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Inside Baseball
Posted: Tuesday June 04, 2002 1:17 PM
Batting Practice
Pitchers still can't solve the riddle of how to get Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki out By
Stephen Cannella 
Conventional wisdom in baseball says every hitter has a weakness that a pitcher can exploit. Give advance scouts enough time, and they'll ferret out that hole in a player's swing, which explains why rookies who burst on the scene one year so often fall on their faces the next. But the performance of Mariners rightfielder Ichiro Suzuki over the first two months of the season is enough to send a shiver up the spine of every pitcher he faces: With a year of major league experience under his belt, the 2001 American League MVP is even more dangerous this time around. "He came into the league and tore it up, and no one has figured out how to pitch him," says teammate Mark McLemore. "It's like he's figuring them out."
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With his blazing speed out of the box, Ichiro leads the majors in infield hits. Bob Rosato |
At week's end Ichiro was on track for another batting title, leading the majors with a .375 average and hitting .523 with runners in scoring position. He has also addressed the one knock against him -- that he drew few walks and thus didn't get on base as much as he should. After walking just 30 times last season, he had already drawn 27 this year and was leading the American League with a .446 on-base percentage. Clearly Ichiro remains as much of a mystery to opponents as he was the day he arrived. "The holes he has are small holes," says Orioles manager Mike Hargrove. "He doesn't have one tremendous weakness."
Most teams try to pound Ichiro inside, hoping to back him off the plate and at least make him uncomfortable enough that he can't settle in and use his exceptional hand-eye coordination to punch the ball virtually anywhere he wants. That strategy apparently doesn't work. What's more, Ichiro can make something happen even when he does get fooled. With his blazing speed from home to first (he's been timed at 3.7 seconds), he often beats out weak grounders for hits. Ichiro leads the majors in infield hits this season with 29, including three on Sunday in Seattle's 11-8 victory over the Orioles.
Nor is trying to pitch around Ichiro the answer. He's an excellent bad-ball hitter who can make solid contact with pitches well out of the strike zone. Sometimes the opposing team simply gives up: Through Sunday, Ichiro had a league-high 11 intentional walks. So dominant has he been that manager Lou Piniella moved him to third in the batting order for Sunday's game. "We're going to take a look at it, and if I like what I see, it'll stay," says Piniella. "Now at least, if they walk him, we'll have the meat of the order up."
Issue date: June 10, 2002
For more Inside Baseball see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, June 5. Click here to subscribe to SI.
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