In mid-January, I was able to talk with Daniel Murphy about a variety of issues.

Here is an excerpt, in which we talk about hitting, and what he learned from last season:

Matthew Cerrone:  I don’t know if you listen to talk radio in New York ever, but, Mike Francesa on WFAN has been very critical of you, and he even addressed this with Omar Minaya and Jeff Wilpon at the end of last season, when he basically said, “Well, you can’t win a championship if you don’t have a power-hitting first baseman,” essentially saying, “You need to get homeruns from first base.”  I am curious, what do you think about that?

Daniel Murphy: I think you need someone out there that’s going to have quality at bats.  I think that if I am able to go out there…  I never want to try to put numbers on anything because that’s so unattainable, because you can’t control RBI’s, you can’t control hits, because you can hit the ball hard five times a day, every day for the entire season and not get one… But, if I go out there and I have a good at bat, and mostly have good at bats with runners in scoring position, then for us, if I look up and I’m .290 with 15 to 20 home runs with 90 RBI, but I helped this club win a Championship, great, and that’s the way I look at it.

Matthew Cerrone:  Well, if you guys win, and you put up those numbers, like you said, say, .290 and 20 HR, people would be thrilled and you’d be quite popular around here… I know you love hitting.  What is the biggest adjustment you had to make from last season?  I know mid-season there had to be a moment where it was like, ‘What is going on here?”  What’s the biggest thing you had to tackle?

Daniel Murphy:  My biggest struggle was from May to June; I just didn’t swing the bat very well.  It was a combination of the pitchers adjusting to me and a little bit of my own stubbornness and saying that I am still going to do what I want.  I’d say, ‘I’m still going to take this ball and hit it up the middle or the other way.’  But, once I sat down and talked to HoJo, I realized that if the pitchers are going to make this adjustment to me, I’ve now got to now make an adjustment to them.

Matthew Cerrone:  I talked to David Wright years ago, when he went through his first year and that was his big thing, he called it a cat and mouse game.  Saying, it’s a constant back and forth, the pitchers are doing this, so you’re going to do that, then they adjust, and you adjust back, and so on, and it’s back and forth.  It seems like that never ends, right?

Daniel Murphy: Something David does so well, which I struggled with last year, is how quickly he can make an adjustment.  My first adjustment in the big leagues took six weeks, maybe two months… I think that learning curve and that process is going to be a little bit shorter for me now.  It shouldn’t take that long this year, it shouldn’t take me two months to make an adjustment to what they are doing to me out there.

Matthew Cerrone:  Is that a byproduct of working with HoJo, or guys that you work with?  Can you rush that adjustment time, or does that have to come on your own terms?

Daniel Murphy:  I think the learning experience comes with you.  But you also have so many assets to use.  I mean, David has hit 30 home runs and hit .300 every year since he got to the big leagues, pretty much… He has hit and continues to hit, so obviously he has something figured out that he is doing right.  It’s my job to get that out of him.  It’s not the exact way I’m going to go about my business, because we are two different people, but he has something figured out and I will continue to talk to him as much as I can.  The nature of the beast is that you are going to struggle, you play 162 ball games and you aren’t going to feel good every day.  The thing he does is how short can you make that struggle?  Is it a week?  Is it a month?  Is it a day?  Is it a swing?  My job is to make it one at bat, that’s how long the struggle should be.

Matthew Cerrone:  One of the things that Keith Hernandez talked about was how a batter should never waste his best in the batting cage.  He says there are only so many hits in a hitting streak, so don’t waste them in the cage.  If you are hot, save it for the game.  Then, if you are struggling, you will hit your way out of it.  Take as many swings as you can.  Does that make sense to you?  Do you look at it that way?

Daniel Murphy:  I am a cerebral hitter.  I’m always thinking about how I can get better, and sometimes I mess with my swing… I was locked in during spring training, I felt prepared and I felt ready for the season.  But, I messed with it just enough to screw it up… Now I understand, there is a difference between working and working smart.  That is one thing I have taken from this past season, you know, I don’t have to take 150 swings in spring training on day one to be ready for the season.  If I feel right, or I feel good after 15 or 20 swings, then I feel good… It’s a learning process to understand that… if I feel right, I’m going to leave it alone.

Matthew Cerrone:  Sure, because I would think, if you’re clicking and taking extra BP, then you do something wrong for just one swing, you might start second guessing yourself, and then there it goes… is that what you mean?

Daniel Murphy:  Right.  One of the jobs you have as a hitter is you’re not always going to feel great in there.  But you have to prepare yourself and just go to battle that night.  I’ve got to get myself into a position where I can help this team win tonight.  I feel like crap, but I’ve got to do something tonight, I’ve got to scratch out a walk, move a runner over, and hit a sack fly or whatever it takes to do something positive tonight.  If you look at it that way then it’s not that I don’t feel good, it’s what am I supposed to do for the rest of the week or the month?  It’s: let’s take care of tonight.  It can be as simple as a foul ball that has locked me back in and that’s all it takes.

Thank you to SMG Transcription for transcribing this interview.