=== Ichiro is 2000-for-6000 ===

Going into Saturday's game, Ichiro was 1988-for-5964 lifetime. 

1988/5964 = 1/3.   Isn't that something?

It would be a fun game to look at historical players who, after 1000's of AB's, had AVGs or K/BB's or OBP's or whatever that were very simple fractions, like a guy whose OBP was exactly 2/5 or whose SLG was exactly 1/2.

Ichiro gets a base hit one-third of the time.   I'm reallllllllly rooting for him to hit 2000-for-6000 exactly :- )

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=== Dialin' It Up ===

Ichiro has 18 strikeouts vs 4 walks the last 30 days.  Yet, he is hitting .381 over that time.

His lifetime EYE is 0.70, but this year it's way down, to 0.45.   And yet, he's having a sensational year.  His SLG is up almost 100 full points from 2008, and is by far the highest of his career.

He has earned, per Fangraphs, $19.4M in salary and is on pace for >$25M.

........................

What's going on?  Ichiro's EYE is down, because his BB's are down, not because his K's are up:

K% = 10.1 this year, 9.7 life

BB% = 4.4 this year, 6.3 life

Want to see something weird?  Look at Ichiro's BB% totals.   The last 5 years in a row, those BB% rates are as steady as you will ever find.

Yet, this year his BB% is way down -- and he's having a career year.   His other career year was 2001.  Check the BB% in that year.

...........................

Yet, 18 strikeouts in a month is high for Ichiro.  He is stinging the ball, with 6 doubles, 2 homers and 24 runs scored in that time -- the equivalent of 150 runs in a full season.

He's getting the ball up in the air a bit more -- 2.2 grounder per fly, rather than 2.4 -- and getting more homers per fly, 7% instead of 4%.  IMHO, virtually all of Ichiro's homers are intentional, so I take that as a sign he's going for power more often.

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=== Fleetwood Mac Go Your Own Way, Dept. ===

Ichiro has a .434 BABIP along with those 18 strikeouts.  For those who don't follow the discussion, Ichiro "breaks" hit-percentage formulas and single-handedly sends analysts back to the drawing board to re-invent their H% formulas.  

This is the third time in his career that he has racked up 40% hits per ball-in-lay and he's at 36% lifetime.

We should always remember not to apply generalizations to Ichiro.  Basic ideas such as "walking more is better" and even "higher BB/K is better" do not necessarily apply to him.

Not many players would be better hitters with a worse EYE, but Ichiro might be one of them.  I suspect that Ichiro's a better player when he's not worrying about his AVG so much.  (Ironically, he might actually see more balls go through if he swung harder.)

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=== Beancounters Dept. ===

Fangraphs has Ichiro as having provided $136M worth of production over his career, while being paid $80M.   ... this year, for their $17M, the Mariners will receive about $25M in bases gained and bases lost, assuming you credit Ichiro for -9 runs saved on defense (as fangraphs.com does).

The idea of Stars & Scrubs is to pay your elite players fairly -- to pay $25 for a $25 Derek Jeter, while underpaying your scrubs.  Then, you can pay for an extra star or two.

A star who provides 100% of contracted performance is helping you win a pennant.  But a star who provides 160 cents on the dollar is a precious commodity.

Can you win your next pennant with this player?  The Mariners aren't fretting the birthdays; they've got Ichiro paid through his age-36, age-37, and age-38 seasons.

Let's just hope he's 3000-for-9000 by the time he's 41 :- )

Cheers,

Dr D