Markakis speaks out

[24fps]

Exactly my thoughts, AJ is one of the few who has noticeably changed his approach after a poor start. People may still not be crazy about his approach, but he's working at it.

I agree, and AJ talked a lot about the need for continuous adjustments during his pre game interview the other day.

Wieters on the other hand looks like he's sleepwalking at the plate recently. I really, really hope all the losing isn't causing him to develop an attitude.

Hat's off to Nick for speaking up.

[soxhotcorner14]

What happened to all of those reports of Nick crushing balls over the fence left and right in Spring Training?

All kidding aside.. It's about time Nick stood up and said something. It's been way overdue.

[psk3170]

Markakis has absolutely no protection. To criticize him and his .820+ OPS is laughable. He is far and away our best hitter right now.

What he said plus he is the only guy that seems to play hard no matter how bad we suck. he never dogs it and most of our players do. If we had 9 guys like Nick we would be over .500

[Sports Guy]

BTW, its very obvious Nick is saying that the coaches aren't to blame.

He has a very good relationship with Crow it seems.

[JTrea81]

I agree...There are similarities between what Jones said the other day and Nick here...Although Nick was more harsh, which is a good thing IMO.

Jones admitted his approach was wrong and is now making an effort to fix it...That being said, he does go up their clueless a lot of time, so Nick could be talking about him.

But I do think this basically applies to the entire offense...the orioles aren't getting on base, aren't scoring, look terrible with RISP, etc...Everything he said was dead on and he also took responsibility for his issues as well.

BTW, has their been a players only team meeting called yet? These guys probably need to get in each other's face and tell it like it is.

They had one of those back in April I think. It didn't do them much good.

As for the players who won't listen to coaching - bench them, discipline them. Hold them accountable for their performance.

If they have no clue what they are doing up there, don't let them go up there.

Force them to change and if they don't - they don't play.

This team really needs sombody who is going to kick them in the ass and make players miserable if they dog it or want to do their own thing.

[H0smash]

They had one of those back in April I think. It didn't do them much good.

As for the players who won't listen to coaching - bench them, discipline them. Hold them accountable for their performance.

If they have no clue what they are doing up there, don't let them go up there.

Honestly, this needs to be done.

[Redgrape]

Honestly, I interpreted the "going about their business" quote differently. I think what Nick meant is that people are not taking a look at themselves and correcting their approach, trying to learn from their mistakes. It is kind of like not working hard enough but also entails their learning approach.

[ChaosLex]

Quote of the day...

Eh, if you wanna make an omelette, you've gotta break some eggs.

[soxhotcorner14]

They had one of those back in April I think. It didn't do them much good.

As for the players who won't listen to coaching - bench them, discipline them. Hold them accountable for their performance.

If they have no clue what they are doing up there, don't let them go up there.

The problem is you can't bench all the position players :laughlol:

[waroriole]

No I don't, because he had to make the same adjustments his first two years.

I think he's saying that these guys are refusing to make adjustments. Nick might have struggled early on, but he was listening to coaches and making an effort to do what the coaches were telling him. It sounds like these guys aren't doing that.

[tvz1997]

If they have no clue what they are doing up there, don't let them go up there.

This would be a great idea if we had a bench.

I think Samuel might be just the kind of manager who would sit some of these guys (Wieters is already playing less, though it is said to be for the reason of helping him recover and focus on offense), but who is he going to turn to when he has Tatum, Montanez, and Atkins on the bench?

[DuffMan]

Quote of the day...

Quote of the day...

Penalty flag on RShack: Too many quotes of the day doled out in one day!

You already designated the quote of the day in the wee hours of the morning. There can't be two so which is it going to be?

[Bradysburns]

He is wrong about this part, though:

Having his hitters go up to the plate with a plan and an approach absolutely should be part of the hitting coach's business.

If Markakis's remark reflects the way the job of hitting coach is being defined, as no more than a swing technician, then there's no wonder Crowley has kept his job so long.

I noticed that, too - great point. If Crowley really is having zero effect on their approach to at-bats, then I would say that reflects poorly on Crow.

[OrangeJerseys]

Atta boy Nick. Glad my O's jersey says Markakis on the back.

[Sports Guy]

They had one of those back in April I think. It didn't do them much good.

As for the players who won't listen to coaching - bench them, discipline them. Hold them accountable for their performance.

If they have no clue what they are doing up there, don't let them go up there.

Force them to change and if they don't - they don't play.

This team really needs sombody who is going to kick them in the ass and make players miserable if they dog it or want to do their own thing.

Frobby asked what Wieters would have to do to get sent down.

My answer is this...If he is refusing to listen to coaches and not doing what he needs to do to succeed, I send him down...and not only do I send him down, but I may send him down to Delmarva or something like that.

Really open his eyes and make it obvious that aren't happy with him.

That being said, i don't think Wieters is that type of player.