The guy's been on a tear: 50 hits in June, 51 in July; back-to-back 50-hit months being a feat that hasn't been accomplished since 1936. So far in the first 7 days of August: 16 hits in 31 at-bats. He's going to become the first player in Major League history to reach 200 hits in each of his first 4 seasons: 242, 208, 212, and currently leading the league with 172. He could possibly challenge George Sisler's record of 257 hits in one season set in 1920 (he's on pace to finish with 255), and even if he falls short of the mark but reaches 240, he'll become the only player since Sisler to have TWO 240-hit seasons in a career. In addition to these historic achievements, Ichiro has also already won a Rookie of the Year award, an MVP award, and is looking to win his second batting title. He collected 1,278 hits back in Japan, became the first Japanese position player to play in the majors, and will complete only his 4th season here with right around 900 career Major League hits. Considering the fact that he is only 30 years old, how many hits will he amass in his MLB career? How many will he need to warrant induction into the MLB Hall of Fame? Will/should his 1,278 Japan league hits be taken into account when it comes time for the voters of the BBWAA to weigh his career accomplishments? Will/should the historical importance of his being the first Japanese position player to enter MLB be taken into account?
i'm gonna bump this because Ichiro is the man. he's been on a superhuman tear only matched by what jim edmonds is doing in St. Louis. he's a hits machine... every day i look up the box and he's got like 4 or 5 hits. i have to say for a while the pitchers adjusted to him and he didn't adjust back, but now it looks like he has. i'd like to see him hit .380 a season... problem is he's prone to some slumps, maybe because he's used to the shorter seasons in Japan. refuse to believe that his best season will forever be his rookie season. anyway what's sad is that he's got a million hits but is only on track for 100 runs because the offense behind him is doing jack squat. they should trade him to the cardinals. then he'd have like 200 runs.
I doubt he'll ever come close to hitting .380. Ichiro is somewhat of a volume-hitter, he gets so many hits partly because he gets SO many at-bats: he bats leadoff and he doesn't take very many walks, so in his first 4 seasons he has averaged almost 700[!] at-bats a year. He's still just 30 years old, so he should have a few more prime years left, but a big factor in his hitting is his speed--he gets a lot of infield hits because there's nobody who gets out of the box and down the line faster--and that speed is unlikely to last past his mid-30s. That being said, I think if he plays just 7 or 8 more seasons, he should be a cinch to get to 2,000 hits. At the end of this year he'll have around 900 hits (his career average in the majors is currently .334), so if he plays 8 more years, and averages just 500 at-bats a year (remember, he's averaged nearly 700 AB's per year thru his first four) that gives him 4,000 more at-bats; if he just bats a flat .300 for that span (remember, his current career average in the bigs is .334, and his career average over his 7 seasons in Japan was .353) that would give him 1,200 more hits to add to his 900. Will he get into the Hall if he accumulates 2,000+ career hits? I don't see how anyone could legitimately deny him entry if in fact he does manage to reach that number. His 1,278 hits in Japan cannot be ignored: given that he's gotten 900 in 4 years so far in the majors, surely nobody would argue that he wouldn't have collected at least 1,000 hits if he spent his first 7 years here; therefore he would, in essence, join the 3,000-hit club. Barring injury, and if he plays till at least the age of 38, I say Ichiro will become HOF-material.
A player must play at least 10 seasons to qualify for the HOF right? 200 hits per year for 10 years. He should get in with around 2000 hits or more. If he maintains a .300+ avg also, he is in for sure! Who has 200+ hits in four consecutive seasons? I don't think anyone has, not even Ty Cobb or Pete Rose. Does Ichiro have a chance for another MVP this season? Over Manny, Vlad, and Sheff? If Sheff doesn't get it, I hope Ichiro does even if his team sucks.
Vlad would win the a.l. mvp this season ,but maybe the voters would do an a-rod and vote for him due to accomplishment (if he breaks the hits record).
If he averages 200 hits for the next 6-8 seasons he will definitely get consideration. I don't think voters will take his Japanese stats into account, but will consider his international importance and social impact on the game.
Saw an Ichiro/Biggio debate on IMAX last night...Max actually loved Biggio, which in his prime, I agree...but now, he's not doing that bad...
If Biggio played onthe ast coast he'd pretty much be a lock. not 1st ballot material, but those vertans would get him in if the writers didn't. In fact I think he'll still probably get in via the veterans.
even though this thread isnt about biggio....compare biggio's numbers at 2b with other 2bs and u will see a top notch player. robby alomar is regarded as one of the greatest 2bs of all time, but biggio is just barely behind him, if at all, if u look at his numbers.
Ichiro with another 50 hit month. Wow, what can u say about the guy. He is batting .46something since the allstar games. Thats close to one hit for every two at bats. Too bad his team sucks big time.
Ichiro's MVP award was a joke. That said, the guy is a phenomenal hitter...but I don't think his accomplishments in Japan should have any bearing on HOF induction. That just opens a whole new can of worms for other players from South America, etc. How do you decide which leagues are competitive enough to use player stats as reasons for induction? You don't. It's all best left to MLB stats and MLB stats alone. No one ever mentions minor league stats when they are discussing a potential inductee. Now, having said that, I would put money that at least a few writers would elect to vote Ichiro in based partly on his Japanese accomplishments. I would love to be amazed at what Ichiro is doing this year, but frankly I'm way, WAY more amazed by what Bonds has been doing the last several years. To me, that is infinitely more remarkable.
I think there's some precedents of sorts. After all, many Negro League stars are in the Hall; some who played in the majors, and even some who never got the chance to play in the majors. I agree it could be a Pandora's box, though. If he gets to 2,500+ hits, however, giving him a professional total pushing 4,000? C'mon, he's gotta get in then. Bonds is on an altogether different planet. The steroids accusations don't even bother me, because if he's on the juice, there are certainly many, many other MLBers on the juice too, yet still his performance laps them. That's all I really need to know about the "legitimacy" of his accomplishments, by measuring how far he surpasses his peers and contemporaries.
How long did Puckett play? Did he even get 10 years in. At any rate, I think special exceptions should be made if a player dominates for like 5 years or more and is highly regarded. With the international game exploding it seems many great players won't be able to give 10 years to the league.
Reflecting back on ichiro, would you guys now consider him hall of fame material if he breaks sisler's hit record which was over 80 years ago? He needs 10 hits in ten games to beat the record which I think he will get.
man, just when i thought ichiro was falling off, he delivers a 5-5 performance and follows it up with a 4-6. he's now 11 for his last 13. what's so amazing to me is the incredible number of balls he slaps on the ground that still get through. it's like he just guides it straight through whatever whole is there. of course, he can beat out just about anything so that helps too. and since we're talking about hits, raul ibanez just went 6-6. have there been an incredible number of 6 hit games this year or do i just not remember ones from past years? it seems like damn near every time a team puts up 17 or 18 runs, someone in the lineup gets 6 hits. i know it's happened at least 4 times this year, if not more. sure seems like it was rare as hell before this year.
ichiro is really good at play baseball. we would be talking about pete rose's record if he started in the majors instead of japan leagues.
