Thunder Matt continues to get crapped on

March 27th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Has there ever been a time in Matt Murton’s career that Jim Hendry wasn’t trying to trade him? Hendry tried to trade him during his rookie season, when Matt hit .321/.386/.521 in 140 AB’s. He tried to trade Murton the next year, when 455 AB’s saw him hit .297/.365/.444, confirming the kinds of numbers people expected. And here he is trying to trade Murton again this year, saying the Cubs don’t have a place for him on the five-man bench. Apparently, Mike Fontenot is preferable.

There are arguments about Murton’s “versatility,” and whether or not he can play in center field, and whether or not he should be confined to the fifth-outfielder’s role again this season. But God damnit, is there nowhere on the Cubs lineup for a developing power hitter with good speed on the basepaths? Is there nowhere for a guy who, even if he hits PECOTA’s 50th percentile projection this season, will OBP .360 and slug .460? Nowhere? You’d rather have Mike Fucking Fontenot?

The bright spot here is that Murton could, if given the time to prove himself a potentially elite power guy, draw decent value in trade. Since the Cubs suck at developing position player talent (and their pitching development hasn’t been so hot recently, either), trading Murton for a couple of young plus prospects sounds just dandy. But when you do everything but released the ginger one from your roster, you make it blatantly obvious that Murton has no value to you except in trade, which therein lowers his trade value. What. The. Fuck.

This normally would have been written over at FanHouse, but because this is so fucking ridiculous, and I want to fucking swear a whole fucking lot, I’m fucking writing it here. Shit.