ESPN All-Star league champ Justin sez,
In today's Ask BA, Jim Callis was going through the candidates for an 80 grade tool in the majors and minors - listing several Mariners, including Felix for his slider.....
"Mariners second baseman Dustin Ackley may be the best pure hitter in the minors, and Red Sox shortstop Jose Iglesias could be the best defensive infielder, but I'd be reluctant to hang an 80 on either.
At the major league level, Ichiro, Joe Mauer and Albert Pujols are all 80 hitters. Josh Hamilton, Pujols and Mike Stanton have 80 power. Michael Bourn has 80 speed. Franklin Gutierrez, Yadier Molina and Ryan Zimmerman are 80 defenders. Adrian Beltre and Ichiro have 80 arms. On the mound, Justin Verlander owns an 80 fastball, Felix Hernandez throws an 80 slider and Tim Lincecum confounds hitters with an 80 changeup."
Fun stuff. We could find our own opinions on 80's, and mine would differ from Callis' by quite a ways, but ... info-taining opinions rat cheer.
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When Callis gives Ichiro an 80 arm, he must be thinking of accuracy, or of power combined with accuracy.
To be sure, Ichiro is interested in outs, and not in styling. Drives me crazy to see big American athletes airmail throws, like it was a slam-dunk contest, during American League baseball games. Ichiro is out there to kill baserunners, or prevent them from advancing, and that's what he does.
You want an illustration of the difference between the Japanese mindset and ours? Compare Ichiro on a sac fly to Ken Griffey Jr.
I wouldn't give Ichiro an 80 on arm any more than I'd give him an 80 for the following things:
So I guess of the five classic tools, Ichiro has an 80 on four of them. He really is the perfect technical 'small' ballplayer. But, we knew that.
'He's a clinic out there' is a phrase that gets tossed around a lot. Too bad the phrase is used up, when the one player comes along for whom it was invented.
Ichiro is probably the best technical baseball coach in the world. If it weren't for the politics and egos involved, the Mariners could take advantage of that, the way that ballplayers later fought to kneel at Ted Williams' feet for his pearls of wisdom.
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Interesting that Callis gives Felix an 80 for his slider. It certainly is his best pitch, and it is devastating, but nothing is an 80 pitch if you throw it only 10.7% of the time.
It's a curiosity why Felix throws his slider 10-12% of the time. I doubt seriously that it is that much harder on his arm than his overhand curve is, but who knows.
Felix' fastball may not look quite as spectacular, but his FB maintains run values comparable to his slider ... whereas he puts 60% of the burden of the ballgame on the FB. It is a load-bearing pitch, and just as successful as the slider.
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You want to talk about a load-bearing pitch? Erik Bedard throws his curveball an insane 30-35% of the time, and he has only one (1) other pitch.
Despite that, Bedard's curve maintains run values anywhere from 2.00 to 3.00 runs per game better than average.
Visually? Randy Johnson's was no better, and he pitched until he was 45, long after his velocity was gone -- because of his breaking ball.
Mariners fans want to know what a major league PLUS-PLUS-PLUS weapon looks like? Watch Erik Bedard's curve. That's an 80 pitch.
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Cheerio,
Dr D
I think that's what I like so much about Ichiro - I get the sense that he is getting the absolute most out of what physical gifts he was given. He's not the best ball player I've seen but he's maxed himself out like no ball player I've seen. He's made himself into the best possible version of Ichiro that could be. So much to admire in that.
He's what you get when you cross an overachiever with a supremely gifted athlete...