Interesting article. I though a few things the author wrote were asinine though.
Quote:
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But with the Mariners reeking in their worst season since 1983 and with Ichiro having failed to even score 100 runs despite all of those times on base (he's at 92), how much, exactly, does his singular achievement mean?
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Is it me or it the author blaming Ichiro for his drop in runs? You cannot judge a player by his RBI and R totals. Those are team stats. Runs scored directly correlates with OBP. You can' drive in runs without people on base ahead of you and you can't score a run without someone to drive you in.
The most important thing to do as a hitter is to get on base. The criticizm directed at Ichiro! for his lack of doubles, 3B, and HR is a shameless attempt to pass the blame from the failing middle of the lineup to the guy who
LEADS THE TEAM in win shares. Ichiro has 27 win shares, his closest competition is Winn with 18. Shit, there are 8 AL teams that don't have one player with 27 win shares and only one team has more than one player with 27 (the Yanks).
Ichiro is the only reason why the M's didn't lose 110 games this year. It's ricockulous that someone can criticize a player with a .414 OBP. Would these same people criticize Bonds for not hitting balls to the left when team put that shift on him? No, because Bonds doesn't get paid to hit singles and doubles, he get paid to hit the longball.