Orioles Discussing Four-Year Deal With Nick Markakis (Signs w/ATL)

[Dark Helmet]

Man, the thought of a De Aza-Jones-Lough OF is pretty disgusting. Markakis is easily replaced? So was Wieters, until we had to watch Hundley trot out there. We didnt need a 2b. Flaherty could hold it down. Until he lost his job to a sub .700 OPS Schoop. I like the idea of having a guy you can count on for 150 games. I dont like having to platoon 2/3 of the OF though. Just my opinion. Im not against letting Markakis walk, but there better be something bigger in the works then just throwing Lough out there.

[weams]

Man, the thought of a De Aza-Jones-Lough OF is pretty disgusting. Markakis is easily replaced? So was Wieters, until we had to watch Hundley trot out there. We didnt need a 2b. Flaherty could hold it down. Until he lost his job to a sub .700 OPS Schoop. I like the idea of having a guy you can count on for 150 games. I dont like having to platoon 2/3 of the OF though. Just my opinion. Im not against letting Markakis walk, but there better be something bigger in the works then just throwing Lough out there.

There is nothing bigger than Nick that we would be getting.

[Dark Helmet]

There is nothing bigger than Nick that we would be getting.

Just because there are talks of a 4 year deal doesn't mean a thing. Reports last year had the Orioles in talks with Cruz on a 4 year deal. I still think the Orioles and Nick come to terms with a 3/30 deal. Trust me, Nick wants to stay here. And he is the one guy who will not let money get in the way of that. My company does work for a former teammate (wont say who) said if Nick didnt stay in Baltimore, it wouldn't shock him if he just hung it up. His family being comfortable in Baltimore is very important to him.

[mdbdotcom]

Nick just needs to get a little faster, that's all.

[weams]

Just because there are talks of a 4 year deal doesn't mean a thing. Reports last year had the Orioles in talks with Cruz on a 4 year deal. I still think the Orioles and Nick come to terms with a 3/30 deal. Trust me, Nick wants to stay here. And he is the one guy who will not let money get in the way of that. My company does work for a former teammate (wont say who) said if Nick didnt stay in Baltimore, it wouldn't shock him if he just hung it up. His family being comfortable in Baltimore is very important to him.

I am convinced that whoever thinks Nick would retire if not an Oriole is very, very mistaken. Even if they were a former teammate.

[Dark Helmet]

I am convinced that whoever thinks Nick would retire if not an Oriole is very, very mistaken. Even if they were a former teammate.

It may have been tongue and cheek. I wasn't there.

[crawjo]

People have to realize that the free agent pickings for outfielders are pretty slim this year. If you let Markakis go, who replaces him? Whoever it is, it isn't going to be cheap, and the player you get back isn't going to be much better than Markakis, perhaps with the exception of Melky Cabrera.

[weams]

People have to realize that the free agent pickings for outfielders are pretty slim this year. If you let Markakis go, who replaces him? Whoever it is, it isn't going to be cheap, and the player you get back isn't going to be much better than Markakis, perhaps with the exception of Melky Cabrera.

I'm not convinced that Melky is actually better without the guy with the white shirt.

[Reboulet'sStache]

People have to realize that the free agent pickings for outfielders are pretty slim this year. If you let Markakis go, who replaces him? Whoever it is, it isn't going to be cheap, and the player you get back isn't going to be much better than Markakis, perhaps with the exception of Melky Cabrera.

I don't really want a FA. I don't value what Markakis has produced the last few years enough to where I think we have to go sign somebody to replace that value. Give me Lough, Pearce, De Aza, and Jones, and the production would be basically the same for a lot less.

[Can_of_corn]

He also turns a ton of outs into singles/doubles because of his lack of range.

It isn't a ton. Poor range can only hurt you so much when you play half your games at OPACY. I have seen a study that shows range deficient corner outfielders don't hurt their teams a ton.

[weams]

I'm not convinced that Melky is actually better without the guy with the white shirt.

... a man dressed in white 25 yards to their right raising his hands every time there was an offspeed pitch. They examined his patterns and figured out he was trying to tip the batter off as to what pitch was coming, four sources from that bullpen revealed. While they couldn't figure out how the man was getting the information on the pitches, the correlation was too strong, which was backed up the next day when the players stood at home plate and on the mound to see how visible the man would have been to the batter. They found that without the batter even needing to move his head or change the direction of his eyesight, the man would clearly have been visible.

"It's premeditated," one of the AL players said, "as if the guy was a sniper trying to find the best position to make a shot."

When the bullpen noticed the man giving signs, they called into the dugout to warn the rest of the team. For the rest of the game, Chicago used multiple signs even with the bases empty and made their displeasure known to Jose Bautista the next inning.

"It's not too easy to hit home runs when you don't know what's coming!" the player yelled at Jose Bautista . The slugger, who hammered 54 home runs in 2010 after a previous career high of 16, confirmed the argument. "We know what you're doing," the anonymous player added. "If you do it again, I'm going to hit you in the head."

Bautista unsurprisingly denied any knowledge of stealing signs.

They deny it.

[Aristotelian]

I would be OK with four years if the price is right. Nick is basically a 1+ WAR player. I think he is young enough that he could sustain that for four years. If a win is worth $5 million, I think I would be OK with 4 years/$24m. Now if we are talking 4/$40m, I would say absolutely not.

[weams]

They deny it.

Toronto’s home run rate on contact at home last season was 5.4 percent, about 50 percent higher than on the road, yet their opponents hit fewer homers in Toronto than at a neutral ballpark.

From 2005-09, the Rogers Centre saw .002 more home runs for every ball put in play than average. In 2010, that number shot up to .011—but only for the Blue Jays.

In 2010, the Blue Jays had the highest isolated power (slugging percentage minus batting average) of any team since 1954—most of which came at home. (The 150 homers they hit in Toronto were three shy of the all-time home record set by the Rangers in 2005.)

Seven Blue Jays regulars had an OPS at least 50 points higher at home than on the road; six of them were more than 100 points higher; three were 200 points higher.

This season, the Blue Jays have hit 71 homers at home and 57 on the road, despite having fewer than half their plate appearances at the Rogers Centre. They also have wide home/road splits for batting average (.261/.249), slugging percentage (.444/.389) and OPS (.770/.701).

Of course we have no proof.

[weams]

I would be OK with four years if the price is right. Nick is basically a 1+ WAR player. I think he is young enough that he could sustain that for four years. If a win is worth $5 million, I think I would be OK with 4 years/$24m. Now if we are talking 4/$40m, I would say absolutely not.

I think it is ok to overpay Nick by 10 million over four years. I just hope he performs better than he has for the last four.

[Dark Helmet]

I don't really want a FA. I don't value what Markakis has produced the last few years enough to where I think we have to go sign somebody to replace that value. Give me Lough' date=' Pearce, De Aza, and Jones, and the production would be basically the same for a lot less.[/quote']

In your scenerio, is Cruz back to DH? If not, they better hope the SP continues to improve, and resign Miller in hopes of making it a 6 inning game ala the Royals.