Ichiro

JMB · October 4, 2004 at 1:27 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

Wacky Ichiro stat of the day — his crazy, reverse platoon split. This isn’t anything new, but still worth pointing out. Whereas normally you’d expect a left-handed hitter to hit better against right-handed pitching, Ichiro is the opposite….

vs. RHP: .359/.402/.423 (very, very good)
vs. LHP: .404/.444/.529 (ridiculous)

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9 Responses to “Ichiro”

  1. Troy on October 4th, 2004 2:10 pm

    I remember some (probably Joe Sheehan) saying Ichiro should be platooned since he struggled so badly against lefties when he first got to the States. Whether it was small sample size, or this is just another example of Ichi’s incredible ability to make adjustments, here’s one time to appreciate the M’s unwillingness to care about stats. Make the score 1-100?

  2. G-Man on October 4th, 2004 2:57 pm

    There’s a caveat required here. He surely faced higher quality righties than lefties. I’d like to see the joint stats vs. all LHP he saw, and the same for all RHP. For best results, it would be ideal to weight each pitcher by number of AB’s Ichiro had against him, but I realize that could be more complicated to figure.

    That said, I’ll guess that the lefties weren’t worse enough to account for all of the difference. He missed so few games, it isn’t like he sat out against lefty starters, and he darn sure wasn’t PH for.

  3. Evan on October 4th, 2004 3:01 pm

    I was amazed that teams would still bring out LOOGYs to face Ichiro, even after he’d established that absurd split. Sure, bring in the worst reliever in your pen, a guy whose one asset is that he’s left-handed, to face the best hitter on the other team, a guy who hits lefties like he’s Rogers Hornsby having a good year.

  4. Ichiro! on October 4th, 2004 3:04 pm

    Your powers are useless against me! Hah! I spit on you, you worthless LOOGY’s!

  5. Ralph Malph on October 4th, 2004 4:08 pm

    If the manager brings in the LOOGY to face Ichiro late in a game and Ichiro gets a hit, then it’s the LOOGY’s fault for not doing his job.

    If on the other hand the manager leaves the righthander in to face Ichiro and Ichiro gets a hit, then it’s the manager’s fault for not making the move.

    Yes, I’m being sarcastic but I really think that’s how some managers look at it. And some announcers.

  6. JPWood on October 5th, 2004 2:20 am

    Ichiro has consistently hit LHP better than RHP: from 50 to 70 points in BA every season since 2001, so there are no longer any issues of small sample size. He has also faced some of the best AL LHPs in their prime in the Oakland staff repeatedly over those four seasons. In this ability, he again shows how he is so terribly different from other hitters.
    Considering his 405/443/508 2004 road stats, I wonder what his totals are for LHPs away.

  7. Evan on October 5th, 2004 9:46 am

    MLB.com has double situational splits on the stats pages.

    Ichiro against Lefties, away from Safeco in 2004:

    .454/.500/.598 in 97 AB

    How’s this one? Ichiro, on the road, after the all-star break:

    .509/.538/.623 in 159 AB

  8. JPWood on October 5th, 2004 11:33 am

    Giving Ichiro a road OPS of 1.161 after the break. Unbelievable. And thanks for the figures.

  9. CFiJ on October 6th, 2004 2:17 am

    FWIW, Ichiro’s reverse platoon split goes back to his days in Japan. In 2001 it was specifically noted by the Japanese press that Ichiro wasn’t hitting lefties as well as he had in Japan. By 2002 the reverse-split was back. I guess it took him time to make the adjustment.