Q.  So could Ichiro be the hits king?

A.  If, say, Jackie Robinson had 3,400 hits in the National League after age 27, and 1,400 in the Negro Leagues before age 27, would people consider Jackie or Rose the hits king?

It's unfortunate that we wouldn't have a perfect comparison between Jackie and Pete Rose.  But if Jackie sailed past Rose by 100's of hits, as Ichiro probably will ... and 70% of the hits were in the majors ... sure.  We'd call Jackie the hits king.

If Josh Gibson joined the majors at 30, and hit 600 homers in the majors, and another 500 in the Negro Leagues, would we call him or Ruth* the HR king?

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Q.  But it's MLB hits that count.

A.  Some good ole boy in Alabama, even if Josh Gibson hit 600 homers in the majors and 500 elsewhere, would still be able to say that Ruth was king.  And he would say that.

People will always be able to say that Pete Rose has the most MLB hits, period (*but see below).  But the consensus will be that Ichiro is the hits king.  You read it here first.

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Q.  How many hits will Ichiro get in the majors?

A.  Probably 1,500-2,000 more.

Ichiro says, pretty much seriously, that he wants to hit until he's 50, and then pitch...

If he's playing outfield past 43, 44 or so, it will be as a .290/.330/.330 center fielder scoring 90 runs.  He could probably do that for five more years, I'd bet.  Check Rickey, who was good until about 39 and who played until 44.

If some team gave Ichiro the chance to be an average-dubious starter for five years, as they did Rickey, then Ichiro could get 1,400 more hits as a good player and 600 additional hits as a bad player.  

That would leave him right about where Rose is with ML hits only.

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Q.  Oh, come on.  2,000 more hits?

A.  When Nolan Ryan sailed past Steve Carlton at about 4,000 strikeouts, becoming #1 all time ... Nolie was still going at 100%.

Bill James, as a historian, said "If you want me to say Ryan can't get 4,500 strikeouts or 5,000 or 6,000, I'm not going to do it.  Common sense tells us to wait and let Nolan Ryan find his own limits."

By the time Ryan was done, he'd passed Carlton's 4,100 strikeouts by amassing 5,700 of his own.

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Q.  Would you give Ichiro a chance to play as the Slap-Hitting Elder, a guy with a 100 OPS+ and a terrible SLG?

A.  Sure, if I had a hole in center field. 

It says here that when Ichiro is 43 years old, that his technique, speed, arm and anticipation will have him among the game's top 50% among defenders in center field.

Would a center fielder who hit .300 with 30 stolen bases, but no SLG, be worth playing out there?  I can name a whale of a lot of Mariner teams who had worse in CF...

Yeah.  I think that Ichiro's going to play a lot of years past age 40.  He's not going to be starting All-Star games.  But at 44, I bet you he'll be better than a lot of ML center fielders.

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Of course, he'll also be a huge draw at the gate, a face of the franchise -- a Ken Griffey Jr. type figure, who remains an average-solid all-around player.  You bet I'll take that.  So will the people running the team merchandise stores in the year 2018.

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Part 3