The Genius of Ichiro

Posted on by Joe Posnanski

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There's something about Ichiro Suzuki's Baseball-Reference page that I just don't like. This is nobody's fault -- certainly not the fault of BR. As far as I know, all the numbers on there are accurate to the last decimal point. The page is brilliantly laid out, like all the...
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12 thoughts on “The Genius of Ichiro”

  1. To me, the comp that screams to be included is Tony Gwynn. Especially because Young Tony Gwynn also stole bases. In his 27-31 span, Gwynn missed a fair number of games, about 15 per season, so he ends up with “only” 929 hits. But consider his 162 game averages:
    Gwynn / Ichiro:
    .330/.386/.440 / .332/.377/.442
    Hits 209 / 231
    2B/3B/HR 32/11/6 / 28/9/11
    SB/CS 33/13 / 39/12
    …
    Gwynn hit .326 over 3 full seasons and 2 half-seasons before his age 27 season, 770 hits in 612 games.

  2. Love this, Joe. The knock wrt BA is the same knock that Altuve gets, and it doesn’t do him justice either.

    Ichiro is perhaps the best ballplayer I’ve ever seen for a full career, and I was born in 1964. His domination of the game was unparalleled.

    And the comment about no power is only true because he chose not to hit for power. He could’ve, like Boggs and Gwynn, but he was more effective, like them, not doing it. Ichiro could’ve done anything on the ball field, except maybe (MAYBE) catch. What a privilege to have seen him.

  3. In the end, baseball exists because of the challenge of hitting a thrown ball. Everything else is just details. And while we understand now how valuable walks really are, while we understand that On Base Percentage is more useful when talking about how much a player helps his team win … I think that sometimes it’s easy to forget that the sport is really about hitting the ball. And Ichiro was a simply magical at it.

  4. One of the fun things about his rookie year is that he hit something like .570 with the bases loaded. So he instantly got the reputation of “clutch”. The energy of Safeco Field would come alive when he was up with runners on. It was really special and memorable. In my memory, his high batting average with runners on contributed to his MVP case. I don’t think he would have won it otherwise.

  5. One great oddity of Ichiro’s career is that he never lead the league in runs scored and his 2004 year drives this point home.
    In 2004 Ichiro:
    -262 Hits (!!)
    -315 Times on base
    -Batted .372
    -Stole 36 bases
    And scored….101 runs, which wasn’t even in the leagues Top 10.

    1. Where can we find out the BA of the batters who came up when he was on base. That’s an insane stat. Puts RBIs, another maligned stat, into some context, too.

  6. So, is there an example of a player who took a lot of walks throughout their career but was not a good hitter? Being a great hitter doesn’t mean you are good at taking walks but I don’t think you can consistently get on base through walks unless you can handle the bat. Ignoring a pitcher that just can’t find the plate, some players take walks because of their power and the fear of putting the ball anywhere closer than the edges. Others, just because they have a good eye and rarely strike out.

    I did a quick search and didn’t find anything but I probably don’t know where to look. I’d love to see where players like Ichiro and Gwynn were pitched. They were so good at taking what they got and putting the ball in play in an optimal way. Did they only swing at strikes or were they good at hitting the balls that were just out of the strike zone (like Vlad)?

  7. I’m not sure what qualifies as not a good hitter, but Eddie Yost only hit .254 for his career with 139 homeruns, but had an OBO of .394 (over 18 seasons).

    1. Definitely not a hitter that seemed to be feared. Highest slugging for a season was .436. His OBP for that season led the league at .435. Career slugging was .371. Not sure what to think of him. I wonder if there are others like this or was he the exception?

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