Ichiro Thread

[Edgartohof]

With Ichiro's double today, he now has an 18 game hit streak going, and he has raised his BA to .322 (up from .262, before the streak).

Give him a couple more days and he'll have hit 4th 20+ game hit streak of his career (US only), and we'll see how far he goes after that. Ichiro is also coming off of 3 consecutive multi hit games, and he should be able to get a couple more at bats in tonights game to have a shot at another hit.

[Ichi Ro]

Ichiro rules, just wish we were winning.

[Rennie Stennett]

check out these cool links: hot zone and player hit chart.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/playerH...tegoryId=85348

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/playerH...tegoryId=85348

[Edgartohof]

Well, Ichiro just finished off a good month, going 3-5 with 1 BB, 3 runs and 1 SB. That put him at .371 for the month with 46 hits (to bad he got off to a bad start, otherwise he had a shot at 50+), including an 18 game hit streak, and a perfect 9 stolen bases, with no CS. He hit 90 points higher in May than in April, raising his BA to a respectable .332 (exactly MLB career average for him), and with the way he is hitting right now, I'd expect to see it go towards .350 soon, and who knows from there, even something close to that is fine, I guess we shall have to wait and see.

I will admit I am as biased an Ichiro fan as anyone, but I've seen the guy hit over .400 for half a season (.429 for the second half of the '04 season), have 56 hits in a month, (while hitting .463/.492/.636), and hit and incredible 262 hit in a season, so I always expect him to do the "impossible", whatever that may be (something along the lines of .400 or so).

Just look at me. The guy has one good month, putting him back at his own "average", and I start with the crazy talk. I apologize for it, since to hit .400, Ichiro would need 274 hits in his projected 683 AB's (or more walks to get down the AB's), which would mean another 199 hits in his next 107 games (1.86 hits/game), since he averaged only 1.62 in '04 for his incredible 262 hits. So, pretty much out of the picture, but a guy can dream can't he?

In other news, Ichiro is still great defensively, still getting good jumps on balls, running them down, and scaring people with his arm, even without using it half the time - the threat of him throwing has saved our team many runners advancing a base (be it to second, third, or home). He is also staying somewhat agressive on the bases, on pace for 50 SB's this season, which would be his second best showing, and should keep up hit roll of not being out of the top 10 in SB's each year he has been in the league.

So he is now 6th in the league with a .332 BA, and 6th in runs scored with 41 (leader with only a slight lead at 46), is tied for 2nd in triples with 4, and is tied for 4th in SB's with 17 (though he has only 2 CS), and only one other in the top 5 has a better success rate (18-19 compared to Ichiro's 17-19). Ichiro already has a sizeable lead in hit with 77 in only 55 games (on pace for 227), with second place with only 70 (on pace for 206).

[Edgartohof]

I forgot to mention this yesterday, but Ichiro just became the Mariner's Ironman, playing in his 294th consecutive game (the old record of 293 was held by Edgar Martinez).

This streak came close to ending early, just last season (or the year before?), when he got hit in the head during a game, and was supposed to sit out the next day, but luckily the game ended up being a rainout, so no one played and he later made it up with the team.

Also, I must advise all Ichiro and Mariner's fans to start voting for him for the All-Star game, as he is currently sitting at number four on the Outfield list - though we shouldn't have to worry as the ballots in Asia just recently opened, so he should easily make it, but still, vote for him anyways.

I also want to see a good showing for our double play combo - Lopez and Betancourt, and our catcher Kenji Johjima. I don't expect to get much support for the others on our team (well, maybe Felix, even without him performing that well.

[Edgartohof]

Ichiro started off the month of June with a 2 hit performance, with a late inning run, off of a Jose Lopez 2-RBI double. So now he is leading the league with 79 hits, with 2nd place, still 8 hits behind with 71. He has also raised his Batting Average to .335, good for 5th in the American League, and rising - quickly I might add.

[Rennie Stennett]

Ichiro started off the month of June with a 2 hit performance, with a late inning run, off of a Jose Lopez 2-RBI double. So now he is leading the league with 79 hits, with 2nd place, still 8 hits behind with 71. He has also raised his Batting Average to .335, good for 5th in the American League, and rising - quickly I might add.

