Nick Markakis is a ridiculous number three hitter

[olehippi]

Markakis has been hitting #2 or #3 since day one. And until the 2011 season, had shown incredible consistantcy is all aspects of his game. So what happened in 2011 to change things?

The answer is Brian Roberts batting lead off. Is it possible that the absence of Roberts made a difference in how Nick was pitched to, and maybe how he saw his role? That would have held true in 2012 until Nick's injury. Maybe the hand injury and surgery has sapped his ability to hit for any power, but the doubles should still be their and they aren't.

I love McLouth in the leadoff role, but out of curiosity I would like to see what would happen if Roberts hit leadoff against RH pitching with Markakis hitting second instead of Manny.

[Can_of_corn]

Markakis has been hitting #2 or #3 since day one. And until the 2011 season, had shown incredible consistantcy is all aspects of his game. So what happened in 2011 to change things?

The answer is Brian Roberts batting lead off. Is it possible that the absence of Roberts made a difference in how Nick was pitched to, and maybe how he saw his role? That would have held true in 2012 until Nick's injury. Maybe the hand injury and surgery has sapped his ability to hit for any power, but the doubles should still be their and they aren't.

I love McLouth in the leadoff role, but out of curiosity I would like to see what would happen if Roberts hit leadoff against RH pitching with Markakis hitting second instead of Manny.

2013 McLouth is closer to 2010 Roberts then 2013 Roberts is. Roberts has one stolen base on the year and he has a .284 OBP.

[McLovin]

I think I've read studies that players who have had the hamate bone removed lose a lot of their power. I'm going to look tomorrow when I can actually keep my eyes open.

Nice point. He had the broken hand too. There may be residual affects.

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[MurphDogg]

I think I've read studies that players who have had the hamate bone removed lose a lot of their power. I'm going to look tomorrow when I can actually keep my eyes open.

According to this, broken hamate bones are notorious for sapping power for up to a year.

Nick had the surgery June 1st. When he returned last year, he played exactly 1/3rd of a season, 54 games with 5 homers and a .489 slugging percentage, higher than his career average. I don't think you can blame his power outage on the hamate bone injury.

[murph]

How about the back issue from this spring (something with a disc, right?), could that still be bothering him, zapping his power?

[DrungoHazewood]

I hate to go all SG on this, but earlier in the year Nick was more upright and he was killing it. Now he's hunched again and popping a lot of stuff up. Dude just refuses to stick with something when it works, I really don't get it.

Because pitchers have the ability to adjust to what you're doing. So if standing upright was working, every pitcher in the league worked to figure out the weaknesses in that approach and probably made Markakis adjust. I always told SG it was naive to think a player's best chance at success was being rigid and unyielding.

[waroriole]

Maybe Frobby could offer Nick some more advice on his stance.

[Redskins Rick]

How about the back issue from this spring (something with a disc, right?), could that still be bothering him, zapping his power?

His running and diving catch and bouncing right up, gave no indication of a bad back.

Trust me, when your back is acting up, you dont bounce right up after landing hard like that.

[Redskins Rick]

Yeah, I guess that's true. Just seems like his current stance is not generating power, but I'm certainly no expert. And guys generate power from all manner of odd stances.

Cal used to drive me nuts, always changing his stance and mechanics.

[waroriole]

Cal used to drive me nuts, always changing his stance and mechanics.

Once the swing started, Cal always ended up in the same place.

[olehippi]

2013 McLouth is closer to 2010 Roberts then 2013 Roberts is. Roberts has one stolen base on the year and he has a .284 OBP.

The point I was trying to make was that Markakis has statistically been a much better hitter when batting behind Roberts in the #2 slot when a RH pitcher was on the mound. And until Roberts was hurt, his stats in the #3 slot against LH pitching were better.

One change that Showalter made that obviously worked was batting Nick in the lead-off slot against LH pitching. But, he seems to have abandoned that since Roberts returned. Also, Showalter obviously doesn't like having two LH hitters back-to-back in the lineup.

[Can_of_corn]

Except that 95% or more players stick with virtually the same stance, not just yearly, but there entire careers. We just happen to be lucky enough () to have two of the biggest stance tinkerers of all time (Ripken and Markakis) come through Baltimore.

Three

Dempsey.

[MachadOboutManny]

Markakis with his millionth weak grounder to the right side, and Davis with the solo shot.

Make the simple change, Buck. Nick is a disaster at three.

:scratchchinhmm:

[MachadOboutManny]

embarrassing

[MachadOboutManny]

CD delivers on Friday Night

Evidently

:2yay-thumb: