Should we Blow It Up again?

[Sports Guy]

Markakis has had 43 doubles or more in 4 straight years. He is hardly a singles hitter.

He is a singles hitter this year...And even as a doubles hitter last year, his OPS was still well short of 900.

[wildcard]

He is a singles hitter this year...And even as a doubles hitter last year, his OPS was still well short of 900.

The point is that Nick was not surrounded with good hitters. When Hardy became the leadoff hitter and got hot while Jones is hitting well behind Nick, then Nick started to hit.

That happened in 2008 with Roberts in front and Huff behind Nick and he put up an 897 OPS. He will not get that high this year because of the bad start but in the 2nd half we may see that potential again.

[DrungoHazewood]

And he is still just a singles hitters. You can't have a 900 OPS and be a singles hitter.

Well, while unlikely that's not literally true.

                                                                                                                                  Rk            Player  OPS  ISO Year Age  Tm Lg   G  PA  AB   R   H 2B 3B HR RBI  BB IBB SO HBP SH SF GDP SB CS   BA  OBP  SLG  Pos1        John McGraw .994 .055 1899  26 BLN NL 117 539 399 140 156 13  3  1  33 124   0 21  14  2  0   0 73  0 .391 .547 .446   *52    Hughie Jennings .960 .086 1896  27 BLN NL 130 602 521 125 209 27  9  0 121  19   0 11  51 11  0   0 70  0 .401 .472 .488   *63      Jesse Burkett .944 .093 1897  28 CLV NL 127 610 517 129 198 28  7  2  60  76   0 25   7 10  0   0 28  0 .383 .468 .476 *7/84     Billy Hamilton .933 .084 1898  32 BSN NL 110 508 417 110 154 16  5  3  50  87   0 29   2  2  0   0 54  0 .369 .480 .453   *85        John McGraw .921 .072 1900  27 STL NL  99 447 334  84 115 10  4  2  33  85   0  9  23  5  0   0 29  0 .344 .505 .416   *56       Cupid Childs .913 .090 1896  28 CLV NL 132 615 498 106 177 24  9  1 106 100   0 18   4 13  0   0 25  0 .355 .467 .446   *47      Eddie Collins .909 .093 1923  36 CHW AL 145 632 505  89 182 22  5  5  67  84   0  8   4 39  0   0 48 29 .360 .455 .453   *48        John McGraw .908 .080 1895  22 BLN NL  96 459 388 110 143 13  6  2  48  60   0  9   5  6  0   0 61  0 .369 .459 .448 *5/49      Eddie Collins .904 .096 1925  38 CHW AL 118 533 425  80 147 26  3  3  80  87   0  8   4 17  0   0 19  6 .346 .461 .442   *4

I mean, it was only 86 years ago that Eddie Collins had a .904 OPS with an ISO under .100!

[TakebackOPACY]

The point is that Nick was not surrounded with good hitters. When Hardy became the leadoff hitter and got hot while Jones is hitting well behind Nick, then Nick started to hit.

That happened in 2008 with Roberts in front and Huff behind Nick and he put up an 897 OPS. He will not get that high this year because of the bad start but in the 2nd half we may see that potential again.

Nick batted .351 in the month of June, yet his OPS for the month was only .830.

[Sports Guy]

The point is that Nick was not surrounded with good hitters. When Hardy became the leadoff hitter and got hot while Jones is hitting well behind Nick, then Nick started to hit.

That happened in 2008 with Roberts in front and Huff behind Nick and he put up an 897 OPS. He will not get that high this year because of the bad start but in the 2nd half we may see that potential again.

I knew what your point was..and it was wrong in the context in which we are talking about.

As TBO said, even with the improved BA, his OPS was still not near 900. Why? Because he was largely a singles hitter.

[wildcard]

I knew what your point was..and it was wrong in the context in which we are talking about.

As TBO said, even with the improved BA, his OPS was still not near 900. Why? Because he was largely a singles hitter.

You are relying of a small sample again. You always do this.

You are comparing 3 months of being a singles hitter to the four years of being a doubles hitter. In a thread focus on the future of whether the team should "Blow it up" a long view is required. Nick's history says he will get his extra base hits. And though in an average year be may not reach a 900 OPS, he has the potential to do just that.

[El Gordo]

You are relying of a small sample again. You always do this.

You are comparing 3 months of being a singles hitter to the four years of being a doubles hitter. In a thread focus on the future of whether the team should "Blow it up" a long view is required. Nick's history says he will get his extra base hits. And though in an average year be may not reach a 900 OPS, he has the potential to do just that.

A Yankee fan I know was saying recently how much he liked Markakis. When I brought up his growing salary he said "pffft". It's the Yankees Markakis is a cheap salary to them. He said he'd be interested in moving one of Nova or Noesi and one of their MiL SP prospects...........:scratchchinhmm: Not a bad haul for an overpriced singles hitter.

[Greg Pappas]

You are relying of a small sample again. You always do this.

You are comparing 3 months of being a singles hitter to the four years of being a doubles hitter. In a thread focus on the future of whether the team should "Blow it up" a long view is required. Nick's history says he will get his extra base hits. And though in an average year be may not reach a 900 OPS, he has the potential to do just that.

I like Markakis, a lot... but including his excellent doubles run the past two years, his OPS has only been 800/ 806, and stands at 696 now. You could be right though, if everything aligns just right, he could once again approach the 897 he put up in 2008. It's just not as likely as sticking around 800-830.

[Fan4Life]

I think we need to concentrate on having 5 excellent starting pitchers and fill in around them. I don't currently see Matusz as a member of that group but you can have him as your 6th guy and if all works out, so much the better. So at this point we need to trade Jones and Nick if necessary and acquire a ToRS and a solid #2. We have the Bundy's and Drake but still too far away. We can replace Nick and Adam with Kemp and Eithier the following year when they become FA's. Ha.

[wildcard]

I think we need to concentrate on having 5 excellent starting pitchers and fill in around them. I don't currently see Matusz as a member of that group but you can have him as your 6th guy and if all works out, so much the better. So at this point we need to trade Jones and Nick if necessary and acquire a ToRS and a solid #2. We have the Bundy's and Drake but still too far away. We can replace Nick and Adam with Kemp and Eithier the following year when they become FA's. Ha.

JMO but I think you are giving up on Matusz way too easily. Nick and Jones are going nowhere IMO.

[Fan4Life]

Nick and Jones are going nowhere IMO.

And neither is this team. I'm not happy to trade either of those guys, but until we get 5 starters that includes a ToRS and a true #2 to go with Arrietta and Britton, we're just spinning our wheels. The fact that you haven't given up on Matusz doesn't bother me, but if you include him at this time as one of the 5 we need on a team that will compete, then your repeating the same methodology that hasn't gotten us no where. We can't enter a season with hope that player X or Player Y can produce. We need to have players that when then don't produce, that's the aberration.

[Art Wing]

I think it's clearly time for a controlled blow-up. At the pace AM moves, he should have started already. I'm more that willing to up the 13 years without a winning season to 15 years to have a REAL chance to win again. Hell, the law of averages would suggest that if we siphon up another big crop of youngsters more of them should pan out this time. Or are we forever cursed?