in 2003.

"He found his timing and started to have some success," Sea Dogs Manager Todd Claus said. "Success bred success and confidence, and he was off and running."

When Murphy began his professional career in 2003, he hit .346 in 21 games for Class A Lowell but had struggled since . . . until this June.

Murphy has been invited to the 2005 Arizona Fall League.

Per SoxProspects.com]per SoxProspects.com[/URL]

Update with his AFL numbers please?

(Also, if you could put together both his second half AA numbers with his AFL numbers, so we can see how he's been doing over that stretch of time, it might be really helpful in evaluating him)

Coming right up, your highness.

Well, this is not quite what you asked for Abe, but its something. Have not found milb season splits yet, and I do not think we have a bench mark captured for a mid-season at Portland to work from here.

But we can see that his first 2 weeks in the AFL were slow (causing many folks to almost write him off), and his second couple weeks have been fantastic. Not sure who lit the fire under his butt, but he has having a great stretch. I did not bother to add in today's stats(for 11/8), but they were in line going 2-5 (.400). Still a few more games to go in the season. In a short season like this when the guys are not even playing every game, one really good game or one really bad game can really tweak the stats.

I've been checking Murphy's stats, hoping he would do something of consequence that would merit bumping this thread. Unfortunately he's been decidedly mediocre for the first two months of the season, with a line of:



The K/BB of 29/11 is pretty atrocious, and he's not hitting for much power. Here's to hoping he can turn it around.

Ugh.

And just to rub salt in the wound, Conor Jackson -- the player picked two slots after Murphy in the first round of the '03 draft (and the guy that Theo supposedly wanted but was talked out of), is posting the following line....in the major leagues: .295/.373/.485.

You must have some psychic powers if you were looking for an excuse to bump this thread today, though. Maybe you should go buy a lottery ticket.

Murphy got the promotion to Pawtucket today.

Interesting. Just saw someone post a breakdown of his stats on SoSH that shows Murphy with an .857 OPS over the last 23 games (98 ABs), as opposed to .612 over his first 19 games (74 ABs). He's been streaky in the past, but maybe they feel like he's turned a corner.

Should make for a cool weeked at McCoy. In addition to Murphy's debut, Crisp should be playing there Saturday and the scheduled starters for this weekend should be Craig Hansen on Saturday and Jon Lester on Sunday.

And in his first AB in AAA, Murphy hits a two run shot...

Nice start.

Murphy added a double later in the game, so he was 2-4 with 2 runs scored in his AAA debut. He batted 2nd and started in CF, with Stern playing RF.

After going 2-3 today with two doubles and a walk, Murphy is now hitting .304/.373/.522 in 12 games (46 ABs) since his promotion to Pawtucket.

Another 2-3 tonight for Murphy with a double, triple and two walks. Yes, it's only 49 ABs, but his numbers since his promotion to Pawtucket are eye-popping: .327/.411/.592.

The poor April aside, Murphy's continuation of his strong '05 second half and AFL is one of the better stories of the 1st half. If what we've seen since then is closer to the true David Murphy, he at least has made himself into a legit 4th OF who can offer good defense at all 3 spots and not be a lineup black hole. I think we've seen with the Willie Harris/Dustin Mohr merry-go-round that having that competent 4th OF has a lot of value on a baseball team. It's not terrific ROI of a 1st round pick, but it's certainly better than being the bust that Murphy appeared to be at this time last season.

Murphy was named IL Player of the Week on June 12:

International League names players of the week

Outfielder DAVID MURPHY, barely two weeks into his Triple-A career, is already causing severe headaches for International League pitchers. The 24-year-old has hit safely in 14 of the 16 games he's played in at this level, including his last nine in a row. Behind Murphy's efforts, the PawSox have won seven of their last eight games to climb into 3rd place in the IL North at 31-31. Murphy is proving to be a clutch performer, coming up big when it counted twice in the past weekend alone. Friday night, Murphy scored the winning run for Pawtucket in the bottom of the 10th. After being intentionally walked by Richmond pitcher Manny Acosta, Murphy scored from third on an infield single to win the game 2-1. Sunday afternoon, Murphy again found a way to beat the Braves, this time showing off some power. Down 2-1 in the 8th, Murphy crushed a three-run homer onto the patio beyond the right field wall to put the Red Sox ahead for good. It was the 10th hit of the week for Murphy, and his 7th extra-base knock. The highly-touted outfield prospect has done a little bit of everything since making the jump to Triple-A. In 16 games he's hitting .339 with 3 HR, 13 RBI, six doubles, two triples, two stolen bases, and 10 runs scored. On the season Murphy has hit 23 doubles, tied for second most in all of Minor League Baseball. He's also the defending Red Sox Minor League Defensive Player of the Year.

