Ichiro Suzuki, RF, Seattle Mariners
Well here he is, the number one guy on The List ahead of Albert Pujols.
Ichiro Suzuki is just pure excitement on a baseball field. How many other guys have as many exciting ground outs as Ichiro? He could hit a simple dribbler to the pitcher and then you still think he might get on thanks to his electric speed out of the box and that unique batting style of his. The strange thing is, while you would never teach someone to hit like that when you break him down its not actually so unorthodox as he still keeps his head in and shifts his weight through the ball, its just at the point of contact his follow through leads his front foot up the line and as soon as the ball leaves his bat he’s running. Its just a truly revolutionary way to make the most out of his biggest asset; speed.
As exciting as he is offensively, its his defence that just blows you away. He is unrivalled in right field and you’d probably have to go as far back as Roberto Clemente to find anyone in the same league. He has amazing range and a laser guided rocket launcher of an arm. There might be a couple of guys who can throw harder but none of them have his accuracy. You just don’t even think of taking an extra base on Ichiro because he will fire it right on target in plenty of time. I will never forget how he cut down a guy tagging up to go to third on what looked like a routine sacrifice that would advance the runner without a problem. The ball never bounced and was on a line all the way.
Everything Ichiro does is exciting, the way he swings the bat, the way he runs the bases, the way he catches, the way he throws, just everything. He puts the ball in play and things happen and its all the things that make this game great.
1 comment:
The one real shame is that for viewers in the UK, we havent had too many opportunities to watch this great man play, as not too many Mariners games have been covered for obvious reasons!
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