Whenever Ichiro goes into one of his Ichi-slumps (only hit .275) you hear from certain quarters, that the league has figured out how to get him out. "The third baseman plays in and takes away many hits," They say. "He can't handle the inside pitch," another will say. "He's not happy in the States." You hear this all, but yet the guy fiqures it out and adjusts. Bust him inside too much and he'll pull the ball and drive it. Take away the slappy up the third base line, and he'll start hitting line drives to third. Ichiro will make you play defense and make you make decisions. This is why he is so dangerous with men on base, and with the sacks full. This makes him a monster #3 hitter, which he played most of his time in Japan. We'll probably never see this, Ichiro hitting third. Even if it's the right thing to do, hargrove won't do it. He is a by the book kind of manager. If you always go with the status quo or by the book you can't get second guessed. I think a look at the numbers will show that Ichiro would be a monster #3 hitter. His seven years in Japan, he hit #3 all the time.

[Edgartohof]

Ichiro has been on a hot streak since May 5th, and hasn't slowed down since.

He was a homerun shy of the cycle tonight, scoring a couple of the teams 11 runs throughout the night, and adding an RBI late in the game. He also recorded his 18th SB (on pace for 51 - very respectable), and took a walk for good measure. In the process, he raised his BA to .342 for the season, which will only JUST keep him in 5th (Hillenbrand - .343, is 4th), though I suspect he will be passing a few of them soon.

For the season, Ichiro has 82 hits, is in the top 10 in runs (44), tied for the leauge lead in triples (5) with teammate Jose Lopez, and is solidly in the top five in SB's with 18 (6th place only has 13).

Since May 5th, and the ensuing 18 game hitting streak and thereafter, Ichiro has hit .426/.476/.513, with 49 hits. Ichiro also has 4 consecutive multi-hit games to play off, and has had 2 or more hits in 6 of his last 7 games.

[Edgartohof]

Ichiro went 2-4 tonight with a double, and now has a 6 game hit streak, and has had multiple hit games in 7 of his last 9.

[Edgartohof]

Well, Ichiro is continuing to be himself at the plate.

He has a line of: .358/.408/.446

He now has 93 hits (1st in the league - on pace for 247), 47 runs (6th), 5 triples (T-1st), 18 SB's (5th)

He is also 2nd in the league in BA, and 11th in OBP.

[Edgartohof]

What else is there to say? He got another 3 hits today, bringing his total to 96 for the season.

He now is hitting: .361/.411/.449, and is on pace for 251 hits, which is something that we all know that he can do. He is hitting an AMAZING .576/.588/.788 with 19 hits in only 33AB's, and is hitting a torrid .466 over the last 30 days (and yet that's not the best he has done - he went 70/124 - .565 over another 30 day period in 2004, from July 20th to August 18th, so we know he can keep up this pace).

Also, with the 3 hits he collected today, he now has 125 games in his MLB career with 3 or more hits, that's a 162 game average of 24 games of 3 or more hits per season. Let's just compare this to a few HOF'ers (and one future one).

Player.....3+ Hit Games.....Games Played.....162 Game Avg
Gywnn.....288.................2440................ .19
Carew......301.................2469............... ..20
Boggs......283.................2440............... ..19
Ichiro......125.................858............... .....24

Gwynn leads all 4 of them in 5 hit games (he also has one 6 hit game), with 8 (Carew - 7, Boggs - 3), though Ichiro has 4 in considerably less time, so extrapolated out to similar playing time, he would beat all of them easily . Boggs has the most 4 hit games with 59 (Carew - 51, Gwynn - 35), though again, Ichiro has 25 so far, in nearly 1/3 the time, so if you extrapolate his playing time, to 2400 games, he beats them all soundly.

[Rennie Stennett]

Hey could one of you numbers guys fiqure out what Ichiro would have to do to hit (.400) ?

I know he would have to go a little better than (2-5) the rest of the way to do it. Could he do it, even with only walking 50 times per year ? Break it down and share it with us Ichiro Fans. thx.

[Edgartohof]

I'll see what I can do about that.

[Jake83]

Tonight's game Ichiro smashed a clean single off the 1st pitch.

[Edgartohof]

Well, Ichiro so far is on pace for 692 At Bats, if we assume he walks at the same rate (without going into specifics - at least not yet). So in 692 AB's, in order to hit .400, he needs to have 277 hits (!!!!!).

So, as he has 96 hits in his first 62 games, he would need another 181 hits in his next 100 games, or 1.81 hits/games!!!!

That would be an absolutely crazy clip to hold up for the whole year - and though it has yet to be done, and I am as biased as anyone (in fact, moreso), I still see it as possible - maybe not probable, but possible.

I see it as possible, as in this model, he would need another 181 hits over the next 100 games, which is around 427 AB's for him, which equates to a .423 BA for him for the rest of the season. Need I remind you that he carried a .429 BA for the second half of the 2004 season, so this is not THAT outlandish (okay, so maybe a little).

Of course, I have not factored in the 2 hits he has gotten already in the first 3 innings of the game tonight, so let's see what he gets tonight, and let's see how that changes it.

