Note: Manuel to treat Defense like Offense
Yesterday, Daniel Murphy dropped a routine pop-up with two outs, and a runner, who, when the ball dinked off his glove and rolled through the grass, rounded third and scored a run.
“Inexcusable,” Murphy told reporters, standing by his locker after the game. “Johan threw the ball really well and deserved a lot better than 
that. I’m better than that. It won’t happen like that again. I was lazy to the ball and I got exposed for it. I didn’t get back. I got exposed, and it cost us.”
Manuel acknowledged that, up to now, Murphy has not shown signs of being a poor defensive outfielder, then said:
“Murphy is still working very hard. Here you have a young man who works extremely hard and who is getting better. I don’t think you’re gonna see that type of stuff from him on a regular basis, today that just kind of happened out of nowhere… he’ gonna be fine… I refuse to be concerned with that at this point.”
Manuel characterized the error as a ‘misplay,’ noting it could have happened to anybody, and said there was no reason to address Murphy about the play.
…i do not anticipate a huge backlash of people questioning murphy’s ability to play in the major leagues… i think reasonable people will understand he simply made a mistake, albeit a costly one… fact is, murphy’s error combined with John Johnson’s stellar pitching performance created a terrible combination… had the Mets been up against a weaker pitcher, and scored enough runs to win, murphy’s error, while awful, would be less of an issue today… plus, let’s be honest, if he’s not out there, it’s Gary Sheffield, and is sheffield that much more superior to murphy on defense… would Manny Ramirez have been that much better on defense… no… so, that discussion is senseless… he’ll be fine, and he should and will be given more room for error than one mistake during the sixth game of the season…
“I’d like to see us all be a little better defensively. I just think, 
overall, we haven’t been as sharp defensively as I’d like us to be. I know it’s early, but defense is very crucial. This spring, we emphasized the hitting part of it. Now, we have to get back spending time on our defensive, both interior and exterior. We need to do those little things to get on a streak.”
…by the way, i believe interior defense is turning a double play, hitting the cut-off man, that sort of thing, while exterior defensive is simply catching the ground ball or pop up… i could be wrong, but i am fairly sure this is correct… anyone?…
Manuel said he will start doing additional defensive work with his team prior to the game, adding, “We’re gonna start treating it like we’ve treated our offensive fundamentals, and put a bigger emphasis on it.”
