His OBP has gone down significantly. It seemed that after the all start break he would finish really strong

cant argue about the OPS….its definitely taken a tumble in the past couple of weeks but thats not all that matters. he’s got nearly 100 RBIs and over 40 doubles. considering the quality of the bats around and the way the team as a whole has been playing, i cant really call him the disappointment of the year. thats pretty harsh.

I don’t think winning MVO also qualifies as “disappointment of the year”.

But he has been a disappointment.

Also, he wasn’t named MVO. Some reporter just walked around the clubhouse and asked the players and most of them said Nick.

that a lot of Nick and Adam’s struggles came from some artificial sense that they had to play like the cleanup hitter and be this team’s savior. That is, they pressed because the offense sputtered unexpectedly after two months and lost track of what they were doing to make that front three of Roberts-Jones-Markakis so gosh darn dangerous in May (anyone remember how awesome that was?).

And it probably got worse after Huff was traded. You’ll notice Roberts, the veteran, didn’t press like that – he knows his role regardless of a) where he is batting, and b) who is batting around him, and c) who else is in the lineup.

Quick solution: get a real slugging first baseman from somewhere.

Hasn’t he missed 1 game this season? Maybe the O’s should get a clue and give him some rest. That, plus being forced into the cleanup slot as Andrew outlined above, probably contributed to his decline this year.

But Nick will be back. He is 25. This was a rough second half for the team. I don’t think the way he has been at the plate recently is indicative of him overall as a hitter.

give nick a break he plays for the last place o’s … they play in the AL East against top top top pitching, nick’s gonna do some nice things in baltimore when the teams good. like all of us o’s fans we are ready to find land on this sinking ship. we will one year and i guarantee nick is a big big part of it.
Stay patient oriole fans our time will come

I like Nick Markakis a great deal and think he could be a valuable contributor for almost any team, but unlike a lot of Oriole fans, I never thought he was ever going to become one of the best outfielders in the American League. If he played on another unsuccessful team like the Royals or the Reds, none of us would know his name. His current season is disappointing, but it is probably closer to what we should realistically expect from him than what a lot of fans thought he was going to turn into.

I read a magazine article recently about something called the “endowment effect” where the fact that you own something leads you to overvalue it. I think a lot of Oriole fans do that with him. That might be because a lot of younger fans haven’t seen that many players on the Orioles who are a good as Markakis. However, just because he’s one of the best players on a lousy team, that doesn’t mean he’s as good as the best players on good teams.

These 9th best in AL OPS+ for the past 10 years. Almost all of these guys are good players who had impressive careers, but I think the only ones we would say were elite are Frank Thomas, Bernie Williams, Carlos Delgado, and maybe Shawn Green. Furthermore, the reason we think so highly of those four particular players is because of better seasons they had in their career. You guys might think that finishing 9th in OPS+ as your career highlight puts a guy in the rank of elite player. I don’t.

I like Nick Markakis. I think there is a place for him on any championship team and would like to see him on an Orioles championship team, but if he’s the best player on the team, I’m not holding my breath unless there are a bunch of other guys exactly like him.

2008: Ian Kinsler (tied with Markakis)
2007: B.J. Upton
2006: Frank Thomas
2005: Brian Roberts
2004: Hidecki Matsui
2003: Dmitri Young
2002: Bernie Williams
2001: Carlos Delgado
2000: Bernie Williams
1999: Shawn Green