Double Trouble: Nick Markakis & Eddie Murray
by Roarfrom34 on Sep 23, 2010 1:41 PM EDT
in O's History
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PrintEarlier this week, Nick Markakis become the third major league player to hit 43 or more doubles in four consecutive seasons. The other two players are Hall of Famers: Joe Medwick and Tris Speaker. There's another Hall of Famer, an Orioles legend, who made history by doing half as well for five times as long.
Fourteen years ago this week, on Sept. 24, 1996, Eddie Murray doubled in a 13-8 loss to the Boston Red Sox. Murray, who two weeks prior hit his 500th career home run, became only the second player to have 20 or more doubles in 20 consecutive seasons. The other was Speaker. Murray hit 560 doubles overall.
Speaker is Major League Baseball's career leader for doubles. The lefty outfielder totaled 792 doubles in 22 seasons with Boston, Cleveland, Washington, and Philadelphia. Speaker had 50 or more doubles in a season five times as well as five additional seasons where he hit 40 or more. His single-season best was 59 doubles in 1923.
Cal Ripken Jr. is the Orioles' career leader in the category with 602 doubles, the 13th most overall. Had it not been for the strike-shortened 1994 season, during which he hit 19 doubles, Ripken would have had 20 or more doubles in 18 consecutive seasons. His single-season best was 47 doubles in 1983.
Ripken is followed on the O's career doubles list by Brooks Robinson (482) and Murray (363). Brian Roberts currently trails Murray by 32 doubles.
Steady Eddie never had a 40-double season in 21 years in the bigs. His career high for a season was 37, set in 1985 and matched in 1992.
Murray had two RBI in the 1996 Boston game where he stroked his 20th double, and he added another on Sept. 27 to finish the season with 79 RBI. It was his 20th consecutive season with 75 or more RBI, which broke Hank Aaron's record of 19 straight seasons.
As is the case with doubles, Murray trails only Ripken and Robinson for career RBI in an Orioles uniform. And, as is the case with doubles, Roberts is the current Orioles player closest to Murray for RBI. Roberts trails Murray in career RBI for Baltimore by 766.
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So Eddie was almost as good at hitting doubles as Nick is on a yearly basis
I wish that Nick was almost as good at hitting home runs as Eddie.
You never know when someone is gonna sneak up on ya at the dolphin show! -wrb1990
Pretty much this.
Although having somebody who’s good at doubles will be pretty good still once we have some real hitters behind him who will actually drive him in.
It's as if every eccentric in the South decided to move north, ran out of gas in Baltimore, and decided to stay. - John Waters
by Eat More Esskay on Sep 23, 2010 5:33 PM EDT up reply actions
We've had somebody who's awesome at hitting doubles for a while now.
I’d like some HRs.
Rub some $100 bills on it, you sell-out. -duck
Free troy Patten?
Who is Troy Patten?
The Orioles are going to open a can of Buck-Wieser on your ass......
Troy PATTON
"If you tell me a starting pitcher went 15-10, the only thing I can tell you is that he appeared in 25 games that year." - Keith Law
Oh! He any good?
The Orioles are going to open a can of Buck-Wieser on your ass......
by Zachary Beard on Sep 24, 2010 6:46 AM EDT up reply actions
yes, please
I would like to have a Troy Patton, if you are just giving them away. Thanks!
Just out of curiosity
is there anybody that isn’t disappointed by a second consecutive year of decreasing OPS (due primarily to a 2nd consecutive year with a sizable drop in slugging)?
Rub some $100 bills on it, you sell-out. -duck
I think it has more to do with him trying to do too much
Not really worried about him tbh.
I thought that's what we said last year too?
How many years are we ok with him trying too hard?
Rub some $100 bills on it, you sell-out. -duck
I'd be worried
but for two things, both involving the chainsaw approach of just using OPS:
1) his OBP is up from last year, we’re only talking about a big time power outage, but I think Nick is an ideal leadoff replacement for B-Rob, and therefore the power outage is less concerning than the OBP rebound is heartening.
2) Along similar lines, since OPS is poor fundamental mathematics, I prefer runs created, and Nicky’s wRC+ (oh look! a funny looking stat name! Let’s make a fucking stupid old joke about it! Har har!), which is his runs created as derived from his wOBA and measured against the rest of the league with 100 being average, is actually up from last year, too (since OBP is more important than SLG), so it’s hard for me to be too down on Nick anyway.
"There's going to be a general lack of toast in the neighbourhood this morning. Many many bewildered breakfast faces."
Bickering aside though
Aren’t we really grasping for straws when we’re saying that Nicky’s continued loss of slugging at age 26 is ok because he’s an ideal replacement for Roberts at leadoff? And also is a .365 OBP really something to get all excited about and make up for another 30 point drop in slugging?
I get that this year is a (slight) improvement on last year, but 5% gain in OBP and a 7% drop in slugging doesn’t make me feel all warm inside.
Rub some $100 bills on it, you sell-out. -duck
Maybe this is a weird perception
But I’ve felt like one of the main reasons for all this is just that for the first few months of the season, Nicky was pretty much our Only consistently good batter. The book on Nick seemed to be “Just pitch around him. He’s the only guy in the lineup that it doesn’t pay to go after.”
So maybe Nick’s doing pretty good, considering the pitches he’s been getting to work with? I dunno. Maybe?
"Roberts is unconscious!!!!" - Jim Hunter, after Brian Roberts hits his second HR of the night. 9/21/09
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