When your team is wrapped up in the mire of a horrible season, one has to glean little nuggets of hope in order to push through. One of those nuggets for me was Nick Markakis actually saying something worthwhile. The gentle and often soft spoken right fielder is assumed to be the leader of this team and yet it is rare that we hear anything substantive from him. We know the emotion is there. You can see it in his eyes. Well, earlier this week, he dumped and dumped it hard and it was awesome.

Here are the quotes that I pulled from the Orioles Insider Blog

On team needing better approach: “Sometimes, guys are going up there and it looks like they have no idea what they’re doing. I’m not saying that to bash guys. I want guys to be successful, I want this team to be successful, and I have to produce as well. I’m part of this. But it takes a lot more than one big bat. We definitely need that one guy who could hit you 40 home runs, but from top to bottom, you need guys getting on base. You need guys in there who have a plan, who have a clue and who know how to execute that plan and get on base. We don’t need every guy in this lineup trying to hit home runs. We’re paid to get on base and figure out how to score and drive in runs. You look at the Yankees. They have guys who can hit home runs but everybody in that lineup can get on base.”

On hitting coach Terry Crowley and player accountability: “You have to go up there with an approach. [Crowley] has 110 percent nothing to do with the way we are going about our business at the plate and on the field right now. You can have anybody come here and you still are going to have a couple of guys who are not going to change their approach and fix it. It’s worthless. You can point your fingers here and there, but it is what it is. You’re in the big leagues. You have to change your approach on your own. If you go up there clueless, you’re going to come back [to the dugout] clueless. It’s that simple.”

On direction of the club: “At this point, yeah, where are we going? I know we have a lot of injured guys, we’re in the toughest division in baseball and we’re a last-place team. But at this point, it’s mind boggling. You don’t even know what to think, but you still have to be professional and go out and play every day.”

In a way, this rant gave me a little more respect for old Nick. What do you think about Nick’s comments?