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Nick Markakis - 15.8 IFFB%


CaptainRedbeard

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Yup. He can't get around on mediocre fastballs. He needs to sit. Hopefully a few days rest will do him wonders. In the meantime, he's killing the team.

I doubt a few days of rest helps. Hopefully in the offseason somethign will come to light.

And no one player can kill a team. Obviously he's not helping, but just last year the O's made the playoffs with a zero-hitting rule 5er and a sub-.600 OPS Robert Andino sharing second base.

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I'm pretty sure it's balls in play.

No, it's the percentage of fly balls hit that are infield flies. Let's not make this problem seem worse than it actually is. Nick has hit 153 fly balls, and 25 of them have been infield flies. That's 16.3% of all the fly balls he has hit (up from 15.8% cited in the thread title based on stats before yesterday), but 5.1% of all the balls he has put in play.

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No, it's the percentage of fly balls hit that are infield flies. Let's not make this problem seem worse than it actually is. Nick has hit 153 fly balls, and 25 of them have been infield flies. That's 16.3% of all the fly balls he has hit (up from 15.8% cited in the thread title based on stats before yesterday), but 5.1% of all the balls he has put in play.

Ahh, that makes more sense. I was thinking 1 in 7 BIP was a bit excessive.

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I doubt a few days of rest helps. Hopefully in the offseason somethign will come to light.

And no one player can kill a team. Obviously he's not helping, but just last year the O's made the playoffs with a zero-hitting rule 5er and a sub-.600 OPS Robert Andino sharing second base.

I also don't think a couple days or a week will make a real difference. Buck needs to remember that this team went on a run last September while Markakis was on the bench with his hand in a cast. He is not an essential everyday player when he has been underperforming this long.
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Nick markakis, as he has been playing since June 1st, is not a corner outfielder on a playoff team. He's just not. We can't make the playoffs and go on a consistent run with a guy putting up nothing at the plate the way nick has.

He was batting second or third on a dynamo offensive team for most of the year.

Now you can't even justify batting him anywhere other than ninth (and you really can't even justify that). His numbers really are that bad and it's no longer a SSS, he's been awful for months.

If buck doesn't sit him against lefties and "bad matchup" righties it could very well cost us a playoff birth. Tony Larussa would pull the plug on nick at this point. Hell Farrell pulled the plug on middlebrooks one of the sox top prospects mid way through the season.

I know nick is a vet and it might not be a hugely popular "clubhouse move" and maybe that's what buck is worried about, but come on, at some point you can't keep looking the other way and pretending its not happening because that will REALLY lose the clubhouse.

It's already cost us multiple games when he did it with Johnson early this year before giving him some time off.

Nick needs at least a week, maybe longer, to clear his head and maybe get some strength back, but running him out there to put up the numbers he is putting up and batting him anywhere but ninth is just a HUGE mistake at this point and we can't keep ignoring it because of our sentimental feelings about nick.

I can't really fault Buck for not having benched Nick up until now. A veteran player with a long track record of consistency over 162 games is going to get a lot of rope. Let's break it down a little:

1. As of May 31, Nick was hitting .307/.359/.452. Classic Nick numbers through 55 games.

2. In June, Nick hit .229/.268/.305. Granted, a miserable month, but it takes more than a bad month to bench a guy with Nick's track record.

3. In July, Nick hit .305/.374/.326. The BA and OBP were there, but the power wasn't. I'd submit that you aren't going to bench a guy who is posting a .305 BA and .374 OBP and so is getting on base regularly.

4. In August, Nick went back into full slump mode. Buck's first response was to drop him in the batting order -- for the first time on August 10, then regularly beginning on August 16.

You could debate exactly when it became reasonable to consider sitting Nick down, but I'd say mid-August is about the earliest I would have entertained any thought of it. And frankly, I don't really have a problem with the fact that Buck still hasn't done it to this point. But unfortunately, I think the time has now come. Here's the last four games:

8/31: Nick comes up with runners on 1st and 2nd, nobody out and hits into DP.

9/1: Nick comes up with runners on 1st and 2nd, nobody out and pops up.

9/2: Nick comes up with bases loaded, nobody out and pops us.

9/3: Nick comes up with runners on 1st and 3rd, one out and pops up.

Obviously you don't judge a guy based on four at bats, but these just illustrate that Nick hasn't been himself. Nick has always been very good at situational hitting, and right now he jus doesn't look like himself. Buck needs to try something else.

