Nick Markakis turned is another great season for Baltimore in 2008 and continues his steady improvement at the plate.
Like last year, for your enjoyment, Markakis' hit chart at Camden Yards for 2008.
It's like the Sistine Chapel. It's gorgeous.
Last offseason, I compared Markakis favorably to Enos Slaughter and Ellis Burks and used those players' age 24 seasons to predict Nick's 2008. Here is that projection compared to the actual stats:
BA 2B HR OBP SLG OPS
Markakis Predicted .309 39 27 .365 .502 .867
Markakis Actual .306 48 20 .406 .491 .897
I thought a few more of those doubles would go over the fence and I didn't anticipate Markakis' batting eye to improve so much in one season but the projection was pretty spot on.
As the season went on, I became more convinced that Markakis is the second coming of Enos Slaughter. Both are/were lefties, both play(ed) rightfield and both are/were very good fielders with great arms, at least when young.
Their bats are very similar as well:
OPS+
Age 22 Age 23 Age 24
Markakis 106 121 134
Slaughter 105 122 133
Spooky, huh?
Slaughter's OPS+ at age 25 was 141. How do we get Markakis there? I'll say:
BA 2B HR OBP SLG OPS OPS+
Markakis '09 .315 40 29 .415 .520 .935 141
Add to that his Gold Glove caliber defense in right (he should have won a Gold Glove last year), the Orioles would do well to sign him to a long term contract before Spring Training. It will only get harder once his breakout 2009 is under way.
No comments:
Post a Comment