Ichiro sucks

[rowe33]

Right, let's see what happens at the end of the season when he scores in the 350 pts range for me and I lose because everyone is 100 points ahead of me.

I'm in a points league, every point from the beginning to the end counts.

Ichiro is struggling big time, he's was struggling during spring training and this will probably be his worse season as he's off to his worse start. I guess we'll see in May if he can pick it up.

You should probably deal him now while his value is as low as it can be. I mean, it's not like a guy could hit something like .255 in April but end up posting a .372 average by the end of the season. Oh WAIT, that's what Ichiro did in 2004. My bad...

[Tonesta]

Right, let's see what happens at the end of the season when he scores in the 350 pts range for me and I lose because everyone is 100 points ahead of me.

I'm in a points league, every point from the beginning to the end counts.

Ichiro is struggling big time, he's was struggling during spring training and this will probably be his worse season as he's off to his worse start. I guess we'll see in May if he can pick it up.

You know that through his career, his average in May has been .370?

How's about we reconvene this time next month and then start to worry if he's still below .300......

[thomasmore]

Well, he ended April just as nicely as he started it by going 0-4.

[mtxdevil]

Well, he ended April just as nicely as he started it by going 0-4.

and your point is...

[Inukchuk]

Well, he ended April just as nicely as he started it by going 0-4.

Then quit whining and deal him... I'm sure you could get a Nate McLouth or Conor Jackson for him. If you don't want to take the advice of a bunch of people that seem to agree he'll be OK, then don't. It's no sweat off my sack...

[rowe33]

Last year, Ichiro was hitting .260 after his 0 for 4 on May 6th. Two-Sixty. By the end of May he was hitting .336. He ended up hitting .351.
Trade him before those hits start falling in and he has a line of 2 for 4 night after night...

[virgil22]

I don't know if thomasmore feels like stirring the pot and gets a kick out of posting such garbage, but I came up with a few things.

Entering this season, Ichiro had 1,592 hits. He had 1,278 while playing in Japan. I am not comparing US ball to Japan, but that is 2,870 hits. He will surpass 3,000 career hits this year. By the way, he played in about 122 games per year in Japan.

Assuming he hits his average of 227 hits per season, he will have 1,819 hits in 8 seasons. I don't have time to research, but how many guys have done that in MLB history?

He will be 35 in October. Most great hitters i.e., Brett, Molitor, Rose, play late into their career...late 30's and early 40's. If Ichiro plays 5 more years (227 x 5), he will have 2,954 hits in 13 seasons.

I post all this to say, this guy will go down as one of if not the best hitters of all time. He will have 3,000 hits in his MLB career and his rookie season was 2001, when he was 27.

[stumpak]

This is not a stupid quqestion by the original poster, and there are a group of people (including me) who are not remotely surprised by this and think it likely that Ichiro is downtrending significantly.

The simple rationale is that he is guy who relies perponderantly on his legs for success, which is not a good formula for someone in his mid-30s. All it takes is for him to lose a fraction of his speed to 1B and he loses some offensive effectiveness as infield singles start to go away. He loses a full step and he become mediocre. Infield hits are typically account for 25% of his hits or more. Do the math: If half of these go away, a .320 BA turns into .280.

I have no proof this happening now, but it is something that will happen sometime in the next few seasons. But the fact that he is hitting .240 or whatever is circumstantical evidence that decline may be underway.

I do not think he will hit .240 all year, but also think people are fooling themselves if they do not acknowledge that there is a real possibility that the ~.320 BA Ichiro might be a thing of the past.

[Inukchuk]

This is not a stupid quqestion by the original poster, and there are a group of people (including me) who are not remotely surprised by this and think it likely that Ichiro is downtrending significantly.

The simple rationale is that he is guy who relies perponderantly on his legs for success, which is not a good formula for someone in his mid-30s. All it takes is for him to lose a fraction of his speed to 1B and he loses some offensive effectiveness as infield singles start to go away. He loses a full step and he become mediocre. Infield hits are typically account for 25% of his hits or more. Do the math: If half of these go away, a .320 BA turns into .280.

I have no proof this happening now, but it is something that will happen sometime in the next few seasons. But the fact that he is hitting .240 or whatever is circumstantical evidence that decline may be underway.

I do not think he will hit .240 all year, but also think people are fooling themselves if they do not acknowledge that there is a real possibility that the ~.320 BA Ichiro might be a thing of the past.

I'll give this argument some credence when I see it. The bottom line is that Ichiro is a notoriously poor April performer (by his standards, anyway), which has continued into this season. As far as your assertion that his speed may be on the decline, I ask you to look at his SB at this point last year: 1. This year, he has 7. I see no reason to claim the sky may be falling just yet. It is way too early.

Oh, and if it makes the OP feel better, Ichiro's batting .600 in May.

[thomasmore]

This is not a stupid quqestion by the original poster, and there are a group of people (including me) who are not remotely surprised by this and think it likely that Ichiro is downtrending significantly.

The simple rationale is that he is guy who relies perponderantly on his legs for success, which is not a good formula for someone in his mid-30s. All it takes is for him to lose a fraction of his speed to 1B and he loses some offensive effectiveness as infield singles start to go away. He loses a full step and he become mediocre. Infield hits are typically account for 25% of his hits or more. Do the math: If half of these go away, a .320 BA turns into .280.

I have no proof this happening now, but it is something that will happen sometime in the next few seasons. But the fact that he is hitting .240 or whatever is circumstantical evidence that decline may be underway.

I do not think he will hit .240 all year, but also think people are fooling themselves if they do not acknowledge that there is a real possibility that the ~.320 BA Ichiro might be a thing of the past.

I'll give this argument some credence when I see it. The bottom line is that Ichiro is a notoriously poor April performer (by his standards, anyway), which has continued into this season. As far as your assertion that his speed may be on the decline, I ask you to look at his SB at this point last year: 1. This year, he has 7. I see no reason to claim the sky may be falling just yet. It is way too early.

Oh, and if it makes the OP feel better, Ichiro's batting .600 in May.

ESPN just did a small fantasy report on players who are SUCKING and Ichrio was mentioned as one of them. They pretty much said the same thing as the poster above. That he is losing some of his speed which is crucial for a speed guy because it's how he makes his living, by beating out pitches. Moreover I think it's stupid to argue how he isn't a good April performer, because even during Apil he has never hit this badly or against teams/pitchers who he usually dominates. If you want to talk about trends, let's talk about how he usually bats over .300 against the Angels regardless of what month he's in. So far this season he's batting .100. He may not stay at .266 (where he's at now after going 3-5 yesterday), I think he'll struggle most of the season and just barely stay at .300~.298.