…in the line drive/fly ball percentages. Remember that this data is the result of an eyeball witness deciding which is which, and that analyst may not be the same person from game to game or year to year.

To a degree, I suspect that his walk rate decreased to a degree because he no longer had an effective Aubrey Huff hitting behind him. I also think he ran into some bad luck – his BABIP was .317, lower than his numbers in 2008 and 2007, and his HR/FB was 2% lower than it had ever been before in his career. Like Adam Jones, however, Markakis’ groundball rate went way up last season, and that’s concerning. It makes me wonder if something was wrong with his swing for much of the 2009 season.

Obviously it will be of great importance that his walk rate improve. Hopefully, we’ll find someone who can give Markakis some better protection in the lineup.

that Markakis (and Jones) felt the pressure of being the cornerstones of the lineup and basically let their game get away from them. As in, they tried too hard to carry the team because they saw, as you and I did, that nobody else was gonna do it. Putting Nick in the 3 and 4 hole didn’t help in my theoretical scenario, either.

Or, more likely, it was just a down year. It happens.

continues to improve, I think we could see a resurgence from Nick. Some people don’t value lineup protection, but in this case I really think that with less pressure directly on him Nick could regain his patience and take a better approach on a daily basis.

He knows that last year wasn’t his best. Remember people, he reads the papers!!