Erik Bedard, 2008 Upper Deck Spectrum #9

It's not easy being Erik Bedard. After spending the past four years as a starting pitcher for the If He Were Healthy All-Stars, the lefty signed with the Pirates for $4.5 million this season. So far in 2012, he's been perfectly healthy, and has shown that he's still got some value in that arm. Through four starts, he has a 2.63 ERA and a 135 ERA+. Sure, his strikeouts are down in the early going - 6.4 K/9 IP compared to a career figure of 8.7 K/9 IP, but he's also allowed only one home run in 24 innings.

He's also got an 0-4 record, because the Pirates are an offensive trainwreck. He lost the team's opener by a 1-0 score, with Roy Halladay holding the Bucs to a pair of hits in 8 innings of work. In each of his other three starts, Bedard has permitted two earned runs and received exactly one run of support. It looks like Erik will have to take matters into his own hands. So far he's got a single and four whiffs in eight at-bats this year, but when you account for his interleague appearances, he's a career .214 hitter (6-for-28). Through their first 15 games, the Pirates are hitting .202 as a team. Woof. It's enough to make you wonder if the ex-Oriole had any comparable contract offers last winter, and whether he's having second thoughts about going to Pittsburgh.

Nick Markakis, 2008 Upper Deck Spectrum #11

One of the drawbacks of being a sports fan in this day and age is the notion of star players as corporate entities. With so many millions of dollars at stake, most of our favorite athletes are very careful to present a bland, polished image so as to remain optimally marketable. Think of Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and the rest of the U.S. Olympic Men's Basketball team remaining mum on China's human rights abuses. Try to recall an interview or sound bite with Derek Jeter in which he said something - anything - memorable and uncliched. (Derek Jeter isn't one of my favorite athletes, but you get the point.) That's one of the reasons that sports blogs, many of them having an irreverent, tabloid nature, have become so wildly popular. They expose the human side of these larger-than-life, seemingly distant and untouchable men and women.

With that in mind, I had to chuckle when I read Jon Bois' first-hand account of Nick Markakis, who is the closest thing to a legitimate star that the Orioles currently have (Brian Roberts excepted). This blog post is a lot more harmless than the drunk photos and tirades that are reported on Deadspin and the like.

You see, Jon knew Nick when they were both Cub Scouts in suburban Georgia, back in the early-to-mid 1990s. It's actually kind of charming to imagine the lithe, unflappable outfielder with the sweet swing and the cannon arm as a Sega-loving motor-mouthed braggart of a ten-year-old. It might seem shocking that the young Markakis was such a handful, but I've read articles that hint at a much more irreverent personality than the guy that we fans get to see on the field. He shaved his hair into a mohawk in April, getting a rise from buttoned-down manager Dave Trembley. A Baltimore Sun article talked about Nick's inner child, complete with tales of his fascination with Heelies and photos of #21 balancing a chair on his chin and spinning a basketball on top of a pen.

I'm not saying that I want Nick Markakis to turn into Manny Ramirez 2.0. I just hope that he has fun on the diamond and in the community when the opportunity presents itself.