that Ichiro made his mark on MLB when he did.  Essentially he stepped in at the close of the "Steroid Era (whatever that means)" and played like a modern day Ty Cobb.  If he'd been white, he'd be the most celebrated player in baseball by a wide margin, but since he's a 'reclusive' or whatever Japanese guy who doesn't line up perfectly with what we preconceive a superstar should look like, he gets bumped down to juuuuuust below the top shelf.
 
The guy has been a pleasure to watch, and when he's elected on the first ballot, I guaranTEE half of the writers will act shocked at his career totals, saying he did it all 'quietly, like a ninja,' or some other stuff.  The truth is, like with Edgar, the whole world should be savoring this guy's historical achievements a lot more than they are.  I, for one, am thrilled he's playing for us, and I support any plan that keeps him playing in Seattle until he hangs up the spikes.

very smart ballplayer, the kind of guy who does what is needed, when it's needed.  Which brings me to an interesting question I was kicking around the other day.  What is the value of an Ichiro SB vs. the league average?  I would assume, shooting from the hip, that his SB's would be more valuable than league average by quite a bit as far as WPA or leverage or whatever the current metric is for quantifying such.  Similar to Mike Cameron a few years ago hitting many of his home runs in one run or tied games (don't know if that was a career trend or just a flash).
 
Anyways, I agree with you that Ichiro will only swing at the out-of-zone pitches if there's a good chance he can drive the ball from there, and when he's not limited to swinging at pitches in the zone, he's not only dangerous, but he controls the AB better than most hitters out there.  It's the same thing that made Vlad so dangerous for the Angels.  You'd get him in a pitcher's count, throw the junkball at his ankles, and he'd crush it out of the park.

and strategic discussion.  Essentially, ROTO is a good facsimile for a closed market system, which is what MLB is.  There is inflation, but beyond that there really is very little difference in the amount of salary paid out from year to year.
 
Is it a perfect corollary?  Of course not.  What it does is provide another angle on valuation of players and presents different perspectives on roster construction.  To my mind, it's more valuable to start the discussion with ROTO comps than with $/WAR, which is all the rage these days in our cyber-bubble.  $/WAR is also an imperfect system (used dogmatically), in that it fails to capture the increasing value of each successive win a player provides in a given year. 
 
All FA $/WAR gives you is the rolling average of contract values for all FA's, when in practice, you gain significant leverage by buying the superstars for the big money and leaving the rest of the roster fluid.  You take a little more risk by putting all the eggs in Manny/A-Rod/Johann's basket, but you also allow for significant upside.
 
Long story short, it's all helpful and informative, if presented and discussed fairly.  Heck, even a yearly drafted 5x5 league can teach people about position scarcity and maintaining a reasonable balance of skills on the roster.
 

came in a game against Boston at Safeco.  Bases loaded, late-ish in the game, and Ichiro got hosed by the ump early in the count at a critical juncture (2-1 outside called strike to 2-2 or something similar), and Ichiro gave an ice-cold glare to the umpire before returning to the batter's box.
Fouled off a handful of pitches (8-9 pitch AB, I wanna say), and between each pitch looked back and gave the same glare to the ump.  Then whacked one out of the park for a salami.
The guy knows how to get it done when it matters.  And there's no more fierce competitor in MLB.