[Rennie Stennett]

Say, Ichiro is so smokin' hot that steam is coming off his bat and he gets over the .400 mark in say, late August and all of a sudden, the pitchers start giving him four wide ones every at bat ? Okay, I'm getting crazy here. thx for your work.

[Edgartohof]

Which would you prefer for him to do? Break 262 hits in a season, or hit .400 (though if he does one, the other is probably not too far behind)?

[Rennie Stennett]

I would like to see him hit (.400).

[Edgartohof]

Well, Ichiro ended up giong 2-4 tonight, with his second hit being a double (he later scored on it). But he also had 2 SB's, one after each of his hits.

So he now is at 98 hits for the season, is batting: .364/.412/.454

And is hitting .568/.579/.784 in June, and has a 10 game hit streak going, with 2 or more hits in 9 of them, including the last 5 games all being multi-hit games.

So he is on pace for:

162 - G
692 - AB
252 - H
123 - R
21 - 2B
13 - 3B
5 - HR
46 - RBI
314 - TB
46 - BB
69 - SO
51 - SB
5 - CS
(91%)
.364/.412/.454/.866

[Edgartohof]

I'm sorry that this is late, but Ichiro now has surpassed 2500 hits in his professional career - 2506 to be exact.

This includes 1228 in the MLB and 1278 in Japan.

Now I would like to see someone tell me that he would not have been able to accomplish this same feat in the same time if he had played solely in the US. In fact, if he had started at the same time, he would have reached this number faster, due to the longer schedules here.

This would put him at 81st on the All-Time Hits list, and 5th on the list among active players (by FAR the youngest).

[csh19792001]

Which would you prefer for him to do? Break 262 hits in a season, or hit .400 (though if he does one, the other is probably not too far behind)?

.400, by far. It's become mythical in its significance and historical stature.

[Rennie Stennett]

with a couple of hits tonight, Ichiro has a 11 game hit streak going. he don't walk much and he gets 5 AB's per game. Is this the year to break Joe D's 56 game hit streak ? Ichiro has done everything else, except hit in 56 and hit .400.

My Oh My !

[Edgartohof]

Well, Ichiro just added another hit tonight - a nice 3-Run Home Run! And he may still get another At Bat in this game - one can only hope.

[Edgartohof]

Well, he ended up going 3-6 tonight (though he did reach base in his final at bat due to an error). As mentioned above, he added a 7th inning 3 run HR to his previous 2 hits, and had 3 Runs and 3 RBI for the evening.

So he now has 101 hits, 51 Runs, 8 doubles, 5 triples, 3 HR, 21 RBI, 20 SB (90%), and is batting: .367/.414/.465

He is also batting .558/.568/.813 so far in June, and with 24 hits so far, is on pace for 69 hits this month - a record I believe!!!

He also has an 11 game hitting streak, with multiple hits in each of his last 6 games, and 12 of his last 14.

Ichiro has been hitting .464/.496/.592 the last 30 days as well, including 58 hits!


Though while his .367 BA is QUITE impressive, it is being overshadowed by the young-gun on the Twins - Mauer, who is hitting a nearly unthinkable .388, though unlike Ichiro, I tend to wonder when he will suddenly crash (many others think this as well), and come back to earth.

So as soon as Mauer gets off the hot, HOT streak he is on, and reverts back to the norm, Ichiro will quickly pass him, and in all probability, not give up the lead (at least not to Mauer).

With the 101 hits he now has, Ichiro is on pace for 256 hits for the season - yet that now almost seems "normal" for him, and I would agree, a race for .400 would be exciting right now (heck, even it it is Mauer who chases it...as long as Ichiro is in the hunt as well).

[Edgartohof]

With Ichiro being really hot lately, I happened to forget to check on something I was meaning to. A little while ago (a couple months back), anothe poster put together a couple lists of players totals since 2000.

On those lists was the top 10 MLB leaders in hits. Ichiro happened to be second on that list, despite not starting in the MLB until 2001 - he was a full season behind the others, yet was only a few hits behind the leader!

The list at the time (before the season started) looked like:

1 Todd Helton 1157
2 Ichiro Suzuki 1130
3 Derek Jeter 1129
4 Miguel Tejada 1116
5 Alex Rodriguez 1110
6 Johnny Damon 1109
7 Vlad Guerrero 1088
8 Garret Anderson 1071
9 Bobby Abreu 1042
10 Juan Pierre 1040

But it now looks like:

1. Ichiro Suzuki - 1231
T-2. Derek Jeter - 1202
T-2. Todd Helton - 1202
4. Miguel Tejada - 1200
5. Johnny Damon - 1180