Will Markakis sign with the O's before the FA signing begin? (Option Declined)

[Redskins Rick]

Which player was more valuable in 2014: Delmon Young or Steve Pearce?

Pearce and yes, he was DFA in the early season.

Pearce was cold in the post season.

Nobody, and I do mean, NOBODY predicted that Pearce resigned with the team, would be Crush Jr.

[Babypowder]

Pearce and yes, he was DFA in the early season.

Pearce was cold in the post season.

Nobody, and I do mean, NOBODY predicted that Pearce resigned with the team, would be Crush Jr.

And if Buck had his way, and Davis doesn't get hurt at the most opportune time ever, Pearce is out of the organization and we miss out on his 5 WAR season. I love Buck too, but pretending he is always right is silly.

[Redskins Rick]

And if Buck had his way, and Davis doesn't get hurt at the most opportune time ever, Pearce is out of the organization and we miss out on his 5 WAR season. I love Buck too, but pretending he is always right is silly.

You are being silly and you know it.

NOBODY knew Pearce would turn it on and be a 5 WAR season.

He was a part time player for the past how many seasons and how many teams?

Buck himself said that was one of the biggest surprises in his entire baseball career, when Pearce came back and did what he did.

[Babypowder]

You are being silly and you know it.

NOBODY knew Pearce would turn it on and be a 5 WAR season.

He was a part time player for the past how many seasons and how many teams?

Buck himself said that was one of the biggest surprises in his entire baseball career, when Pearce came back and did what he did.

He was still a better option than Young from day 1.

[mdbdotcom]

81 runs scored in 710 plate appearances is not a high number for a leadoff hitter. However, I don't know how much of that is because of Nick and how much is because the hitters behind him did not knock him in.

Yeah, it's not like he had Adam Jones and Nelson Cruz coming up after him.

[DrungoHazewood]

2) Whether he is re-signed or not, someone else needs to lead off. His OBP is fine, but once he's on it takes two hits to knock him in.

Put someone like De Aza in the role and it'll take even more to knock someone in, since he gets on base less often. I'd rather have someone like Matt Wieters leading off with a .350 OBP than a fast player with a .310.

[Redskins Rick]

He was still a better option than Young from day 1.

There wasnt that many tears shed in OH, when Pearce was DFA.

Not because Pearce is a bad guy, he was well liked in OH.

But DD was manipulating the roster, and he was the causality, and everybody understood it.

[backwardsk]

Put someone like De Aza in the role and it'll take even more to knock someone in, since he gets on base less often. I'd rather have someone like Matt Wieters leading off with a .350 OBP than a fast player with a .310.

That's debatable. If you are using De Aza properly in a platoon, he gets on at a .340 clip. (2014 numbers). Markakis got on at .342 clip. When the delta is that small, I'll take the guy who can take the extra base.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mdbdotcom]

Put someone like De Aza in the role and it'll take even more to knock someone in, since he gets on base less often. I'd rather have someone like Matt Wieters leading off with a .350 OBP than a fast player with a .310.

I didn't mean to suggest we should have someone with a low OBP leading off. A better option would be acquiring someone with both speed and a high OBP.

Ken Singleton did fine leading off his first season with the O's in spite of his lack of speed. But, he also had an OBP of .415 that season.

[DrungoHazewood]

That's debatable. If you are using De Aza properly in a platoon, he gets on at a .340 clip. (2014 numbers). Markakis got on at .342 clip. When the delta is that small, I'll take the guy who can take the extra base.

Sure, if they can limit De Aza to just playing against righties. Then they'd have to identify a leadoff hitter against lefties.

I didn't mean to suggest we should have someone with a low OBP leading off. A better option would be acquiring someone with both speed and a high OBP.

Agreed, but those are few and far between. In 2014 there were 24 players who had a .340 OBP, 10 steals, and played at least half of his team's games. Less than one per team. And you're not getting most of them because they have names like Trout, Stanton, Cano, Puig, Altuve...

[mdbdotcom]

Sure, if they can limit De Aza to just playing against righties. Then they'd have to identify a leadoff hitter against lefties.

If Nick plays RF and De Aza/Pearce share LF, De Aza could leadoff against RHP and Nick could leadoff agains LHP. That would improve production from the leadoff spot most of the time.

[weams]

There wasnt that many tears shed in OH, when Pearce was DFA.

Not because Pearce is a bad guy, he was well liked in OH.

But DD was manipulating the roster, and he was the causality, and everybody understood it.

I think he had had 9 at bats or something at that point. He was not going to play. Then Chris and Manny changed that all.

[wildcard]

Yeah, it's not like he had Adam Jones and Nelson Cruz coming up after him.

Good point.

[wildcard]

Sure wish I was better with numbers but here it goes.

Over his career, Markakis averages 708 plate appearances over 162 games and scores about 89 runs. .358 OBP

Over his career De Aza averages 623 plate appearances and scores about 79 runs per 162 games. 330 OBP

This suggests to me that Markakis has either played on better offensive teams or just hit at the top of the order more, since he gets up about 85 times more over 162 games. In those 82 AB's he scores 10 more runs. However, he gets on base a lot more. If De Aza got up those 82 more times, he'd probably be pretty close to 89 runs scored.

Now, I would think the numbers might be even more interesting over the last 3 years as Markakis has slowed down further and as his power has diminished to mostly singles.

What am I getting at? That Markakis is not a good top of the order hitter even though he's amongst the best on the team at getting on base and that De Aza, even with a 20 or 30 point disadvantage in OBP, probably scores just as many runs as Markakis would. Markakis doesn't go 1st to 3rd or 2nd to home on singles too much of the time. Heck, we just saw it in the KC series. One out, runners on 1st and 2nd and Cruz hits a hard, but not scorching, groundball through the left side hole. Gordon has to play deep against Cruz but does charge the ball well. Marakkis has no chance to score and his held. We don't score the tie braking run.

I agree with your statement about Nick and De Aza but Gordon has a strong arm and gets a lot respect around the league. Not many runners take chances against him.

[Dipper9]

IMO, most runners either score or at least are in a position to take the chance. Markakis had no chance and Dickerson wisely held him.

J.J. Hardy is slow but I bet Markakis doesn't score on the Delmon Young double in the Tiger series.

I agree. There is a difference between being slow and being a good baserunner. Cal was slower than dirt, but he was a good baserunner because he got good jumps, took the bases at the right angles, etc. JJ is the same way. Nick is slow and also not a good base runner, for whatever reason.