Ichiro Unhappy

[BronXBombers51]

To be honest, I think Giambi is a better hitter, but Ichiro brings the intangibles, making this a wash for the two teams.

Ichiro is a huge draw (fabricated or not) and rarely misses a game. Giambi has baggage, a large contract, and ?s still looming over his head.

Giambi is a far better hitter in that he encompasses all Ichiro does (albeit, not on the basepaths) and adds much more power and plate discipline at the same time. Ichiro is a good average hitter and can run the bases, but he doesn't do much else offensively. He doesn't walk and he strikes out far too often for his type of hitter. He's no Tony Gwynn.

While Ichiro is a good fielder, I'm not sure a corner outfielder is what the Yankees necessarily need...I think Giambi at first makes more baseball (maybe not business) sense than Ichiro in rightfield does.

Ichiro would play CF. I don't have any doubt that he could make that transition. However, the fact remains that Ichiro will not be going to the Yankees, or probably anywhere else for that matter.

[JTWood]

Good article. Thanks for the post.

[nikku88]

Ichiro is a huge draw (fabricated or not) .

It's absolutely true. He brings in so much money for the M's that it's just crazy. He's probably overpaid for his onfield stuff, but underpaid for his off the field stuff.
Giambi is a better hitter, but that's all he does. Ichiro is a top fielder and not so bad with the stick. He's both overated and underated IMO. Even in his down year, he was still 3rd among RFers in VORP.
I'd much rather have Ichiro with his contract than Giambi and his.

[carter]

sounds like the M's need to fire Hargrove .. fire his ass, and let Ichiro hand-pick the new guy.. he's a franchise player and one of the best AVG hitters in history, and most importantly, the M's need to shake things up badly- they're on a long, slow, painful slide down the mountain .. and do it for the kids (Felix, Reed, Soriano, Yuhency, Lopez)

And yet another occurance of how overrated Ichiro is.

Among the best AVG hitters in history?
He ranked 23rd in AVG this season alone.

all depends how you look at it.. this year was by far his worst season avg-wise and he hit .303... in 5 mlb seasons, he's hit over .350 twice .. .372 came in 04,.,. when is the last time you've seen a batting average that high?... at the least, he's one of the best average hitters of our era

[TheYanks04]

Cluelss Brian is at it again. Trade the farm for a 32 year old singles hitter.

[nuggets]

I'm surprised Ichiro is whining. He's loved in Seattle, a strong Asian community. I can understand his wanting to win, but he's starting to sound like a guy named Griffey.

You gotta be joking. Ichiro is the farthest thing from a Griffey. He is a man of unselfish pride and respect who has as much honor as any professional athlete ever .

Don't let the NY papers start up some BS about Ichiro "whining" about not being happy. That is the wrong angle to take on it, a total "spin" on reality.



This guy doesn't even play for the M's anymore:

"If anybody were to call Ichiro a selfish person, I'd love for them to tell that to my face ," Madritsch said. "What I see in Ichiro is beyond unselfish. He has one goal. Win. He was doing whatever he could to help the team out."

[TheYanks04]

Which obviously includes stealling 5 bases in one game in a meaninegless late Sept game in 2001 just so he could win the SB crown by one over Cedeno. "Mr. Unselfish" apparently felt that stealing 3b more than once was justifiified if the SB crown was at stake.

[nuggets]

Which obviously includes stealling 5 bases in one game in a meaninegless late Sept game in 2001 just so he could win the SB crown by one over Cedeno. "Mr. Unselfish" apparently felt that stealing 3b more than once was justifiified if the SB crown was at stake.

How is that selfish? Was he thrown out during that game? Did he hurt his team?

[blankman]

sounds like the M's need to fire Hargrove .. fire his ass, and let Ichiro hand-pick the new guy.. he's a franchise player and one of the best AVG hitters in history, and most importantly, the M's need to shake things up badly- they're on a long, slow, painful slide down the mountain .. and do it for the kids (Felix, Reed, Soriano, Yuhency, Lopez)

And yet another occurance of how overrated Ichiro is.

Among the best AVG hitters in history?
He ranked 23rd in AVG this season alone.

all depends how you look at it.. this year was by far his worst season avg-wise and he hit .303... in 5 mlb seasons, he's hit over .350 twice .. .372 came in 04,.,. when is the last time you've seen a batting average that high?... at the least, he's one of the best average hitters of our era

5 seasons is hardly enough for me to call him that, especially when his worst season was his most recent.

[TheYanks04]

If I need to explain the subtleties of risking injury to yourself, running up the score on opponents/showing up the opposition needlessly, and the otherwise extremely dubious value of stealing 3b in a number of instances, well then.

He was obviously playing for personal glory...period. His team won 116 games and was headed to the playoffs long befor etaht game. The game was totally meaningless...and if he got hurt trying to swipe a base for personal glory, all the M's fans would have been all over him like a like a worker preparng a bad cafe latte. It is OK apparently to be selfish as long as it goes unnoticed, causes no damage and otherwie builds up the Suzuki hype-machine. It does not go unnoticed by everyone. Suzuki has a fair streak of self-indulgent selfishness in him. To claim he is some altruistic team player is perposterous.