#24 Ichiro - SEA OF

#24 - Ichiro

Two things jump out at me right away. The first thing is that Ichiro is one of those guys that only has one name. If PECOTA took this into account when finding comps, Ichiro would probably be linked to some famous people. A couple off the top of my head: Madonna, Sher, and Jesus. Ichiro's birth certificate for some reason calls him Ichiro Suzuki but somewhere between Japan and the United States his last name was lost. Perhaps because no one wanted to link him to the cars. The second thing that jumps out at me is that picture. God damn, who convinced him to pose for that. I'm sure all his "homeboys" back in Japan loved that picture and I bet his "fam" loved it even more. Theres a great article by Jim Caple at ESPN if you want to know a little more about Ichiro but now I'm moving onto the facts.

Anyway, Heres a little more about Ichiro: Ichiro is a hitting machine. He is almost perfect in all areas. He hits lefties and righties equally as well and hits almost all pitches with great skill. He hasn't hit below .300 since coming to the major leagues in 2001. Infact, he hasn't hit below .300 since his rookie year in 1993 in Japan. He stole 45 SB last year, the most since his 1st year in the major leagues when he stole 56. The other 4 years in the major's he stole between 30 and 35 bases so anywhere between 30 and 50 SB is quite possible next year. He doesn't hit a lot of homeruns but he usually ends up with about 10 over the course of the season. He hasn't had less than 200 hits at all in the MLB and he has never had less than 100 runs. One word to describe Ichiro: Consistant.

One reason to take him: When you are drafting in the 1st 3 rounds the one thing you want is to know what you are getting. You know exactly what you are getting with ichiro. 10 HR, 30 + SB, .300 + AVG, 100 + Runs and 50 + RBIs. If Ichiro hit exactly 10 HR, 3o SB, .300 AVG, 100 Runs, 50 RBIs that would be his worst season in the majors and it would still warrent a pretty high pick. There is very little to worry about when drafting him.

One reason to not take him: His low power contributions from the OF will require you to make up that power in another position. You may need to take a bat instead of a pitcher a little later on in the draft but let me tell you, you will not be disapointed with what Ichiro brings to the table, unless you lose by a handful of HRs.

Stay tuned for the #23 and one of my favorite sleepers!