Is Ichiro the best hitter of all time?

[savafan]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ycn-8667461

The Philadelphia Phillies' recent Interleague series against the Seattle Mariners allowed their fans to see one of baseball's best hitter in this current era.

Ichiro Suzuki(notes) broke into professional baseball when he was 18 years old. He wasn't a regular during the first two years of his career. It wasn't until his third season that he played a full season and had 210 hits and a .385 batting average.

However, the only problem with Ichiro's first nine seasons of statistics is that they aren't recognized by Major League Baseball because he was playing for the Orix Blue Wave in the Japanese League.

[jojo]

Best hitter of all time? Uhhhh, no.

[reds1869]

Let me preface this by saying that Ichiro is probably my favorite non-Red of all time and I think you owe it to yourself to see him in person before he hangs up the spikes. Ichiro is an amazing hitter and an even better defender; his arm is flat out terrifying and no one bothers to run on him anymore. He is certainly one of the best hitters of all time, but his lack of power numbers would put him at the bottom of that elite list. There are simply too many hitters who have had a broader skill set.

[MikeThierry]

Reds, totally agree with your assessment. I just can't put him in the same category as guys like Williams, Musial, Gehrig, etc.

One could make the argument though that he is on the short list of best lead off hitters of all time.

[savafan]

One could make the argument though that he is on the short list of best lead off hitters of all time.

Not disputing the statement, but better than Rickey Henderson? I'm talking for all that both brought to the table.

[RedsManRick]

Ichiro is a guy who had some truly elite skills. But if by "best hitter" we mean "hitter who was able to produce the most runs" then no, he wasn't remotely close.

[MikeThierry]

Not disputing the statement, but better than Rickey Henderson? I'm talking for all that both brought to the table.

Ichiro is on the short list. Henderson is #1 in my opinion but one could argue that Ichiro is right behind him.

[cincyinco]

I don't think best hitter means anything other than getting hits. HR and RBI are power and opportunity. Ichiro is an elite talent IMO, one of the best the game has ever had and I feel fortunate to have watched him in my lifetime. That's the bottom line.

[jojo]

I don't think best hitter means anything other than getting hits. HR and RBI are power and opportunity. Ichiro is an elite talent IMO, one of the best the game has ever had and I feel fortunate to have watched him in my lifetime. That's the bottom line.

He is easily a first ballot HOFer IMHO.

[cumberlandreds]

Best of all time? Probably not. Ted Williams would have something to say about that. But I do believe if Ichiro had played his entire career in the U.S. he would have broken Pete's all time hit record. He has over 2,000 hits in about ten years. Just expand that out to 20 years and he's right there with Pete.

[kaldaniels]

Perspective re: Japan.

Wlad Balentein is a superstar there.

[westofyou]

Best?

Best deadball hitter since 1920, best hitter?

Nah.

a complete anomaly in today's game.

In fact only 9 players have the rate stats that Ichiro has (high Ba + low slugging + high OB%)

CAREER
OBA >= .375
SLG <= .450
AVERAGE >= .325
RCAA displayed only--not a sorting criteria
AT BATS >= 3500

RUNS CREATED/GAME              RC/G      OBA      SLG      AVG     RCAA      AB     
1    Billy Hamilton            11.55     .455     .432     .344      802     6268   
2    John McGraw               10.75     .465     .410     .334      442     3924   
3    Cap Anson                  9.49     .395     .446     .329      730     9101   
4    Jesse Burkett              9.04     .415     .447     .338      713     8421   
5    Eddie Collins              7.19     .424     .429     .333      747     9948   
6    Willie Keeler              7.14     .388     .415     .341      416     8591   
7    Wade Boggs                 7.12     .415     .443     .328      556     9180   
8    Ichiro Suzuki              6.61     .376     .430     .331      328     6779   
9    Rod Carew                  6.26     .393     .429     .328      491     9315

[dougdirt]

Ichiro has never even been the best hitter in a single season in the major leagues. The guy is a very good hitter, but IMO a great hitter, much less the best of all time, needs to be more than a singles hitter.

[Blitz Dorsey]

One of the best, but definitely not THE best. Sure would have been interesting to see him play his entire career in MLB though.

I was wondering when we were going to start to see some noticeable drop-off in his game and it finally happened this year. It's understandable though -- the guy is 37.

[bucksfan2]

We remember players from our past more fondly.

Ichiro may be the most unique and difficult player to defend. The guy can spray line drives all over the place but the infield has to play in to defend against his speed.