Murton Goes To Japan


Today the Rockies sold former Cub Matt Murton to a Japanese club. Murton came to the Cubs in the Nomar Garciaparra trade. He made his debut with the Cubs in 2005 and was always a good contanct hitter, especially against left handed hitting. I thought Murton proved he is a valuable bat off the bench or starting vs. left handed hitting, but he always had trouble staying on the 25 man roster. He was with the Rockies last season, but only saw action in 29 games and had 52 at-bats in the Majors. He did hit .324 at Triple-A Colorado Springs and set a Colorado Springs record with a 29-game hitting streak. The Rockies have their 3 outfield spots set, and Ryan Spilborghs looks to be the 4th outfield now that Murton is out of the mix. Good luck to Murton in Japan! He may just stick out a bit with that red hair!

8 comments:

Cubsfan4evr said...

Thanks for the Picture TBO. I was considering a regular one, but then decided not to. The picture you made is a lot better.

The 'Bright' One said...

so much for the professionalism of our blog

Cubsfan4evr said...

The way you like it...............................

The 'Bright' One said...

you know it

David "MVP" Eckstein said...

I'm sorry to hear this. Murton was at worst a really good #4 OF, much better than Reed Johnson and the similar variety. I would not have minded the cubs reacquiring him one bit

Cubsfan4evr said...

He was never really given a chance in the Majors. The Cubs did give him some playing time a few years ago, but he isn't an everyday lefty fielder. His power will never be there, but he is a really good contact hitter and a good back-up for matchups. It will be interesting to follow his career in Japan.

The 'Bright' One said...

Murton had the highest OBP of any cub in 2006 who got over 400 AB. Though he was competing with Juan Pierre Jacque Jones and ronny cedeno

Cubsfan4evr said...

I did not know that about his OBP. Juan Pierre brought another dimension to the game and Murton was slow and not the best defender. Jacque Jones was just a bad veteran, but they kept hoping he would rebound, because no one could believe he went from being solid to so bad so quickly.