Are we all in agreement that if Ichiro got hit by a bus today and never played again that he's a HOFer?

Not a question for me.

Agreed. Career .324 hitter, 7,000 ABs.

Absolutely. Not only that, but he's about as sure a thing as there is to a 1st ballot lock as well IMO.

Without a doubt.

I'll take it a step further after looking closely at his #'s. A legit case can be made for him being the best pure hitter of all-time.

I'll take it a step further after looking closely at his #'s. A legit case can be made for him being the best pure hitter of all-time.

 

Let's hear it.

Assuming he stays healthy this season, and maintains his current pace, he'll have 2,600 career hits (if not more) by season's end. This is his 12th season in the majors. That's an average of 217 hits a season. He didn't start his MLB career until the age of 28, due to playing in Japan professionally for 9 seasons. I see no reason to think that had he played those 9 seasons in the majors his numbers wouldn't have mirrored his career numbers. That would translate out to roughly another 1,950 career hits. If we want to be conservative and just go with his Japanese career total, we're looking at 3,900 career hits after this season. I'm not expecting him to retire for at least another 2-3 seasons so to say he could've been on the verge of passing Pete Rose as baseball's all-time hit king isn't much of a stretch IMO.

I'll take it a step further after looking closely at his #'s. A legit case can be made for him being the best pure hitter of all-time.

 

I've heard others make that argument as well and I think you could probably make a case for him.

Assuming he stays healthy this season, and maintains his current pace, he'll have 2,600 career hits (if not more) by season's end. This is his 12th season in the majors. That's an average of 217 hits a season. He didn't start his MLB career until the age of 28, due to playing in Japan professionally for 9 seasons. I see no reason to think that had he played those 9 seasons in the majors his numbers wouldn't have mirrored his career numbers. That would translate out to roughly another 1,950 career hits. If we want to be conservative and just go with his Japanese career total, we're looking at 3,900 career hits after this season. I'm not expecting him to retire for at least another 2-3 seasons so to say he could've been on the verge of passing Pete Rose as baseball's all-time hit king isn't much of a stretch IMO.

I do not think it is as far out there as some may believe. I have read before that Ichiro has a lot more power than he demonstrates during games, he just chooses the safer bet of getting on base. His numbers dropped last season and looks to be on pace to replicate thus far at the quarter mark of the year. His hitting has always been just as much predicated on reaching base from his speed via infield hits so I am not really sure how one defines "pure hitter." Very unorthodox.

 

Also GREAT in the field.

Comparison of career average for the other 3 guys who I've heard referred to as "greatest hitter of all-time".

 

Rose: .303 avg.

Williams: .344 avg.

Cobb: .367 avg.

Ichiro: .324 avg.

Are we all in agreement that if Ichiro got hit by a bus today and never played again that he's a HOFer?

 

It's a lock.

 

I agree with UKMF (for maybe the 3rd time, ever:D) that Ichiro would be chasing down Pete's 4256 had he started in the bigs instead of Japan.

I'd vot for him if I had that chance.

I do not think it is as far out there as some may believe. I have read before that Ichiro has a lot more power than he demonstrates during games, he just chooses the safer bet of getting on base. .

 

I was talking to HSSRB today and he remembers Randy Johnson saying that Ichiro could hit 40 bombs but he thought it would take away from his overall hitting ability.

Comparison of career average for the other 3 guys who I've heard referred to as "greatest hitter of all-time".

 

 

Cobb: .367 avg.

Ichiro: .324 avg.

 

Sidenote: For all of my formative years Ty Cobb's career average was .367. Recently, that has changed for some to .366. Someone reviewed a bunch of boxscores and found some discrepancies.