Wednesday, September.26/2012

Ichiro Suzuki has thrived in this AL EAST Pennant Race. Has he done enough to warrant a 1 or 2 year deal to re-sign with New York Yankees? We might get our answer after the 2012 MLB Playoffs.

Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Writer): Follow @chuckbooth3024

Ichiro Suzuki has been tearing it up over the last 10 games for the New York Yankees.  The ‘freshly’ named AL ‘Player of the Week’ is hitting .432 with 19 hits in that time-including a 14-20 stretch and 6 Multi-hit games.  So does his renaissance remind of you anyone?  ah, yeah… The 2001-2009 version of the Japanese Superstar.  The Yankees were smart enough to think that Ichiro still had some good baseball in him.  For the last 250 games as a Mariner, Suzuki was struggling just to hit .260.  A Career lifetime hitter at Safeco Field of .325, was only hitting .214 there this year.  The Yankees brass must have been banking on his road average of .294 for this year to see what kind of player addition he would make in their lineup.

Ichiro has been hitting out of the 1 or 2 slot for the majority of this run,  a move I said to do as soon as the Yankees picked the guy up.  Between he and Jeter, you have two professional hitters who have a combined 7236 professional hits when you add Jeter’s 3296 hits, plus Ichiro’s 2567 hits in the MLB and his 1273 hits with the NPBL.  Folks, Ichiro has 3940 hits in his professional career.  It is my opinion they should not mess with this lineup for the rest of the year. Jeter is challenging for a batting crown, so he may be a little better out of the #1 slot as he sees a lot more pitches–and tends to walk more.  Plus as a left-handed batter hitting second, with pinpoint bat control, Ichiro is better to hit the ball to advance Jeter into scoring position or beat out infield hits with a hole open on the right side of the base when Jeter is at 1st. 

Suzuki is also an excellent bunter and his speed is still way above average.   While I don’t think Jeter will ever pass Pete Rose‘s 4256 MLB hits, I believe that if Ichiro plays the rest of this season, plus another 2 seasons, he may have a chance to club another 317 hits to pass Rose on the ALL-Time professional hits list. Read the rest of this entry →