Ichiro...

[Sooga]

So I was reading about the M's 16-3 rout today against the Royals when a little blurb popped out at me:

"Suzuki, who leads the majors with a .367 batting average, had his 16th multihit game in 20 games. He's hitting .490 since the All-Star break, and .516 in August."

Suzuki's kinda fallen out of the news since his spectacular rookie season, but he's quietly putting up the best numbers of his short career. He's LEADING THE MAJORS in hitting. I didn't even know that. I haven't heard about him all season. And .490 since the all-star break? .490??? That's over a month ago! I couldn't do that on my MVP Baseball 2004 video game with any player, even if I had the difficulty setting on 'Easy'. Oh, and he's currently on pace for 262 hits.

[BeerMoney]

Underrated!!!

[Zeno]

I was reading about this same game and even thought of posting a ‘baseball talk’ about Ichiro - glad you beat me to it. His stats to date: 189 Hits, 28 SB, BA of 367 as you mentioned, and an OBP of 409, and OPS of 895. Oh yeah, he's not to bad with a glove either and has a stellar arm.

If he were playing for a wining team or contender he would be all over the baseball news.

-Zeno

[ThaSaltCracka]

First of all MVP 2004 is an awesome game, can't wait for next years game.


Ichiro is the man, I really hope he breaks George Sisler's record. I don't know if he can hit .400 for the season, but it will be real close.... I am just glad we have something to cheer about up here.

[nolanfan34]

He certainly has crept up quietly in the batting race, hasn't he? I have to admit, sadly, that I was at last Friday's Yankee's game against the M's and was surprised when I saw he was up to .367.

It's too bad the rest of the team sucks so badly right now...

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
It's too bad the rest of the team sucks so badly right now...

[/ QUOTE ]
FWIW, I think the team was worse in the first half.

[Boris]

It makes absolutely no sense to have your lead-off hitter hitting .490. Can someone please explain Bob Melvin's reasoning here?

[nolanfan34]

I will certainly concede that. But they still can't hit in the second half either.

[ThaSaltCracka]

or pitch!!!!!!

[kerssens]

[ QUOTE ]
I couldn't do that on my MVP Baseball 2004 video game with any player, even if I had the difficulty setting on 'Easy'.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe if he was right handed.....damn the lefty glitch

[wayabvpar]

[ QUOTE ]
It makes absolutely no sense to have your lead-off hitter hitting .490. Can someone please explain Bob Melvin's reasoning here?

[/ QUOTE ]

Ichiro is a perfect leadoff hitter. He gets on base A LOT, and puts pressure on the pitcher and defense with his speed. He can steal bases, go from first to third on single, score from 2nd, etc.

Melvin toyed with the idea of batting him lower in the lineup. However, a 3-4-5 hitter needs to have extra base/home run power, which Ichiro doesn't have. More accurately, that Ichiro doesn't use- I have no doubt he could sacrifice 30-40 points on his average and swing for the fences more often.

[kerssens]

A lot of his infield singles would be eliminated if he hit in the 3-5 spots because of the slower runners being forced at second

[SossMan]

You might know better than I, since I never go to AL games, but doesn't he crush the ball in batting practice...like HR after HR?

[Boris]

It's how Ichiro gets on base. He is such a a great contact hitter it seems he would generate alot more runs if he came to bat with men on base. Especially with Olerud gone, Boone injured and Edgar in a freefall.

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
You might know better than I, since I never go to AL games, but doesn't he crush the ball in batting practice...like HR after HR?

[/ QUOTE ]

He certainly can when he wants to. I remember the AL All Star batting practice at Safeco in 2001. He stepped in, took three pitches, deposited all three balls in the right field stands, and promptly left.

Despite the reputation Safeco has for being a pitchers park, it's a great park for left-handed power hitters, and I'm surprised Ichiro doesn't hit more HR's at home.

[hutz]

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe if he was right handed.....damn the lefty glitch

[/ QUOTE ]

That really is unfortunate. I hate doing the fantasy draft, seeing a high-quality lefty available, and passing on him in favor of a lesser quality righty with whom I know I'll have better results.

Is there any similar glitch in Madden 2005?

[kerssens]

Not that I know of, I've only played a few games but I think Madden is usually free from glitches, they've had 15 years to iron out most of the problems

[hutz]

Thanks. I have about three weeks to wait until the PC version comes out. I read on a message board that there's some "blitz glitch" this year, so I was concerned. Any idea what they're talking about?

[kerssens]

haven't heard about it, I'll have to find out, I hope its doesn't make the game ridiculous

[Sooga]

Yea, I really feel for you console players... EA released a patch last month for MVP 2004 for the PC that fixed the infamous lefty problem...

