would ichiro be more valuable at cf

[ricky151]

I know ichiro is an awesome right fielder. but at center field he would compete offensively as well as defensively. I have no doubt if he can handle the ground in cf. With the speed he has it's a walk in the park. If he played center he would be top 3 at that position. It would also be easier for Seattle to fine a good right fielder than a cf with both defensive and offensive capabilities.
It will probably never happen, but ichiro in my books is more of a key player for the team if playing center field

[SABR Matt]

I've heard this theory many times...I'm not convinced. There is often an offensive drop when a player moves from a corner OF position to CF...it might happen with Ichiro, but if he lost much on offense, I'm not convinced he'd be worth more to us in CF. I want to see Reed for one more full year before I conclude that we need to move Ichiro to center and find a big bat for right.

[Edgartohof]

First off, at this point, it might not be the best for Ichiro, as he is getting older (but he is still only 32), and having played in RF for the last 5 years, where he has become accustomed. He could probably do it, and POSSIBLY with little or no repercussions, but why chance it?

Also, it will be more beneficial to Jeremy Reed as teaching him to play right field doesn't entirely help him play center field, where he would one day, even if they did move Ichiro there for a few years. And it's not like Reed was lacking out there, he definitely held his own, even showing some moments of greatness (oh to be young, healthy, and have good knees )

[Cubsfan97]

Well I tyhink his stats can only get better than last year. That wasnt too good. It was good but not Ichiro good.

[johnny]

they must have already done the math

otherwise when Cameron left -and man could he play!- they talked a bit about putting Ichiro there but defaulted to Wynn. Man that didn't work out so well despite Wynn being a gold glover in Left field he just couldn't hack it out there in centerfield. While I think Ichiro would do better defensively I agree with the above that there may be some drop off. Besides when you got arguably the best right fielder why mess with it.

[ichiro262]

yeah...at this point i think we've already committed to reed in cf, or else i'd me more inclined to think moving ichiro could be a big plus. for the record, he played cf in japan for seven years. i think if we were to trade reed and move ichiro to cf, we could play lawton (or whoever we got for reed if he was better) in rf. but like i said before it's kind of a moot point as we have committed to reed.

[Rennie Stennett]

area 51

Ichiro is a natural rightfielder, but I think he could play anywhere, including as a closer. Reed has great range and with (100) less strike outs per year than Cammy. I'd like to see Reed play a more shallow center. This might happen with time. I was spoiled by Griffey and Cammy, I guess.