Ichiro's hits in Japan are irrelevant

[Shawon0Meter]

They're really making a big deal about his 4000th total professional hit. His 3000th MLB hit will be far more impressive. Isn't Matt Murton like the Mike Trout of Japan??? Who cares what players do over there?

 

[TL1961]

Nobody is equating the hits in Japan with hits in MLB. They are simply acknowledging the combined total is very impressive and noteworthy.

Not sure why people get so riled up.

The bottom line is this: Ichiro Suzuki has more hits per MLB game played than any individual who has ever played in MLB.

Anyone. Ever.

And top that off with gold glove defense.

The man is a terrific baseball player, and has accomplished a lot in his MLB career, which is less than 13 years long at this point.

2,700 hits, good for 59th all time (excluding those Japanese hits) in just 12+ years. Truly noteworthy.

 

[Parade_Rain]

I would venture to guess that the players care what they do over there.

 

[TL1961]

Funny thing is, people want to discount the competition, but he has more hits per year and per game in MLB than he did in Japan.

 

[ClydeLee]

They also catalog Warren Moons professional stats as well when talking about his career.

Fucking A on Tapatalk

 

[JosMin]

You can pretend Ichiro never even played in Japan and he's still a first ballot Hall of Famer. I think he'll play into his 40s and surpass 3,000 hits, career batting average well over .300, Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season (absolutely ridiculous), 10-straight 200-hit seasons (ridiculous), 10-straight Gold Gloves (again.... ridiculous), 3 Silver Slugger awards (very impressive considering he isn't a power hitter), he'll probably also surpass 500 steals (one of 37 players ever), two batting titles, and although he's only had 19 career postseason games -- he's a career .346 hitter in the playoffs with 4 steals, 4 doubles, 8 RBIs and a homer.

I think it's safe to say that if he played his entire career over here, not only would he have an outside shot to pass Pete Rose for the all-time hits leader, we very well could have him in the conversation as one of the greatest players to ever live. I don't think his .300+ average would be out of the question, to go along with 15+ Gold Gloves, 1000+ steals, and a cache of other accolades. Ichrio will always be one of my favorite players. What a classy guy. It'll be a sad day when he retires.

 

[SilenceS]

Ichiro is the greatest Japanese player ever and one of the best MLB players. To hate on him is dumb. He is great! Period!

 

[CSF77]

Greatest lead off hitter of this generation and best sense Ricky. 1st ballot.

 

[ChitwnRyan60452]

I'm sure alot of MLB pichers took the "He's not gonna hit one out, so I'll just lay it in there, cause nobody else on the Mariners could hit water if they fell out of a boat" approach.

 

[brett05]

I'm sure alot of MLB pichers took the "He's not gonna hit one out, so I'll just lay it in there, cause nobody else on the Mariners could hit water if they fell out of a boat" approach.

Not a chance

1) you would pitch around
2) it is said that in batting practice he'd launch more than his teammates
3) wasn't he in an ASG Homerun contest?

 

[Mr. Cub]

Great post Jos.
Ichiro will probably go down as one of the best hitters in baseball. Like the Ty Cobb of our era. I'd like to see him get 3K MLB hits before he hangs it up.

And Brett, I don't think Ich ever did a HR derby. Not positive, but pretty sure.

 

[JosMin]

I don't know if anyone heard what Colin Cowherd said this morning about Ichiro, but it was absolute horse shit. Cowherd said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that Ichiro was strictly a singles hitter who did little else to help his team. He said that Ichiro was one of the reasons the Mariners never took off because he was too concerned with padding his own stats. One of the callers tried talking about his ability as a baserunner and in the field and Cowherd completely dismissed those notions, saying "his OBP sucked for a leadoff hitter because he didn't walk enough and he didn't throw out enough baserunners."

Now, I generally like Cowherd, but I thought his assessment was absurd.

 

[JosMin]

And what's hysterical is that less than a year ago, Cohwerd was on ESPN NY praising Ichiro, talking about how enjoyable he was to watch (Cowherd is from the PNW).

Here's the clip of him praising Ichiro.

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=8461946

 

[Shawon0Meter]

I don't hate Ichiro or think he's not a hall-of-famer just for the record.

When MLB players have gotten their 3000th or 4000th hits or some other milestone, they never achieve it early by mentioning their minor league stats so I didn't get the point of celebrating Ichiro's 4000th hit.

 

[TL1961]

I don't know if anyone heard what Colin Cowherd said this morning about Ichiro, but it was absolute horse shit. Cowherd said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that Ichiro was strictly a singles hitter who did little else to help his team. He said that Ichiro was one of the reasons the Mariners never took off because he was too concerned with padding his own stats. One of the callers tried talking about his ability as a baserunner and in the field and Cowherd completely dismissed those notions, saying "his OBP sucked for a leadoff hitter because he didn't walk enough and he didn't throw out enough baserunners."

Now, I generally like Cowherd, but I thought his assessment was absurd.

Lou Brock is in the Hall of Fame for hitting singles and stealing bases. Brock was nowhere near the hitter Ichiro is. Brock was a poor defensive player. Ichiro is a stud.