Houston native David Murphy was a first round draft selection by Boston in 2003 after three years at Baylor University, where he hit .346 and was a first team All-American. He spent the 2005 season with the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs, hitting .275 with 14 HR and 75 RBI in 135 games. Portland's center fielder committed only four errors the entire season.

From BA's Prospect Hot Sheet for this week:


And that was before another 2-5 tonight to get him up to .344.

Since getting the call up to AAA, Murphy's been hitting the cover off of the ball. Here's his line through 6/13:

If he continues to hit at this level why would people keep calling him a 4OF?

Because no one expects him to keep hitting at this level.

Went to the Paw Sox game last night, Murphy looked good and hit a nice solid homer. He even ignored our chants of "Murphdog" (we were sitting right behind him on the berm) -- guess he was really concentrating.

Murphy went 4-4 with a run scored, an RBI and 2 doubles last night in the PawSox win. His current line is .321/.403/.580 for an obscene OPS of .983. I'm loving Murphy as trade bait right now, and if he can keep this up for the next month we might be able to get some talent in return for him.

I've decided that I'm done cutting and pasting his stats, as the code has crushed my will. Here's his MILB stats page.

I'm getting more and more into the thought of keeping him or not trading him until the offseason. There is just no guarantee Trot will be around next year and the Sox won't know until the offseason what their major holes for 2007 will be. Right now, he's worht than most BP arms, and most of the starting pitching that will be available is not particularly worth acquiring. So unless it's for a better SS, a really good starter who won't be a rental, or a really good reliefman who won't be a rental - I'm not sure I want to see them make a move with Murphy.

I should clarify that I think Murphy finally has put it together and we're seeing an relatively accurate demonstration of his skills right now. I think it took him a little while to connect the dots (still, he's only 24), but since the middle of last year - the guy has been great. He's a CFer in RF - which seems like a great match for Fenway. And we could really use some outfield depth. Though if the Sox are sure they are going to try and keep Trot, trade away because Murphy will be blocked by Crisp, Pena, Trot and Manny.

Murphy's continued to put up solid numbers in Pawtucket, with a line of .306/.385/.525 in 160 AB. One of the most encouraging numbers is his walk rate. He had 11 BB in Portland as opposed to the 21 he has in Pawtucket in twelve fewer ABs.

Once again, here's his MILB stats page.

From Baseball America's Daily Dish today:

Murphy's still hitting well in AAA, putting up a .306/.391/.543 line with 6 HR, 18 doubles and 4 triples. He's keeping the K/BB in a respectable area at 34/27, and he's done this in 186 AB, which means we're no longer in the small sample size arena, in my personal opinion.

Here's the full MILB stats page.

Where's this kid gonna play at the ML level? Unfortunately, he looks like trade bait.

Murphy's cooled off a bit, and made the PawSox notebook in the Projo today:

David Murphy (.277, 19 doubles, 7 triples, 7 home runs, 38 RBI), who is 0-for-9 in his last nine at-bats, sat out of the PawSox last two games for precautionary reasons with a sore back. Murphy is tied for fifth in the I.L. with five triples.

Here's the link: http://www.projo.com/pawsox/content/projo_...jo.1f86302.html (I can't post links here anymore for some reason. Embrace the cut and paste.)

Gammons



Gotta love the Gammons Red Sox Prospect Hype Machine, but this seems a bit of a stretch. I find it really hard to believe that Murphy can't be had.

Through the first three games at the Bucket, Murphy's posting a .273/.467/.273. Gotta love those messed up early season lines.

MILB Stats Page

Murphy's not doing all that well so far. In 33 AB he doesn't have an extra base hit, and he's only batting .182. Despite that anemic BA, he's still got an OBP of .357, which is fairly impressive all things considered.

Here's the rest of his numbers. They suck.

Murphy has really picked it up offensively after a very slow start. He's hitting .389 over the last 10 games and for the season has his OBP over .400.

David Murphy has managed to keep his turn around going, as he's sporting a .303/.398/.447 line in 152 AB. He's really cut down on his strikeouts of late, as he's only got 4 in his last ten games (40 AB).

We're rapidly approaching the point where he'll have nothing left to prove in AAA.