Ichiro to the Yankees

[Goody]

Hehe, thought this song was kinda cool. He wrote it awhile ago and decided it was a good time to release it now for everyone to hear.

Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard wrote a song about Ichiro and I love the mention of Dave Neihaus in it.

Ichiro Honored Hear Death Cab For Cutie Star Ben Gibbards Song About Newest Yankee| E! Online Deutschland

[Jason Moyer]

If picking up a 38 year old left fielder with an OBP under .300 is an improvement, your team has issues.

Is it too late to bring back the Ichiro vs Abreu thread?

[Cooleyvol]

Originally Posted by Jason Moyer

If picking up a 38 year old left fielder with an OBP under .300 is an improvement, your team has issues.

Its not his present numbers the Yankees are banking on. We all have to agree he's better than his present numbers.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Jason Moyer

If picking up a 38 year old left fielder with an OBP under .300 is an improvement, your team has issues.

And what team doesn't have issues? We happen to need a guy who can manufacture some runs with basic baseball skills and a guy who can field better than Ibanez and Jones at this stage of their careers. For two minor league pitchers, it's a good deal even for only half a season.

[Gazzw87]

Nobody mentioned the financial benefits of signing Ichiro yet.. Baseball is business too! Seattle may lose out on his jersey sales and all that but they free up the $18m or so he was on obviously to build with and the Yankees, not that they need the money from merchandising but im sure they won't complain about it. I think it's cool he's joined my only problem is I play OOTP as Seattle because of him... I can't play as the Yankees now !!

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Gazzw87

Nobody mentioned the financial benefits of signing Ichiro yet.. Baseball is business too! Seattle may lose out on his jersey sales and all that but they free up the $18m or so he was on obviously to build with and the Yankees, not that they need the money from merchandising but im sure they won't complain about it. I think it's cool he's joined my only problem is I play OOTP as Seattle because of him... I can't play as the Yankees now !!

Yeah, the local newspaper printed somebody's tweet about wanting to exchange his Jeremy Lin jersey for an Ichiro model!

Regarding playing as the Yankees . . . after playing as Seattle for so long . . . well, we'd rather you didn't, if it's all the same to you. ()

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Cooleyvol

Its not his present numbers the Yankees are banking on. We all have to agree he's better than his present numbers.

I would say that a player's numbers are his numbers.

He always did have a poor walk rate..and now that his batting average has dropped off, he has little value.

He is still a decent fielder, with a strong arm...but as an offensive threat, he sucks. Hard.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Jason Moyer

If picking up a 38 year old left fielder with an OBP under .300 is an improvement, your team has issues.

Is it too late to bring back the Ichiro vs Abreu thread?

Abreau is a vastly better player...and in my opinion, one of the most underrated players of the last 30 years.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

Abreau is a vastly better player...and in my opinion, one of the most underrated players of the last 30 years.

Vastly better? Nah Similar as far as production, yes....

Fangraphs-
Ichiro, 54.8 career WAR, 1846 games, 8491 plate appearances
Abreau, 62.7 career WAR, 2320 games, 9898 plate appearances

Ichiro, .0297 WAR per game, .00645 WAR per PA
Abreau, .0279 WAR per game, .00633 WAR per PA

If we were to use Baseball Reference its even more in favor of Ichiro as he has a higher WAR in fewer games 49.4 to 46.5 bascially because BR weights defense heavier.

These two are very close but Im not sure about the vastly better comment And I agree with the one of the most underrated comment.

And he is currently a 1.9 WAR player this year. Not the great player he was but still a nice piece to add to an already solid team.

[Mark D]

A team that scores runs and wins game, and will almost certainly be playing in October. For the Mariners, this trade has a bunch of benefits well beyond the two pitchers they got back in return.

[Goody]

Originally Posted by Mark D

A team that scores runs and wins game, and will almost certainly be playing in October. For the Mariners, this trade has a bunch of benefits well beyond the two pitchers they got back in return.

I've already enjoyed watching Trayvon Robinson in the short time he's been back. Has some of the same skill set as Ichiro except add some power and the fact that he's on the upswing and not the downswing. I guess that's the whole point eh.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

Ahh come on. He was a 4.5-7.2 WAR player 85 percent of his career.

He offered many things beside "singles."

Statistics are wonderful.

If you throw out his one, excellent year, his WAR is 45 for 11 seasons..average? Under 4.

His WAR, the last two years, COMBINED??? 1.7.

Ichiro was a good player, for a long time...but those times were long ago.

A singles hitter hitting .260 for the last two years, with a two-year combined OBP under .300 is fine, if he plays the best SS ever. Not so much for a corner outfielder.

Oh...OPS+ for the last two years combined, spanning about 1200 plate appearances? 84

[Goody]

So now he's playing left field and even the most pedestrian plays become mlb.com highlight videos. We've been watching these for years. Except real ones, not plays where he looks all out of place cause he's not used to that position.

BlackBerry: Bold Plays of the Day | BAL@NYY: Ichiro leaps at the wall to make superb grab - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia

[damientheomen3]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

If you throw out his one, excellent year, his WAR is 45 for 11 seasons..average? Under 4.

Someone needs to brush up on basic math. 45/11 = 4.09... > 4