Orioles: Educating Nick
If you think the education of a young player stops when he signs his first giant contract, think again. Nick Markakis is getting paid like one of the best right fielders in the league, but he's still trying to become a more well-rounded player.
Today, for instance, he spent time one on one with coach Juan Samuel on the back field, working on baserunning fundamentals. Markakis has decent speed and is equipped to be more aggressive on the basepaths. But he has said in the past he is not particularly comfortable stealing bases, so the team is trying to give him the tools he needs to do that.
He stole 18 bases in 24 attempts two seasons ago, but some of those were on the back end of double steal attempts with teammate Brian Roberts. He stole just 10 of 17 last season with fewer of those opportunities hitting in the third slot.
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Comments
Point taken Pete . In my opinion ( or in my fantasy world ) a player should be constantly trying to improve himself no matter where their standing is .
Posted by: the artist formerly known as jack in hebron | March 20, 2009 2:26 PM
Pete-
Forcing a guy to be more aggressive on the basepaths is not always the most advisable thing to do. I'm sure Nick is fully aware of his limitations when running the bases.
Posted by: Patrick Lynch | March 20, 2009 5:22 PM
Everything I read suggests that you need to have around a 75% success rate just to break even, and that doesn't count the wear and tear on the player. Nick's nowhere close to that, unfortunately. In my opinion, the only thing dumber than asking your new 6-year, 66-million player to steal is taking the bat out of the hands of your Silver Slugger.
Please tell us there's someone in the warehouse who understands how to attach value to statistics. Sometimes I wonder.
Posted by: ken tremulous | March 20, 2009 10:40 PM