Just thought I'd toss out a bone to our New York compadres, seeing as how that's the kind of magnamo..magnemo...swell Red Sox dude I am.

Yogi updates the streak.

Actually today's win makes 8 in a row, brings them back to .500, was Randy Johnson's 250th career victory, and Joe Torre's 1800th victory as a manager.

Everything seems to be going right these days. Hell, the bullpen pitched 3 perfect innings today and Giambi got the game-winning hit with an RBI double.

Manny got his 400th homerun.

But then flied out deep to lose the game later.

Manny mah boy.

I'll reserve my comments for the end of the season, but It has been a wonderful week in Yankee fan land!

Yes, yes it has been.

i'm not vested in this debate, but i gotta note that they've been a lot of fun to bet on lately because they haven't played anyone who could swing a bat worth a damn.

I want to take Ichiro away from the Mariners and bring him to Boston. Talk about a complete player. Almost makes me man-crush.

Suzuki-san!

a win against the A's or Mariners or DevilRays count just as much as they do against, Baltimore or the WhiteSox, or any team with a winnig record.

we should be beating up on these teams, and if it helps get our team back in alignment, then these games came at the perfect time.

Fie upon those evil comments. Without Ichiro, our beloved Mariners might win 40 games. Better than A-Rod, I've watched them both play here a lot and I'll take Ichiro anytime.

Now, if we can sucker the Yankees, Red Sox or Mets into taking Bret Boone off our hands, then we'd be getting somewhere.

just did a quick comparison of A-Rod and Ichiro on espn.com

only 20% of Ichiro's hits were not singles.....he doesn't drive in any runs...


A-Rod on the other hand ; 42% of his hits have been for extra bases...


im not knowcking Ichiro. he is a brilliant outfirelder, has a gun for an arm, and may come down to being one of the best hitters ever, but he isnt much more then a brilliant singles hitter offensively....

a-rod knocks in runs.....

they both are pretty solid defensively, although its hard to compare since they play different positions.


i'll still take a-rod.

but i would take Ichirio within my top 6-7.

Forget the Yankees taking Bret Boone unless both Womack and Robinson Cano who looks like the real deal get injured.

Ichiro, while very very talented, is perhaps the most overrated player in baseball. No way is he better than A-rod unless your only criteria is how many singles can a player hit.

Edit: and to show I'm not just a Yankees hack, his closest competition for most overrated is probably Jeter

Booney's still playing?!? Holy christ almighty. He was a Brave for friggin Ever, and that was a long long time ago.



<------ doesn't have cable.

i think that ichiro in the outfield is a better fielder than Arod at 3rd.

Ichiro is deservedly a gold glover in the outfield. A-rod was deservedly a gold glover at shortstop, a more critical position than RF. A-rod makes some very difficult plays look easy at third but boots too many easy plays. He's still adjusting to the position and with time will probably be on the shortlist of 3B gold glove candidates.

Ichiro wouldn't seem so overrated if there was more talent surrounding him. By default, J. Giambi takes the cake. I like him, but he's been slumping since before the season-ending illness last year, right? I think Ichiro would've even been demoted by now.

Yankees can't demote Giambi since he's been in the league more than five years without his permission. He probably would have been demoted if it didn't require his consent.

But what does Giambi have to do with Ichiro. Leaving his horrible contract aside, Giambi has come full circle to being overrated two years ago to being underrated now (based on at least his potential to turn things around).

And Ichiro would be overrated regardless of what team you put him on. He's a singles hitter who virtually never walks. He would walk even less on a better team. Besides while Seattle has gotten off to a slow start offensively, they do have some hitters that teams should be a little scared of.

The only place we are going to give A-rod the nod is in power numbers. Defensively, we aren't even having the conversation. How many big errors has AQ-rod made this season alone?

Beyond power, Ichiro has twice as many stolen bases in the years he has played in the US, so how many singles end up being extra bases when the guy steals over 170 in five years?

Alex has grounded into three times as many DP's as Ichiro in that time period, Ichiro ahs had over 200 hits for four straight years and won two batting titles. Alex has had one 200+ hit season in the same time period with 201 hits.

