Daniel Murphy

JOHN SICKLES of MINOR LEAGUE BALL has posted his view of the Mets Top 20 Prospects, which I will gladly share with you and make some comments on his choices. My comments will be in italics.

Top 20 New York Mets Prospects for 2010

Let me start off by apologizing. Work has been crazy, but I am back. I am not going to let the naysayers keep me from posting, so there. I am here, and I am ready to go. I decided that today would be as good a day as any to construct my offseason guide for what the Mets need to do. I am going to go step by step for what may be a cost-effective and solid way of getting this team back together. This team has money to spend, but we all know that the Wilpons have been swindled in the Bernie Madoff scheme a lot more then we are being lead to believe.

Maybe it's me.

Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe I didn't watch the same Mets games as other Mets fans this year. Maybe I wasn't watching the same Daniel Murphy that everyone else was this past season. That's the only way I can explain how I seem to be the only Mets fan on the planet that believes Murphy should not be the Mets first baseman in 2010.

There has been a lot of debate about who should get the first base job for the Mets in 2010.

But most people seem to think it should go to someone other than Daniel Murphy.

They'll tell you he doesn't have the bat to be an every day first baseman.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

Murph had one bad slump early on in the year. After that, he was one of the most productive hitters on our team. The early slump killed his season averages and made him look like an ordinary hitter.

The Mets have a lot to work on this coming off season, and like most winters, transactions should be a constant priority.

Here is my list of what I think are the most pressing items for management to consider:

1)  Do not issue long term, high dollar contracts to any player.  In this time of financial difficulty, no player is worth acquiring if that goes with the demand of being locked in for a long term deal.

With this season finally drawing to a close, I have spent most of the past six to eight weeks listening to Mets fans and those who cover the Mets in the media trash over and over and over again the Mets first baseman, Daniel Murphy.

To me it's just unbelievable what extremes these fans take when it comes to blame and evaluation of a players year.