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I can't really fault Buck for not having benched Nick up until now. A veteran player with a long track record of consistency over 162 games is going to get a lot of rope. Let's break it down a little:

1. As of May 31, Nick was hitting .307/.359/.452. Classic Nick numbers through 55 games.

2. In June, Nick hit .229/.268/.305. Granted, a miserable month, but it takes more than a bad month to bench a guy with Nick's track record.

3. In July, Nick hit .305/.374/.326. The BA and OBP were there, but the power wasn't. I'd submit that you aren't going to bench a guy who is posting a .305 BA and .374 OBP and so is getting on base regularly.

4. In August, Nick went back into full slump mode. Buck's first response was to drop him in the batting order -- for the first time on August 10, then regularly beginning on August 16.

You could debate exactly when it became reasonable to consider sitting Nick down, but I'd say mid-August is about the earliest I would have entertained any thought of it. And frankly, I don't really have a problem with the fact that Buck still hasn't done it to this point. But unfortunately, I think the time has now come. Here's the last four games:

8/31: Nick comes up with runners on 1st and 2nd, nobody out and hits into DP.

9/1: Nick comes up with runners on 1st and 2nd, nobody out and pops up.

9/2: Nick comes up with bases loaded, nobody out and pops us.

9/3: Nick comes up with runners on 1st and 3rd, one out and pops up.

Obviously you don't judge a guy based on four at bats, but these just illustrate that Nick hasn't been himself. Nick has always been very good at situational hitting, and right now he jus doesn't look like himself. Buck needs to try something else.

Great post. It seems that Buck has been willing to adjust with Markakis by moving him down, now maybe the next step is to give Morse his ABs vs Left-handed starters? Buck is certainly a player's manager, but I'm not sure he will "lose the lockroom" by removing a badly slumping player with a better option. Winning solves a lot of things and if Morse has a good game or two while in RF, I could see him giving him more and more playing time there.

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Does anyone remember that Markakis almost made the All Star team? WOW.

Markakis should not face another LHP starter the rest of the year. It should be McLouth/Pierce in left and Morse in right. Valencia/Pierce at DH. It is maddening that McLouth is benched vs. lefties over Markakis.

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The last time Nick had a month lower than .229 was April 2011 when he hit .204. Sure, he hit .305 this July, but with 0 HR, and 2 RBI, and a league average OPS+ of 102. In July, Nick had 7 multi-hit games, 12 1 hit games, and 6 no hit games. Now, take a look at the gamelog for that month. Nick was very productive from July 2-7, and that is what carried him, or should I say artificially inflated his numbers. From July 8 - end of the month, Nick was at .260/.341/.274. In other words, for the last 19 games of the month, his OPS was .615.

In August his OPS+ slipped to 56. Continue from July 8 through the end of August and you get .237/.308/.271, OPS of .579. Post AS break, Nick has an OPS+ of 69, and OPS of .592. Shuffle the numbers around anyway you want, with the exception of a very good first week in July, Nick has been on a slump for over 3 months, with the power numbers that would only make a reserve infielder envious. In short, the theory that Nick shouldn't have been benched until the last few weeks doesn't quite hold water.

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He broke his hamate bone in May last year and hit well when he returned in July/August. He had 8 homers at the end of May this year and was on pace for 40 doubles. If Nick's poor performance is due to injury, it's something that happened after May of this year, not before.

Everyone knows Nick is my favorite player, but he's worthless at the plate right now. I feel like he's failed the last 10 or so times he's been up with a runner on third and less than two out, and he's usually someone you can count on to hit the ball hard somewhere even if he doesn't get a hit in that situation. He really looks clueless up there right now. He needs to sit.

:agree: If ever there was a Oriole that needed to see some pine it's Nick the guy brings nothing to the plate right now.

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He broke his hamate bone in May last year and hit well when he returned in July/August. He had 8 homers at the end of May this year and was on pace for 40 doubles. If Nick's poor performance is due to injury, it's something that happened after May of this year, not before.

Everyone knows Nick is my favorite player, but he's worthless at the plate right now. I feel like he's failed the last 10 or so times he's been up with a runner on third and less than two out, and he's usually someone you can count on to hit the ball hard somewhere even if he doesn't get a hit in that situation. He really looks clueless up there right now. He needs to sit.

Maybe that would help him.

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