Markakis

[legmason]

I know that everyone goes through slumps at the plate but from the games I've watched Markakis appears to make some really poor choices at the plate. In particular I've seen him swing at a lot of breaking balls in the dirt on 0 and 2 and 1 and 2 counts. Most major league pitchers won't throw you strikes in those kind of counts if they don't have to.

I know he hasn't had a horrific beginning of the year by any stretch but I feel like he really isn't seeing as many pitches as I would expect from a veteran hitter with a good eye. When he came up I remember the knock on him being that he was almost too patient at the plate and that the O's wanted him to take more chances and swings. Maybe he took that too much to heart.

[Matt P]

Hitting just over .250 when you take into account his contract and the player he was supposed to be has him near the top of the list for most disappointing O's. I don't really get why Buck continues to bat him at the top of the order but I guess it's because of his contract and his "track record" even though his power has been declining for years.

I thought they should have traded him 2 off seasons ago, last year at the trade deadline, and this past off season. I actually got called a troll last year on a different forum when I said that he needs to get traded because he is only going to continue to decline. I still think they need to try and trade him to clear some payroll for extensions and possible future additions. He's a great fielder but it's not like he is playing C, SS, or CF. He's playing RF so that great defense isn't nearly enough to make up for his struggles at the plate.

I haven't looked it up recently but last I checked he was leading the AL in double plays hit into. They showed a graph on MASN on the Wednesday night game that 72.3% of pitches he sees have been fastballs and he was one of the top 5 in the AL in that stat. To think pitchers are just pumping him fastball after fastball and he can't hit them is very discouraging. I just hope that his contract and Roberts' contract don't make Angelos not want to extend guys like Jones, Wieters, or any future young O's players.