Alex averages twice as many strikeouts as Ichiro in the time period that they have been in the league together, so at least for meaningless singles he's getting the ball in play. Ichiro has been intentionally walked 71 times to Alex's 44 in the same time period, so we can see who pithcers and managers wouldrather face.

Ichiro is htting .349 at home and .353 away from home, hitting .366 against righties and .346 against righties he's a balanced, great hitter. Alex is hitting .349 at home and a patheitc .230 on the road. He hits .303 against righties and .280 against lefties

All of these numbers are courtesy of espn.com

I will take guys like Jeter and Ichiro any day over bloated power numbers.

Batting Average and steals are two of the most overrated stats in baseball. While Ichiro had 262 hits last year were singles, 225 of them were singles and he walked only 49 times. So even if you ignore the total lack of power production, he didn't even lead the league in on base % despite having a .32 lead on the next highest player in batting average.

A much better stat is OPS which Ichiro finished 22nd in last year behind many players including A-Rod despite A-Rod having an off-year. In 2003, Ichiro hit .312 and had a .352 OBP (which was 30th in the league) and hardly impressive for someone with no power and whose ability to get on and make things happen is supposed to be his primary offensive strength. His OPS was even worse coming in at 45th in the league. He almost has to put up a superhero batting average to be very valuable offensively and he's not going to do that most years.

A-rod's made a bunch of errors this year, some of them being pretty critical ones. That said, he's still adjusting to his position. Throw Ichiro at a new position and see how long his adjustment period is.

np: Yazbek "Damascus"

Maybe I joined the conversation late, but you stated Ichiro was the most overrated player in baseball. I disagreed and nominated Giambi. If we don't take into consideration the player's salaries, how do we measure if they're overrated or not? Isn't this true in most any sport? We don't bash the little guys making next to nil. We bash the A-Rods and Giambis and Mo Vaughns who sign outrageously large contracts and don't perform to their 'abilities', i.e. our standards. At least, that's my angle.

disclaimer: I am to baseball what my Royals are to defense in innings 7-9.

Exactly!

I like knowing that the Jays, Sox, and Orioles now have to look behind their shoulders; the Yankees are on their way to passing them.

Having said that, it may still be a long, hot summer for Yankee fans. :/

On a related note, this weekend's series with the Mets should be fun to watch. Who's yr Daddy?

If you're saying what's the worst contract in baseball, Giambi's would be up there but there are tons of over really bad ones that get less press. Darren Dreifort for example at $11MM/year. Contracts have never been considered for example though when giving out MVP's or you'd always see pre-arbitration eligible players winning the MVP.

The concensus opinion about Giambi (horrible contract aside) though is that he's completely washed up and will never be much of a player again. Many fickle fans and press are going so far as arguing that the Yankees should give up completely and negotiate a settlement with Giambi to get out of his contract and cut him. I think its very possible he could end up being a solid offensive player with slightly diminished power numbers. Its a bit early to completely give up on him given that he missed all of last year and has had his comeback set back by injuries (forearm, beaning to his head). Thus, I'd argue he's underrated currently not overrated.

Bret Boone's deal is almost as bad. $9 million this year.

Giambi's contract has ended up as a collasul mess, but when the Yanks signed him in 2000, he came off an MVP season...regardless if the Yanks were bidding againt themselves, at the time, the contract wasnt obscene...it's a shame what it has turned into.

as for A-Rod/Ichiro, there is no way to prove it, but I'm willing to put down a large sume of $$m, that if you asked all 30 major league baseball owners, who they'd rather start their team with, I'm willing to bet 25-28 of em would choose A-Rod with their pick.

Things awesome about Ichiro:

As a baserunner, he can beat out throws better than nearly anyone

He can cover more ground in the outfiield in a shorter time than just about anyone.

His one-armed presentation of the bat to the pitcher before each pitch (unless he's being purposefully walked).

His flawless movie-slick demeanor and panther grace, offset by the fact that he constant cracks jokes to the opposition when he's on base.

Immaculate grooming and what not.

Etc.