DANIEL MURPHY NATIONAL LEAGUE MVP CANDIDATE 2016 NATIONAL LEAGUE ALL-STAR

LEADING MAN Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy leads, or ranks near the top of the National League in a majority of offensive categories, including:

STATISTIC NUMBER NL RANK THE COMPETITION .596 1st Here is a look at how Daniel Murphy compares to the other National League Most OPS .987 1st Valuable Player candidates: Doubles 47 1st NAME AVG R HR RBI XBH BB SO OBP SLG OPS Average .347 2nd D. Murphy .347 88 25 104 77 35 57 .391 .596 .987 Go-Ahead RBI 31 2nd N. Arenado .294 113 40 131 80 67 101 .362 .569 .931 Plate Appearances/ 10.19 2nd K. Bryant .293 120 39 101 77 74 152 .387 .560 .946 Strikeout Percentage 9.8% 2nd A. Rizzo .292 92 32 106 79 74 105 .386 .549 .935 Multi- games 56 T3rd RBI 104 4th CONTROL + SHIFT Extra Base Hits 77 T4th Hits 184 4th According to Baseball Info Solutions (BIS), Daniel Murphy has been incredibly 316 5th successful against defensive shifts, demonstrating his ability to adjust when faced with this potential opposition advantage. As of Sept. 22, Murphy is hitting .368 on FANGRAPHS SAYS... NUMBER NL RANK Grounders and Short Liners (GSL) when the defense shifts, just 13 points lower Weighted On-Base Average .409 2nd than when there is not a shift. He’s hitting .381 when not shifted on a GSL. ***Measures offensive value by weighting each aspect of hitting in proportion to their actual value*** • This number reflects on those balls put in play and doesn’t in- Weighted + 156 2nd clude or the quality of those hits. ***Measures how many runs a player is worth to his team compared to the league average after controlling for According to FanGraphs.com shift data, which includes every ball put in play other park effects. League average is 100, thus, at 157, he created 57% more runs than the league average hitter*** than home runs, Daniel Murphy is hitting .354 against traditional shifts and .357 Win Probability Added 4.27 4th ***Measures how each plate appearance impacts the team’s chances of winning*** when there is not a shift. 5.6 5th ***Measures value in how many wins a player is worth above a replacement level player*** AWARDS SEASON BASEBALL REFERENCE SAYS... NUMBER NL RANK NATIONAL LEAGUE ALL-STAR Daniel Murphy was named to his second National League All-Star team in his Offensive Win Percentage .777 1st first season as a Washington National. A players’ selection to the NL squad, Mur- ***The percentage of games a team with nine of this player batting would win*** phy led the National League in batting average (.347), hits (108) and multi-hit OPS+ 157 3rd ***Adjusted OPS based on park effects and relative to the league average. League average is 100, thus, at 158, games (35) at the time of the selection. Murphy’s OPS is 58% above league average *** Base-Out Runs Added 46.20 3rd Murphy entered the game in the fifth inning as a pinch hitter and was the only ***Given the situation, how many runs did the player add to the play. Compared to average, so 0.00 is average*** member of the NL squad to record two hits (2-for-3). He was the first player in Situational Wins Added 4.7 3rd Nationals history (2005-pres.) to record two hits in the All-Star Game. ***Measures Win Probability with leverage and at-bat context added to the equation*** Win Probability Added 3.8 4th NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE MONTH - MAY 2016 ***The change in win probability caused by this batter during the game *** After setting a franchise record for hits in a calendar month and leading the Ma- jor Leagues in batting average, Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy was ONE OF THE BEST SEASONS...EVER named the National League Player of the Month for May. Daniel Murphy is in the midst of putting together one of the best offensive seasons Murphy ended the month of May leading in batting aver- by a second baseman in Major League Baseball history...According to Baseball Refer- age (.397), hits (77), and multi-hit games (26). ence’s Play Index, among players to play at least 50% of their games at second base, Murphy joins Rogers Hornsby (H.O.F., 1942) as the only second baseman