This season was supposed to be David Murphy's big chance to show he could be an everyday player in the Texas Rangers' outfield for the entire year. After pretty much taking over full-time left field duty midway through last season, Murphy shined and was one of the Rangers' top hitters over the second half of the season.
As customary slow starter, things are no different for Murphy in 2013, but the numbers he's putting up are bad, even for him.
He's a .228 career hitter in April, but right now, on May 1, Murphy is sitting at .176 on the season and got the night off on Tuesday, giving way to Jeff Baker, who homered and had a good game against a left-handed pitcher.
Murphy has been known as a guy who struggles against left-handed pitching (he hits 24 points lower against lefties than righties) and could be well on his way back to platoon status with Baker.
It could be that Murphy picks it up as the season goes on, like he did last season, and eventually earns manager Ron Washington's trust as an everyday player but the way he's going right now it's hard to entrust him to anything, especially against lefties.
