Markakis speaks out

[Guest rochester]

I have always been a fan of Nick - he is now my favorite O. Frankly, I really do not care who this hurts...it's deserved.

[HititHere04]

I was at last Saturday's game against the Mets and got there early to watch BP. Wieters was not playing that night so he was hitting in the last group and I got to see him and he just looked frustrated even during BP. After two rounds he came out of the cage and and threw down his bat in disgust. He maybe hit one ball out and hardly any line drives, just alot of lazy flyballs. Hopefully he can start to get it going soon because he sure looked like he had no confidence at all and the double play he hit into to end that game sure didn't help either.

I was there the same time as well.

He wasn't killing the ball, but one of his last hits cleared the Eutaw Street fence in the air by a good margin.

He's got the power. He'll be fine.

[Sports Guy]

It's a team game," said Markakis who leads the Orioles with a .300 average, 21 doubles and a .394 on-base percentage, but has drawn some criticism for tallying only three homers and 21 RBIs in 65 games. "You can't just rely on one or two guys to carry a team. I don't care if you stick Albert Pujols in this lineup. We still have a lot of holes and unfortunately, we have had a lot of injuries. But one guy, one big bat is not going to make that much of a difference. You can stick a guy hitting 50 homers in this lineup right now and he really is not going to do anything until we all get on the same page. We all need to have better approaches at the plate

You see that Trea?

Markakis again said that the team's offensive issues shouldn't be blamed on long-time hitting coach Terry Crowley, who is known for advocating an aggressive approach at the plate

Well there it is...So many people have said this and many people have said people are crazy for saying it..that we have nothing to back it up.

Well, here it is.

I appreciate that Nick isn' trying to throw Crow under the bus but he is essentially saying that the team is too aggressive which seems to point at Crow.

And isn't the fact that they are going up there with no plan also a reflection on Crow and the advanced scouting?

But privately, teammates and friends have noticed the frustration building within the even-keeled Markakis, emanating from a variety of factors, including the Orioles' dismal win-loss record, hisgetting very few pitches to hit and the lack of opportunities that he's had with runners in scoring position.

Just pointing this out for S and G.

[eddie83]

You see that Trea?

Well there it is...So many people have said this and many people have said people are crazy for saying it..that we have nothing to back it up.

Well, here it is.

I appreciate that Nick isn' trying to throw Crow under the bus but he is essentially saying that the team is too aggressive which seems to point at Crow.

And isn't the fact that they are going up there with no plan also a reflection on Crow and the advanced scouting?

Just pointing this out for S and G.

I think it is selfish players, not Crowley.

[Sports Guy]

I think it is selfish plaers, not Crowley.

It is mostly the players, no doubt.

But I don't think Crow is helping...We are working on 10+ years with him here and we have seen the same poor approaches the whole time.

[SilentJames]

It is mostly the players, no doubt.

But I don't think Crow is helping...We are working on 10+ years with him here and we have seen the same poor approaches the whole time.

Being aggressive is fine, but being stupidly aggressive is well stupid.

Wiggy has been pissing me off recently, I swear if he swings at the first pitch one more time... Jones had that problem in April, both of them are/ were trying too hard; trying to hit a five run homer every at bat. Jones figured it out a bit over the last month.

Wieters just looks totally lost.

[PBR Street Gang]

How many of those dope swing at the first pitch and it's outside the strike zone for goodness sake? Tejada is notorious for that kind of stupidity. Wiggy moreso lately. If a pitcher gets ahead in the count on Jones they could roll it up there and he'd swing at it.

[tvz1997]

It is mostly the players, no doubt.

But I don't think Crow is helping...We are working on 10+ years with him here and we have seen the same poor approaches the whole time.

I think Crow suffers from the same thing Trembley did - being an old-school baseball guy who expects major league ballplayers to have a pretty good idea how to play the game and some intitiative towards self-improvement.