to hit at In May alone, the Nationals’ second baseman hit .416 (47-for-113) with a .434 least .347 with 25 home runs, 104 RBI and a .596 slugging percentage: on-base percentage and a .673 slugging percentage in 29 games. He collected PLAYER YEAR AVG HR RBI SLG eight doubles, seven home runs, 32 singles, 23 RBI, two walks, 17 runs scored Daniel Murphy (WSH) 2016 .347 25 104 .596 and 14 multi-hit games. Rogers Hornsby (CHC) 1929 .380 39 149 .679 Rogers Hornsby (STL) 1925 .403 39 143 .756 The 47 hits Murphy collected in May tied outfielder Al Oliver (August, 1982) and Rogers Hornsby (STL) 1922 .401 42 152 .722 outfielder Marquis Grissom (June, 1994) for the franchise record (Nationals/ Expos) for hits in a month. Also a career high in a month for Murphy, his vs. NATIONAL LEAGUE EAST 47 hits were the most recorded by any National League player in any calendar In the games that mean the most - those against your own division - Daniel Mur- month since Melky Cabrera piled up 51 hits for the San Francisco Giants in May phy has posted the best batting average (.372), slugging percentage (.648) and OPS of 2012. (1.070) against the National League East than the other contenders against their re- NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYER OF THE MONTH - JULY 2016 spective divisions: Daniel Murphy and Stephen Strasburg swept the National League Player and PLAYER G AVG HR RBI OBP SLG OPS of the Month awards for the month of July. Daniel Murphy (WSH - NLE) 68 .372 13 50 .422 .648 1.070 Nolan Arenado (COL - NLW) 76 .300 18 62 .383 .583 .966 Murphy finished July hitting .346 with a .372 on-base percentage and a .744 slug- Kris Bryant (CHI - NLC) 68 .325 19 52 .424 .619 1.043 ging percentage. In a month that featured Murphy’s second career All-Star nod Anthony Rizzo (CHI - NLC) 70 .297 20 58 .392 .621 1.013 and the only multi-hit performance for the NL team in the Midsummer Classic, the Nationals’ second baseman reached base in 18 of the 22 games he played, and HITTING STREAKS had a hit in 17 of those 22. Daniel Murphy has put together four separate hitting streaks of at least 11 games this season...As of September 15, he is one of two players (BOS 2B Dustin Pedroia) in On July 17 vs. Pittsburgh, Murphy stepped off the bench to deliver a two-strike, MLB to record at least four separate hitting streaks of at least 11 games. two-out, game-tying in the bottom of the ninth inning. The homer pro- pelled the Nationals and Pirates into extra innings, where they remained until the ASK THE ELIAS SPORTS BUREAU Pirates prevailed in the 18th inning. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Murphy Throughout the season, Daniel Murphy has accomplished feats worthy of extensive is just the second pinch-hitter in Nationals history (2005-present) to clobber a research by the Elias Sports Bureau. game-tying or go-ahead home run with two outs in the ninth inning or later in a • Murphy was the second player in the last 50 seasons to lead the Major Leagues game in which the team was scoreless to that point. in batting average at the All-Star break in his first year with a team...Pudge Rodri- guez did it in 2004 for the Tigers with a .369 average after he left the Marlins and NATIONALS RECORDS signed with Detroit as a free agent. Not only does Daniel Murphy (141 G) pace the NL in many offensive categories, • On September 14, Murphy extended his hitting streak against the Mets to 18 his 2016 season ranks among the best in Nationals history (2005-pres). games with a in the sixth inning...Murphy is the first player to have a sin- CATEGORY PREVIOUS HIGH / LEADER gle-season hitting streak of at least 18 games against a team he played for the Hits (T1st, 184)...... Denard Span (2014, 147 G) previous year since the Tigers’ George Kell had a 20-game hitting streak versus Doubles (T1st, 47)...... Ryan Zimmerman (2006, 157 G) the Philadelphia A’s in 1947 Batting Average (1st, .347)...... Bryce Harper (2015, .347, 153 G) Slugging Percentage (2nd, .596)...... Bryce Harper (2015, .649, 153 G) OPS (2nd, .987)...... Bryce Harper (2015, 1.109, 153 G) Extra Base Hits (3rd, 77)...... Alfonso Soriano (2006, 89 159 G)