The biggest complaint I have with MVP 2004 now is that I can't set up a season (or dynasty) where I have control of the entire league, so that I can keep all team rosters up to date. Other than that, it's a great game.

[CCass]

[ QUOTE ]
Ichiro is the man, I really hope he breaks George Sisler's record. I don't know if he can hit .400 for the season, but it will be real close.... I am just glad we have something to cheer about up here.

[/ QUOTE ]

TSC, I do not think he will hit close to .400. My rough calculations show that he will have to hit at a .530 clip for the rest of the season, and I just don't think that is possible. It would be interesting if he was at .395 or so going into the last couple of weeks.

Cheers.

[kerssens]

I don't think .400 is realistic either, but that hits record is in danger

[ThaSaltCracka]

my bad, I meant the hit record and not .400, but .395 wouldn't be that bad either /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[B-Man]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know if he can hit .400 for the season, but it will be real close....

[/ QUOTE ]

Are you serious?

It will not be close.

[hutz]

Does the most recent patch truly solve the lefty glitch? I don't remember seeing it in the patch's readme file.

[CCass]

If he breaks the hit record, he will be darn close to .400

[mikech]

[ QUOTE ]
If he breaks the hit record, he will be darn close to .400

[/ QUOTE ]

No, he is currently ON PACE to break the hits record, while batting .366--you do understand what ON PACE means, yes? If he breaks the hits record, he'll still be batting...you guessed it: .366.

Ichiro already has over 500 at-bats; the higher that number gets the more difficult it is to move up his avg. For him to increase his avg another 34 points would be Herculean. In contrast, Bonds has a much better chance than Ichiro to hit .400 this year because he's hitting .359 with only 270 or so ABs.

[Sooga]

Although it may not have been mentioned in the patch file, it is definitely fixed. I'm going yard all over the place with Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez in my Cubs dynasty.

[SnakeRat]

They stopped him today by pegging him in the head.

[ThaSaltCracka]

why the hell didn't Franklin bean the first batter after their pitcher hit Ichiro????? This team lakes passion and intensity. Damn you Melvin, damn you Franklin, [censored] bean somebody, you don't [censored] with Ichiro!!!!

[Sooga]

Probably because with the M's in the heat of a pennant chase and all, they don't have the luxury of giving anything away.

[Sponger15SB]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It makes absolutely no sense to have your lead-off hitter hitting .490. Can someone please explain Bob Melvin's reasoning here?

[/ QUOTE ]

Ichiro is a perfect leadoff hitter. He gets on base A LOT, and puts pressure on the pitcher and defense with his speed. He can steal bases, go from first to third on single, score from 2nd, etc.

Melvin toyed with the idea of batting him lower in the lineup. However, a 3-4-5 hitter needs to have extra base/home run power, which Ichiro doesn't have. More accurately, that Ichiro doesn't use- I have no doubt he could sacrifice 30-40 points on his average and swing for the fences more often.

[/ QUOTE ]

I heard somewhere that a major leaguer (yes, how reliable huh?) said that ichiro could be one of the biggest home run hitters in the majors, yet because he is so incredibly fast and accurate with each swing, its easier for him to just crank out singles.

Does this sound crazy like i was actually imagining this, or did somebody actually say this about him.

[Josh W]

Nobody likes you.

[CCass]

I understand what "on pace" means, I can also solve simple math problems. As of yesterday (when I posted the .400 comment) Ichiro had 189 hits. To get to .400, he would have to have 71 hits in his next 135 AB's. Last time I checked, 189+71=260 (single season hit record is 157). So I stand by my assertion that for him to get to the hit record, he would have to be close to .400.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND ADDITION AND DIVISION?

Edited as follows: I didn't give Ichiro quite enough at bats for the rest of the season (assuming he doesn't miss any games). He is averaging 4.3 AB's per game, which would work out to be 188 more AB's for the season, and if he gets 188 more AB's, and if he hits .366 over those AB's, then he would be right at the magical 258 number. Assuming the increased number of AB's, I agree that he could reach 258 hits and not be close to .400.

I left my original snide math comment in this post as a point to show that maybe I need some math help as well. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[ThaSaltCracka]

precisely, all the more reason to bean those bastards. Start a brawl, I mean its not like anyone really wants to watch a KC-SEA game this year.

[M2d]

High cheese as a marketing/pr tool. I love it.

[ThaSaltCracka]

If I was the manager(and I should be), I would have told my pitcher to bean as many people as he can, until he gets thrown out of the game. You DON'T bean Ichiro, especially in the head/....

[Boris]

maybe his team mates don't like him.