The Mariners hate Ichiro?

[dkgojackets]

Re: The Mariners hate Ichiro?

Neither do I. But I'm not sure what Mariner upper-management has to do with coaching and lineup construction. They're hands off on day-to-day strategy.

And like I said, this was a few years ago (3 managers ago in fact).

I was counting the whole thing, from upper management down to the on-field coaches/manager.

Either way, my only point about him is that I can see where teammates would be coming from when they see him swinging away at mediocre 2-0 or 3-1 pitches or swinging very early in the count as a lead off man instead of making the pitcher work a bit and giving the rest of the team a couple pitches to look at. Now obviously threatening to knock him out is completely out of line, but a bit of tension in the lockerroom on such a bad team is not surprising.

[Sportsforever]

Re: The Mariners hate Ichiro?

Wasn't in 2005 when Ichiro stated in Spring Training he was going to change his approach and try and hit more HR's and accept a lower average? I think he hit around 15 HR's and had around a .300 average that year. After the year he said he had proven his point, that he could hit HR's if he wanted, but that he was going back to hitting singles and a higher avg.