I think many of us can sympathize with those having a hard time speaking in a productive and professional manner to those who are neither productive or professional. Don't get me wrong, Crow needs to learn how to get across to at least the better half of our players and he has not.

I would have loved to have seen when DT and Crowley could have done with a real major league baseball team, but both are poor fits for the team that we now have.

[Stotle]

#1 means everybody on the planet was wrong. #2 is more likely than that. I figure he's got some swing issue *and* not-hitting has gotten into his head. He's feeling frustrated about it and feeling iffy about himself.

Yes. I would think that is most likely the case.

[tywright]

Markakis: "You can have anybody come here and you still are going to have a couple of guys who are not going to change their approach and fix it. It’s worthless. You can point your fingers here and there, but it is what it is. You’re in the big leagues. You have to change your approach on your own. If you go up there clueless, you’re going to come back [to the dugout] clueless. It’s that simple."

Let the speculation begin on who he is talking about.

My guess..... Matt Wieters is one of those guys...

First person I thought of was Adam Jones and his .284 OBP and his 8 walks.

Some other glaring candidates:

Izturis .277 OBP, 11 walks

Atkins .282 OBP, 12 walks

We only have 10 sac flys and 12 sac bunts. We're tied for last in sac flys and 2nd to last in sac bunts. We're 3rd worst in GIDP. We're 3rd worst in BB%. Our ISO is 3rd worst.

This team just sucks offensively. And Markakis is right to talk...he's basically the only player with a clue (although he didn't drive CP in from 3rd in the 8th yesterday - all he needed was to put the ball in the OF). Except he was wrong about Crowley...the hitting coach should still be guiding these guys on how to gameplan at the plate.

[SilentJames]

First person I thought of was Adam Jones and his .284 OBP and his 8 walks.

Some other glaring candidates:

Izturis .277 OBP, 11 walks

Atkins .282 OBP, 12 walks

We only have 10 sac flys and 12 sac bunts. We're tied for last in sac flys and 2nd to last in sac bunts. We're 3rd worst in GIDP. We're 3rd worst in BB%. Our ISO is 3rd worst.

This team just sucks offensively. And Markakis is right to talk...he's basically the only player with a clue (although he didn't drive CP in from 3rd in the 8th yesterday - all he needed was to put the ball in the OF). Except he was wrong about Crowley...the hitting coach should still be guiding these guys on how to gameplan at the plate.

Jones has been playing a lot better over the last month or so, I think he gets it.

Wieters has been just completely lost since the end of April.

[doctorbj]

To take things a little bit differently, I wonder whether Markakis is trying to light a fire under MacPhail as well.

-to make some moves:

send players down

make trades

-or could Nick be asking to be out of this situation?

BJ

[RShack]

Well there it is...So many people have said this and many people have said people are crazy for saying it..that we have nothing to back it up.

Well, here it is.

No it isn't. You're twisting that into something it's not. That part is not a quote from Nick, nor did the writer attribute it to him. That's the sportswriter making a parenthetical comment. There's nothing there saying Nick said what Crow does and doesn't teach. All the writer said about Nick is that he said it's not Crow's fault.

[Jammer7]

I think he's talking about Luke Scott (just tries to hit homeruns), Cory Patterson (no clue), Adam Jones (just tries to hit homeruns), Garrett Atkins (no clue), Julio Lugo (no clue), and Lou Montanez (no clue).

I doubt Matt Wieters has no clue, he is just going through the growing pains. He wouldn't be a catcher if he had no clue on his approach, would he?

This is just a bad team, which until now had no leaders step up. Way to go Nick....where have you been?

[stef]

No it isn't. You're twisting that into something it's not. That part is not a quote from Nick, nor did the write attribute it to him. That's the sportswriter making a parenthetical comment. There's nothing there saying Nick said what Crow does and doesn't teach. All the writer said about Nick is that he said it's not Crow's fault.

'Gotta agree.

Crowley may advocate an (overly) aggressive approach but Markakis didn't say it in this article.