Dwayne Murphy

[rarefind]

When does Murph end up having to take the blame for a poor performance from his mid-tier hitters? His success with Bautista has been well documented, and he should still be in good standing for this. Lind has seen his swing get back to where we are accustomed to seeing it, whether this has much to do with Murphy or not. But quite frankly, despite the talent level on this team we have seen the struggles of:

Escobar, Hill, Davis, Snider, Rivera and I will mention E5 who in my opinion is not great but he has still yet to homer which is, weird. Cooper whether his own fault or not has looked like he has never swung a bat beyond college.

Murphy has enjoyed much praise due to correcting Bautista's swing, and rightfully so. But the man is the hitting coach for the most lethargic hitting team in baseball at this point. Which is plainly odd considering the vast success this team had last year. Albeit, this team does simply not have the manpower to compete with their numbers from a season ago; this is simply ridiculous. Guys seem to be going to the plate (with the exception of Bautista and Lind) without any gameplan which is ridiculous. I wanted to see Murphy return very badly but at the end of the day he has much work to do in my opinion to save his job and I am aware that we are just in May and still battling injuries to this point.

[Schad]

Murphy was the hitting coach last year, and of the players who you mentioned who were with the team, Encarnacion had a career year, and Snider rallied from a poor start to put up an OPS well over .800 from May on. Hill struggled, and Escobar rebounded as a Jay but wasn't spectacular. Hardly indicative of a problem stemming from the hitting coach.

On the "most lethargic hitting team in baseball" thing, we're at the AL average in runs scored despite the injuries and the fact that we're not a very talented team. That's not worth the hand-wringing.

-

[rarefind]

There still has to be a system of checks and balances; i agree that the jays offense is indeed "middling" but i do consider it fairly lethargic considering that the hottest hitter in baseball inflates our offensive numbers. Subtract the names Lind and Bautista from our numbers and I'm almost certain we'd be bottom 3 in the A.L. if not worse.

It is pretty clear that Farell and Murphy's philosophies do not match which may be the problem. The skip wants to play small ball and Murph wants his guys to hit the ball out. Again, injuries have hurt us; and I really do like Murphy but something essentially has to give.

Specifically to Escobar, the guy is a sit back on a pitch and punch it the other way hitter. Some responsibility needs to fall on the player; but his slump has seen a lot of him trying to pull the ball and rolling into double plays. Examples like this are laden through the line up and guys need to make adjustments. Whether this is on the player or coach is debatable as it would be in any sport but it is just odd to see such a collective struggle outside of our "star" players to this point.

[The_Hater]

Where is this hitting coach that turns everyone he touches into a great hitter? Does he even exist?

[Mr Swagtastic]

Dwayne Murphy, is a guy the Jays should be lucky that they have. I was watching that MLB network 30 Clubs in 30 Days preview show and they were saying that Dwayne Murphy and Brian Butterfield were two of the best their respective positions in the whole major league.

Who is Toronto going to bring in if they let Murphy go? Plus it might cause a huge uproar in the club house which would be a very bad thing. The players love Dwayne Murphy as their hitting coach and he's had a lot of success by making players have career years i.e. John Buck, Snider in 2009, Jose last year and has told this team to be more agressive on the base paths which looks like it's working. I think it's the team having no real "star" behind Lind and Jose. They have good hitters in JPA, Yunel Escobar and Patterson. I am not sure you can put the blame on just 1 person each player outside Jose needs to take responabilty for their actions. Just my .02

[augustine]

I'm not sure that the Jays offensive struggles stem from Murphy. Perhaps, however, the loss of Cito is a factor. Before Cito came, the hitters consistently underperformed. Then he came and many have career years (Lind, Hill, Scutaro, Gonzales, Buck, MacDonald - let alone the pitchers such as Cecil, Marcum, Romero, Morrow, Camp, etc...). Now he is gone, and the hitters are back to underperforming. I don't see any Jay hitter poised to have a career year this year (Lind and Bautista are equalling their bests), and that is a real problem. How do the Jays go from players regularly overperforming to regularly underperforming. Maybe it is partly the confidence Cito placed in them.

[Schad]

I'm not sure that the Jays offensive struggles stem from Murphy. Perhaps, however, the loss of Cito is a factor. Before Cito came, the hitters consistently underperformed. Then he came and many have career years (Lind, Hill, Scutaro, Gonzales, Buck, MacDonald - let alone the pitchers such as Cecil, Marcum, Romero, Morrow, Camp, etc...). Now he is gone, and the hitters are back to underperforming.

Heh, Cito was here last year as well, when Lind and Hill's production fell off the table, so it's a stretch to suggest that he was a miracle-worker there. John Buck in particular was no different than the year before, with two exceptions: he got a tonne of playing time, and he was very lucky on balls in play, which inflated his average.

On the pitchers, I can guarantee that Cito had nothing to do with it; he's a manager with a hitting background, so he wouldn't have been giving them pointers.

[rarefind]

by no means am i advocating that murhpy should be dismissed, however i'm just wondering if it is a philosophy crash or disconnect that is causing to some issues here early in the season.

