I Should Coco
Well-Known Member
Shaggy said:Good story, though some of the arguments have pretty big holes.
1. His OBP is good, it's just driven by hits instead of walks and a lot of statheads have a problem with that for some reason. I've seen sabers complain that a player's OBP is "hits-driven" like it's a bad thing. They're not obsessed with OBP, but walks. If Ichiro gets enough singles to make up for a lack of walks, what's the damn difference?
Ichiro is 27th on the active OBP list. Well, 26th since Manny Ramirez isn't really active anymore. Of the 25 ahead of him, ZERO are leadoff hitters.
Agree 100 percent with this.
I can't believe how many people -- even here among Seattle fans -- complain that Ichiro is "just" a singles hitter.
Ryan Theriot is "just" a singles hitter. Ichiro's had 200-plus hits for 10 straight years, and counting. Even in 2011, which is for him a down year, he's got over 100 hits as the All-Star break approaches.
Ichiro hits his way on base enough to score plenty of runs. He's just on a sorry, sorry offensive team. Anyone who blames his lack of HR power for the Mariners' offensive ineptitude is pointing at the wrong "problem."