The Ichiro Star Treatment

The first thing I worried about when the Yankees traded for Ichiro Suzuki was that his name and ego would get in the way of playing him rationally. These worries were calmed when the trade details were released showing that the Yankees indeed told Ichiro that he will bat down in the line up and may not play against lefties once in a while. It seemed like pretty risk free way of trying to “catch lightning in a bottle” for a couple months this summer. Also, the less I have to watch Raul Ibanez attempt to play left field the better.

I didn’t expect Ichiro to be treated like a star, mainly because Ichiro isn’t anywhere near a star anymore. His .261 AVG – .289 OBP - .642 OPS is the worst stat line of anyone on the Yankees not named Chris Stewart. (And Chris Stewart is one of the worst hitters I’ve ever seen) It isn’t just this year that Ichiro has struggled either, since the beginning of 2011 Ichiro has been the worst hitting outfielder in all of Major League Baseball.

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This is not the "star" Ichiro

Due to this, it’s hard to be too high on this trade because the Yankees absolutely did not land a star player. This is not like when they traded for Bobby Abreu in 2006. I do however, remain optimistic, because of the stories that Ichiro has been just going through the motions in Seattle and that his numbers hitting away from Seattle are significantly better. It would seem like you could do a lot worse than Ichiro being your number 8 or 9 hitter.

Unfortunately for this scenario, Alex Rodriguez had to go and break his hand giving the Joe Girardi the apparent freedom to switch around the order. This had Ichiro leading off for no apparent reason on Wednesday. As I stated before, Ichiro has been the worst hitting outfielder in baseball the past two years, he should in no capacity be leading off for the New York Yankees.

Derek Jeter is batting .311 with a .358 OBP and has been doing a great job leading off all year. Why change that? He’s also a double play machine so any chance you have for him to not hit with a runner on 1^st base is a plus. I cant understand the logic of giving Ichiro more at bats than anyone on the team not named Chris Stewart, Jayson Nix, or the recently recalled Ramiro Pena.

Maybe the Yankees will use their better judgment and not bat Ichiro at lead off but this is exactly what I worried about when the Yankees acquired him. There is no rational reason to bat this guy at lead off outside of his star power. Especially when it means you’re going to drop Curtis Granderson in the order and put Derek Jeter into a situation where he can hit into more double plays.

The Yankees begin a series with the Red Sox tonight in the Bronx and the game is on ESPN. I’m sure this means that we’ll be focusing a lot on Ichiro and talking about how amazing of a hitter this guy is despite the fact that he’s been terrible. I don’t exactly care if Ichiro didn’t want to play in Seattle or didn’t like hitting there, he’s not a star and he shouldn’t be a focal part of this Yankee team loaded with them.