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

[weams]

According DD, we have enough financial flexibility to retain both Cruz and Markakis.

I'll pass. Markakis is big time favourite for all of us, but he's not better player than Aoki ( http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/interesting-free-agent-comparison-1/ ). Spend that money on Melky Cabrera, Nori Aoki and Adam Laroche.

Opening day:

LF Cabrera S

3B Machado R

CF Jones R

DH Laroche L

1B Pearce R

C Wieters S

SS Hardy R

2B Schoop R

RF Aoki L

I hate LaRoche and Cabrera. Aoki only by association.

[clapdiddy]

I hate LaRoche and Cabrera. Aoki only by association.

LaRoche is "meh".

Cabrera is oft-injured.

I like Aoki. As stated before, I prefer Pearce/Lough.

[atomic]

Sorry what Nick does is nothing special.

He is above average hitter and fielder who plays every day in right field and has the highest OBP on the team while leading the outfield in assists.. And if you could do that you would be paid tens of millions of dollars. So I would consider him special.

What gets me is so many people on here are highly criticial of Markakis and were the same people who couldn't stop going on and on about how good Mark Reynolds was when he was on the team. A guy who couldn't field to save his life. Would swing at balls in the dirt and take pitches right down the middle and was more likely to strike out than anything productive.

[Can_of_corn]

He is above average hitter and fielder who plays every day in right field and has the highest OBP on the team while leading the outfield in assists.. And if you could do that you would be paid tens of millions of dollars. So I would consider him special.

What gets me is so many people on here are highly criticial of Markakis and were the same people who couldn't stop going on and on about how good Mark Reynolds was when he was on the team. A guy who couldn't field to save his life. Would swing at balls in the dirt and take pitches right down the middle and was more likely to strike out than anything productive.

If he is an above average hitter and fielder that plays everyday then why does WAR hate him so?

[Frobby]

By the way, I'm not quite sure what I expect Nick to do next year. In early to mid August it seemed like he was on his way to a really fine season, and then he went into a really prolonged slump. At the end of the day it's the full season numbers that count, but I still think Nick is more likely to be .750+ than under .700.

I'm not sure why you feel this way, other than your admitted Nick bias.

Do I need another reason?

Just call it a biased gut feeling.

[weams]

Do I need another reason?

Just call it a biased gut feeling.

Now that his children are a bit older, maybe he plays better. You know how I feel about babies and baseball.

[CA-ORIOLE]

He is above average hitter and fielder who plays every day in right field and has the highest OBP on the team while leading the outfield in assists.. And if you could do that you would be paid tens of millions of dollars. So I would consider him special.

What gets me is so many people on here are highly criticial of Markakis and were the same people who couldn't stop going on and on about how good Mark Reynolds was when he was on the team. A guy who couldn't field to save his life. Would swing at balls in the dirt and take pitches right down the middle and was more likely to strike out than anything productive.

You don't know what you are looking at then. Reynolds had many flaws as a ball player but the highlighted ones were/are simply off base if not completely untrue.

Your Markakis analysis is pretty weak as well. The numbers speak for themselves and i would venture to say that most knowledgeable fans can recognize his flaws in addition to his strengths. I highly doubt the defensive metrics have anything personal against Nick Markakis. He is a mediocre defender.

[Can_of_corn]

You don't know what you are looking at then. Reynolds had many flaws as a ball player but the highlighted ones were/are simply off base if not completely untrue.

Your Markakis analysis is pretty weak as well. The numbers speak for themselves and i would venture to say that most knowledgeable fans can recognize his flaws in addition to his strengths. I highly doubt the defensive metrics have anything personal against Nick Markakis. He is a mediocre defender.

Mark sure can swing through a middle middle fastball with the best of them.

[weams]

Mark sure can swing through a middle middle fastball with the best of them.

But if he catches it, oh my. The thing with Nick is, when he catches that. It's pretty much warning track right now.

[Frobby]

You don't know what you are looking at then. Reynolds had many flaws as a ball player but the highlighted ones were/are simply off base if not completely untrue.

Your Markakis analysis is pretty weak as well. The numbers speak for themselves and i would venture to say that most knowledgeable fans can recognize his flaws in addition to his strengths. I highly doubt the defensive metrics have anything personal against Nick Markakis. He is a mediocre defender.

Is he, though? He has won two Gold Gloves. He came in 9th in the Fielding Bible awards, which pegs him as above average. He hasn't made an error in three of the last four seasons. He has a good arm. Basically, we can all acknowledge he's slower than the average RF, but that's really his only shortcoming, so it comes down to how many balls you think he didn't reach that another RF would have caught.

According to Inside Edge, Nick caught every routine ball hit his way, 85% of the balls rated as having a 60-90% chance, 75% of balls rated at 40-60%, 58% of balls rated at 10-40%, and 7% of balls rated at 1-10%. That sure sounds above average to me.

[Aristotelian]

He is above average hitter and fielder who plays every day in right field and has the highest OBP on the team while leading the outfield in assists..

Correction: Steve Pearce led us in OBP last year. Beat Markakis by 30 points. Davis beat Nick in 2013. Nick has not led the O's in OBP since 2012.

[MurphDogg]

Correction: Steve Pearce led us in OBP last year. Beat Markakis by 30 points. Davis beat Nick in 2013. Nick has not led the O's in OBP since 2012.

Steve Pearce only had 383 plate appearances. By the standards accepted across baseball, Nick Markakis led the 2014 Orioles in OBP.

[CA-ORIOLE]

Is he, though? He has won two Gold Gloves. He came in 9th in the Fielding Bible awards, which pegs him as above average. He hasn't made an error in three of the last four seasons. He has a good arm. Basically, we can all acknowledge he's slower than the average RF, but that's really his only shortcoming, so it comes down to how many balls you think he didn't reach that another RF would have caught.

According to Inside Edge, Nick caught every routine ball hit his way, 85% of the balls rated as having a 60-90% chance, 75% of balls rated at 40-60%, 58% of balls rated at 10-40%, and 7% of balls rated at 1-10%. That sure sounds above average to me.

I don't care about the GG by default/playing time and we've already covered weaknesses in Inside Edge's numbers/analysis/methodology in the past which doesn't even provide a rating as I recall.

The best metrics available (UZR/DRS/TZ) all say he is mediocre. He has strengths (sure handedness/arm) and weaknesses (range). Subjectively, he fits the numbers very well imo and those numbers say mediocre.

If it looks, walks and quacks, there's a good chance it's a duck.

[Can_of_corn]

He did look better in 2014. Hard to say if he can sustain it. Jeter looked better for a year or two after putting in a lot of offseason work.

[Dipper9]

I don't care about the GG by default/playing time and we've already covered weaknesses in Inside Edge's numbers/analysis/methodology in the past which doesn't even provide a rating as I recall.

The best metrics available (UZR/DRS/TZ) all say he is mediocre. He has strengths (sure handedness/arm) and weaknesses (range). Subjectively, he fits the numbers very well imo and those numbers say mediocre.

If it looks, walks and quacks, there's a good chance it's a duck.

As I said in another thread....I believe Nick is a good right fielder, but I cannot prove this with statistics.

All I know is watching the games every single day, I don't see many balls where I go "Man, a better right fielder had that." There are some, sure, but not often.