| Matt was acquired from Boston as
part of a four-team trade at the 2004 trading deadline ... he
and infielder Nomar Garciaparra were traded to Chicago in exchange
for infielders Doug Mientkiewicz, Alex Gonzalez, Brendan Harris
and pitcher Francis Beltran ... following the 2005 season, was
ranked the 12th best prospect in the Southern League by Baseball
America ... named by Baseball America after the 2004 season as
being the best hitter for average and having the best strike-zone
in the Cubs organization ... attended Georgia Tech University
- earned Freshman All-America honors from Baseball America and
Collegiate Baseball in 2001.
2006 Highlights:
In his first full season in the big leagues, Murton came cose
to finishing at .300. He did rank 10th in the National League
with a .330 average at home, and batted .323 with four home runs
in September. On Aug. 3, he hit four doubles against Arizona.
On Sept. 26, he reached base safely in five plate appearances,
going 3-for-3 with two doubles and was hit by a pitch twice. Murton
hit .301 against left-handers.
2005 Highlights:
Matt saw his first major league action in just his third professional
campaign - batted .321 in two stints with the club (July 8-August
19 and August 30-end of the season) ... made his major league
debut July 8 in Florida, starting the game in left field and going
2-for-2 with a double and an RBI ... recorded his first major
league hit in the contest, a single off Dontrelle Willis ... hit
his first major league home run August 15 at Houston, a solo shot
off Wandy Rodriguez ... homered in back-to-back games September
11-12 against San Francisco and Cincinnati - also did so September
18 and 20 against St. Louis and Milwaukee ... notched 10 multi-hit
games for the Cubs - including a pair of 3-hit affairs and one
4-hit contest ... started the year at West Tenn (AA) where he
batted .342 in 78 games for the Diamond Jaxx ... had 36 multi-hit
games, including two 4-hit contests ... opened the season with
a 15-game hitting streak, batting .492 (30-61) from April 8-April
23 with 5 doubles, 3 homers and 16 RBI over the stretch ... batted
.353 in nine games for Iowa (AAA) ... reached base safely in all
nine games played for the I-Cubs ... ranked ninth among all minor
leaguers with a .343 combined batting average ... returned to
the baseball field in the fall, playing for the Mesa Solar Sox
in the Arizona Fall League ... batted .337 in 24 games with 14
RBI.
|
