Why Murphy Sat
There was a lot of grumbling on Twitter, the blogosphere, and other media outlets about Terry Collins’ decision last night to pinch-hit Chin-Ling Hu instead of Willie Harris or Dan Murphy during a key moment in the game.
I’m not sure about Harris, but the reason why Collins didn’t send up Murphy could have been to “send a message”. This from Bob Klapisch, reporting on what happened after Murphy was thrown out at third base on an attempting steal on Saturday:
Terry Collins watched in quiet rage as Murphy was thrown out — waiting while his player collected himself and returned to the dugout — before exploding.
“What the [bleep] are you doing?” Collins shouted, according to a person who’d been made aware of the exchange.
“Mike [Nickeas] was up, [Mike] Pelf[rey] was on deck; I was trying to get something started,” Murphy responded.
“So now you’re the manager? I was going to pinch-hit [for Pelfrey],” Collins shot back. “I’m the manager, not you. Get your head out of your [bleep].”
Murphy sat on Sunday and sat again last night. Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe Collins held out Murph to teach him a lesson.
What do you think? Coincidence or lesson? If the latter, do you agree with Collins’ method of behavior modification? Post your opinion in the comments.
If he wanted to send a message, the thing to do would be to remove Murphy from the game then. It was getting late and if you are going to risk winning the game to send a message, that is the time to do it. Actually, that would have been a smart move. Expecting too much, perhaps.
I’m all for passion — you know, when the guy actually seems worth caring about, as Murphy is. But, if that was his mindset (and I really hope it wasn’t), Collins is not much smarter than Murphy … and we need Collins to be.
A) He’s not going to really get any starts at second between Murphy and Turner.
B) The reason he’s on the roster is obviously because Reyes is a health risk, and Hu is the only capable of playing short, but unless Reyes is actually hurt, Hu isn’t going to play there at all either.
Point is, in spite of all that, you still have to somehow find Hu at-bats. If he’s on the roster, you gotta play him at some point.
Turner, unlike Murphy or Emaus, has experience playing short in the minors (53 career games), so why not keep him as the emergency shortstop, and replace Hu with somebody that can actually hit?
And seriously, if Terry wants to make a statement, punish Hairston for wussing out on chasing fly balls, or punish Wright for turning triples into doubles by watching his deep flies. Punish the next reliever who doesn’t throw strikes. Dumb steal attempts are the least of our worries.
Does anyone actually think Collins is wrong when he says “I’m the manager, not you?” This team has been without a legit manager since Willie lost the clubhouse. So if guys are used to making their own plays then Collins has to do something to get them back in line.