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Lol yo finns you are tight... a little ichiro man crush? Lol clown
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[h3]1. 27 and counting for Ichiro[/h3]Ichiro Suzuki will try to extend his consecutive-game hitting streak to 28 when the Mariners return to action against the Twins on Friday. He's batting .398 (47-for-11 since the streak began on May 6.
One reason Suzuki is capable of streaks like this is that he can make contact -- and get hits -- on pitches most hitters would not even try to hit. He's one of only four hitters with a minimum of 150 plate appearances who are batting over .300 on pitches both in and out of the strike zone. (The others are Carl Crawford, Dustin Pedroia and Miguel Tejada.) On the season, Ichiro has a .366 batting average in the zone and a .314 average out of the zone for an overall average of .353.
In particular, he's been proficient at handling low pitches. Ichiro's .413 batting average in the bottom third of the hitting zone is one of the best in the majors and well above the .219 league average. Unless they roll it to the plate, pitchers can't target the ball low enough to keep Ichiro off it:
[h4]Batting avg. vs. pitches in lower third (2009)[/h4] [table][tr][th=""]
[/th] [th=""]Ichiro[/th] [th=""]League average[/th] [/tr][tr][td]In the strike zone[/td] [td].362[/td] [td].264[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Below the strike zone[/td] [td].500[/td] [td].125[/td] [/tr][/table]
During the streak he's gotten 19 hits off low pitches -- nine were below the knees. That's enabled Suzuki to keep the streak alive; twice he's collected his only hit of the game on a pitch down in the zone.
Ichiro is also streak-prone because he has mastered the slap-and-run game, literally heading to first base as he swings and often purposely trying to hit a ball between the shortstop and third baseman. He's hit ground balls 59 percent of the time during the streak, and has a .391 batting average on them (league average is .234). Quickness out of the left-handed batter's box and speed down the line are still big elements for Ichiro because he rarely makes hard contact. Only five of the 65 grounders he has hit during the streak were well-hit.
Ichiro is a great hitter. He has mastered a form a of hitting that baseball has never really seen before. He is a singles specialist. He is agreat all around player and he will be in the hall of fame. But he is not one of the greatest hitters.
On the other hand though, if anyone were to break this record wouldn't Ichiro be the best canditate?
Originally Posted by KingFoamNYC
Lol yo finns you are tight... a little ichiro man crush? Lol clown
Originally Posted by knightngale
anybody else sick of juan Baller's avatar? he has had that since like 2002
Originally Posted by Juan Baller
Nice to see Ichiro on pace for a career high 52 extra base hits, which would be a big improvement over his pathetic extra base hit totals the last few years.
2006 - 38 extra base hits
2007 - 35 extra base hits
2008 - 33 extra base hits
To put that in perspective, only 2 MLB players (among those with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title) had fewer extra base hits than Ichiro last year.
Unfortunately, it gets worse for Ichiro. Only 15.4% of the balls he has put in this year have been line drives, by far the worst percentage of his career (his career Line Drive % is 20.7), probably due to the fact he's swinging at more pitches out of the strike zone (32.5%) than ever before (his career O-Swing% is 24.5%). Ichiro's batting average is inflated due to an unsustainably high Infield Hit % (16.1%). Not even Ichiro can leave the box fast enough to consistently beat out groundballs that frequently over the course of a full season, so when his Infield Hit % regresses back to his career average of 12.5% expect his batting average to come back his usual .330 level... possibly even lower given that overall he's making worse contact this year because he's swinging at worse pitches (see his decreased Line Drive % and increased propensity to swing at pitches outside the strike zone).
Again, I respect Ichiro's ability to hit singles by slapping groundballs and beating the throw to 1B. But it's a very big stretch to categorize Ichiro's technique as pure hitting since most of it is due to his legs not his bat. That's why he doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the best hitter of all time discussion. What Ichiro does is a specialty (beating out grounders), it's a small subsection of hitting. You wouldn't consider an NBA player who's strictly a 3-point specialist to be the best scorer of all time.
Originally Posted by RetroBaller
man if some people change their avy, i wont know if they post or not
I agree, if this guy can get on that often regardless of them only being singles you can't tell me there are many lead off hitters you wouldtake over him right nowOriginally Posted by Sriracha Hot Sauce
I'm not reading this whole thread, but I skim through it. To discredit any player for their speed is ******ed. He is a leadoff hitter, does it matter how he gets on base? He has more any enough CLEAN hits to his credit, so stop saying majority of his hits are slap singles to the short. Ichiro should be leading the league in RUNS every year if he was playing on a better team.
As a leadoff hitter/outfield, what can you really more can you ask for? Be serious.
You don't feel extra base hits are an important part of hitting? I don't see how anyone could consider a player who consistently finishesnear the bottom of the league in XBH to be a one of the best hitters of all time.Originally Posted by 651akathePaul
I think Juan and co., have very insightful an truthful opinions/facts on Ichiro, but I also strongly believe he is a better hitter than given credit for. Slapping and infield hits aside, I'm hard pressed to convince myself that hitting .371 (and his lifetime acheivements) for any reason, is not considered being a superb hitter.
Finally a player that deserves to mentioned in the "greatest hitter of all time" discussion. Basically the Babe Ruth of the NL duringthe 1920's. Rogers Hornsby led the NL isbatting average, OBP, and slugging percentage for 6 consecutive seasons.Originally Posted by 651akathePaul
Roger Hornsby holds the record of 13 straight games.