[tsherkin]

It'd just be nice if we showed a little more selectivity in what we swung at... Which even Farrell is saying.

[Schad]

by no means am i advocating that murhpy should be dismissed, however i'm just wondering if it is a philosophy crash or disconnect that is causing to some issues here early in the season.

There is a clash between Murphy's "swing from the heels" philosophy and Farrell's love of small ball, definitely (and it's not hard to figure out which side of that divide I prefer). However, while it leads to rather silly decisions, it shouldn't affect individual performances that much...it can occasionally when the manager is a former hitting coach (like Cito), but save for calling the signs, Farrell wouldn't have much influence over the batting.

The primary cause of our offensive downturn (from 4.66 runs/game and an OPS+ of 107 to 4.20 runs/game and an OPS+ of 101) is the replacement of a couple hitters who were quite useful last year. Wells had a great season, and while I was as overjoyed as anyone that we dumped him, it's natural that there was a significant dropoff from his 127 OPS+ to the dreck that Patterson/Davis have provided...Patterson hasn't been too bad, but the combination has been ugly. Fred Lewis went out, and a currently-struggling Juan Rivera came in. Overbay left, and we haven't really had anyone capable replace him/Lind, by association. Mix in a chubbed-out Encarnacion who has inexplicably forgotten how to hit lefties and a handful of injuries that have forced us to play no-hit players (figuratively and, against Verlander, literally), and the net result is a team that takes a step back offensively.

[Michael Bradley]

For those who think hitting coaches don't make a difference, let's go back to 2008 when the Jays couldn't hit out of a wet paper bag all season.

Stairs believes he is not the only Jays hitter who regressed under Denbo. And he says Denbo’s approach also contributed to the Jays’ home-run drought this season.

“I honestly think that this team has forgotten how to pull baseballs,” Stairs said Sunday. “That’s why our home runs are down. You get into batting practice and you’re hitting balls to right-centre, left-centre, instead of working on the proper way of pulling baseballs, and elevating baseballs.”

Denbo was in his first season as Toronto’s hitting coach when he was fired in the Friday purge that saw Cito Gaston replace manager John Gibbons. When he left, the Jays were 25th among 30 teams in runs scored and 29th in hitting safely with runners in scoring position.

The Denbo approach encouraged hitters to be patient, work the count and hit the ball to all fields.

Stairs said he — and others — tried to adapt, without success.

“I’m a pull hitter,” said Stairs, who leads the club with a mere eight homers. “I always will be. But right now, I don’t know how to pull the ball.”

The Jays have 51 home runs. A year ago at this time they had 94.

Alex Rios is among those whose home-run output has fallen dramatically. At this time last year he had 16. Today he has three.

“As soon as Alex learns how to pull the ball again properly, he’ll be on fire,” Stairs said. “He’s got that swing now to hit the ball to right field and that’s not him. He should be a pull hitter. What was wrong with the year he had last year? Not a thing. So why change and make him go to right-centre? That’s just the way I see it.”

Tenace said he does not push batters to pull. But he does preach aggressiveness, something he did not see in abundance in his first two games as hitting coach.

“We’ve got to get back to basics,” Tenace said. “We’ve got to get more aggressive in the strike zone. The on-base percentage will take care of itself.

“The biggest thing in baseball, and anything in life, is to find out what you do best and do it,” Gaston said. “If you can’t hit the ball to right field, why in hell are you trying? If you’re a pull hitter, pull the ball. If you’re an opposite field hitter, you hit the ball to the opposite field. You don’t try to do something you can’t do.”

How does that relate to Murphy? Who the heck knows. Gaston was hitting coach in 2000 when the Jays lead the league in home runs, and was the manager in 2010 when they lead the league again. I think Gaston is more of a pull happy/home run type (see his urge to turn Olerud into a power hitter that failed in 1996), and that is why last season's lineup worked well under him. This season can't be put on Murphy as the hitters, outside of Bautista, Escobar, and Lind are either rookies or complete trash.

[augustine]

The skip wants to play small ball and Murph wants his guys to hit the ball out.

It seems that Farrell also wants a 'complete' at bat, meaning be patient, draw walks, while Murphy wants you to swing hard at the first pitch that fits your plan. I think this creates issues at the plate - you can't be indecisive about whether to swing or not.

Cito was here last year as well, when Lind and Hill's production fell off the table, so it's a stretch to suggest that he was a miracle-worker there. John Buck in particular was no different than the year before, with two exceptions: he got a tonne of playing time, and he was very lucky on balls in play, which inflated his average.

Sadly, I'm no longer convinced that last year's 25 homerun season from Aaron Hill can be viewed as a poor production year. Also, I forgot to mention Bautista, who, at the beginning of last season most fans wanted on the bench in favour of Randy Ruiz, but Cito stuck with him through a rough beginning and he turned into an amazing hitter. I don't give Cito all the credit, but I do know that under his watch many hitters had career type years, while before and after Cito we cannot say the same.