TT, you never fail to disappoint with your fact packed posts! I knew if the Caste media was hyping this guy as a two sport star, he would be massively overrated. Little did I know that the Usual Suspects had done this con game already with his uncle. Thanks for educating me on this.
Thanks, Freethinker. When I saw the link between Kyler Murray and Calvin Murray I quickly thought about history repeating itself, with another (possibly) over-hyped Murray breaking into the top of MLB's draft?
Then I saw the Boros connection and it immediately made sense how a fairly average and seemingly "immature" Oklahoma Sooners one year baseball starter* turned into a top tier phenom!
One quick note about Calvin Murray: Until baseball imposed a cap on rookie bonuses, teams were forced to draft players based on "sign-ability", not necessarily talent alone. DWF's love to blast Houston for selecting Phil Nevin over Derek Jeter back in 1992, but Scott Boros would've never allowed him to sign with Houston, Montreal, Cincinnati, Minnesota or other small market teams, unless they handed out record shattering bonuses! Before Montreal lost it's team in 2004, they admitted using top 10 picks on second round talents because they could not afford to sign top picks. Minnesota prep-phenom Joe Maurer, for example, was only selected ahead of "Tom Seaver clone" Mark Prior due to him taking much less money to stay in state.
Point? As I remember, Calvin Murray was rated higher than he was picked out of high school and college, but all the small market franchises (which usually drafted higher) shunned him and Boros due money. Calvin could've been drafted 1st overall at least once (perhaps twice), had it not been for Boros. That's how hyped he was....Another black, over-hype job from that era was Jeffery Hammonds, a modern day Willie Mays from Stanford? He was better than Calvin Murray, but not by much!
*
https://nesn.com/2018/12/kyler-murray-too-immature-mentally-for-baseball-mlb-scout-believes/
_____________
What’s Murray’s ceiling in baseball? Passan polled scouts and found some interesting comparisons. One scout projected him as a Rickey Henderson-type first step with the potential to hit 20 home runs a season. Two scouts compared his ceiling defensively to Jackie Bradley Jr., which is elite. Though, they cautioned, his arm doesn’t play as well in baseball as Bradley’s – or as impressively as it does on the football field.
Interesting quote from a Yahoo article. Ricky Henderson comparison of course....Exactly the same as "uncle Calvin". Also, he supposedly has a "cannon arm" in football, but a Juan Pierre, Coco Crisp lollipop arm in baseball? Go figure that one out?
____________
Some of the posters here can give me a chuckle from time to time and Truthteller is one of them. He looks like a "real stud" -------at the batting cage. You know nice fat pitches right down the middle of the plate. Something tells me this guy couldn't hit a curve ball at any level even if he knew it was coming.
Thank you, Shadowlight. But, unfortunately, I can't take total credit for this. I'm merely "parroting" what an ESPN talking-head said during one of his games -- possibly West Virginia?
Spewing out superlatives regarding Murray, he had little trouble coming up with football compliments. As far as baseball, he had very little to say. So he quoted an anonymous baseball scout saying something like "he displays a thundering bat during batting practice".
Shadow, curve-balls might be the least of his problems. How about switching from "thunderous" aluminum bats to wood? Sports media flunkies only give partial Cap Cod League stats for Murray, a pitcher friendly summer league full of MLB prospects. Here are his full stats and they are not pretty, with an almost 40% strike out rate:
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp?ID=206936