He was signed out of Cuba where he had been playing professional baseball in 2005. He was in A then double A in 2005. 2006 he started the year in AAA got called up. 2007 Started the year in AAA then got called up. 2008 started the year in AAA then got called up. That’s up and down for 3 years.

Miguel Cabrera spent 6 seasons in the minor leagues. 6 seasons.

Albert Pujols is the Freakest Example of any prospect in baseball history, especially RECENT baseball history. a 13th round pick, who was 20 years old, spent no time in minor leagues and made it to the MLB in 1 season where he just continued to hit and never stopped hitting.

Daniel Murphy went from being drafted at 21 to the majors at 23. You know who else did that Ryan Braun. Yes he hasn’t had the success Braun had in his 2nd MLB season. But most guys don’t. Braun is a freak example. Even David Wright got 4 years in the Minors. Jose Reyes got 5 years. Carlos Beltran got 4 years. Carlos Beltran struggled mightly in his 2nd season in the majors.

There are tons of freak examples. Like Lincecum, or Pujols, or Mark Prior etc. But for every freak there are 500 guys who took time to develop.

Wright was at AA when he was 20; Murphy was 23. Wright and Murphy had similar OPS in their first partial seasons wit the Mets. Wright went on to finish 19th in MVP voting the next year, his first full season whereas the 24yo Murphy (.741) had a marginally higher OPS than Luis Castillo (.732).

David Wright actually had a similar path to Murphy. Both guys had a similar first year in A ball. Wright exploded at the AA level and showed a sudden surge in power, he hit .363 there. Murphy didn’t do so bad either in his first AA year: .308 .374 .496 .870, with 13 HR in a half season worth of ABs. Not bad at all.

Murphy was called up that same year (he started the year in A ball actually where he hit .500 briefly), and posted .313 .397 .473 870 in his first cup of coffee, better than Wright’s numbers in his first tour.

No one is trying to say Murphy is the next David Wright, but let’s give the kid a chance, he was rushed through the system pretty fast, did well at all levels, and just hit a speed bump in the first half of this year.

Howard Johnson was given up on by the Tigers, and played 5 years (2 for the Mets) before he broke out and hit 36 homeruns at age 26 with 30 stolen bases. In the seasons before that, his OPS+ numbers were below 100. He went on to be an all-star level player for the next 5 or 6 years.

Interesting that you mentioned Ludwick … who was given up on by Texas and Cleveland before the Cardinals gave him a shot, and it took him until age 29 (7 years going back and forth between the minors and majors) before his breakout season in 2008 when he hit 37 homeruns. Talk about patience … when Ludwick was Murphy’s age, he was hitting .247 with 7 homeruns in 50 games (.737 OPS).

Murphy is 24, not 27, putting him 4-5 years younger than Ludwick was when he broke out after 2 teams traded him away.

For every prospect that bloomed early, there is another prospect that bloomed early and then regressed later or a prospect that needed several years to reach potential.