It would be hilarious if Ichiro hits 20-30 bombs or something next year.

Having said that, given murphy's law, that's almost a given he's gonna have a monster year next 1 to 2 season.

Ichiro could hit dingers on the road if he wanted to.

I think Ichiro hits 12-15 homers next season. I think he's going to be a really productive player for the Yankees.

If you watch him during BP, he can run off several homers in a row pretty effortlessly. I saw him do it last year at U.S. Cellular - looks smooth and the ball really carries off his bat. He could've easily hit 15-20 HR a year in my opinion if he made it a priority.

Ichiro probably can’t just turn himself into a power hitter

Everyone knows that this is not true.

I don’t know how much Ichiro has left to give to some other ballclub. He might have plenty yet to give to the Yankees.

Is this true? I'm not saying Ichiro isn't likely to be more successful in Yankee Stadium as a left handed hitter but in theory shouldn't all lefties be able to get such a benefit? Is Ichiro uniquely suited to NYS in a way that others would not be? If I were Cashman that .636 road OPS would be a cautionary tale.

Then of course the larger question, would you rather have a player who hits .800/.800 home and road or .900/.700?

Then of course the larger question, would you rather have a player who hits .800/.800 home and road or .900/.700?

Second guy, bench his ass on the road.

I'm not saying Ichiro isn't likely to be more successful in Yankee Stadium as a left handed hitter but in theory shouldn't all lefties be able to get such a benefit?

According to an article I found on the Internet, New Yankee Stadium increases homeruns for left handed batters by 43%. If Ichiro has the coordination to loft fly balls in the general direction of the warning track, but lacks the power to blast them over most fences, he might benefit even more.

So according to my calculations, in a full year we could expect him to hit as many as EIGHT or NINE homeruns!

Second guy, bench his ass on the road.

The problem is you don't know if that split is indicative of his true skill or just random fluctuation. But yeah, if you know a player has a particular strength or weakness and can deploy him with that in mind it makes him more valuable on a rate basis.

Anyway, it doesn't really matter if you have a home/road split like that for a team's bottom line. If you take an average AL team in 2012 and add an .800 OPS guy batting leadoff they'd project to win about 83.2 games. Ignoring general home field advantage if you gave them a .900 OPS guy in half their games and a .700 OPS in half their games they'd project to win about 83.6.

Ichiro's hype obviously has been a bit silly at times, but the one skill he probably bests any other active player since Tony Gwynn at is bat control. I imagine he can tailor his swing to take advantage of a quirk in his home park--should an exploitable one exist for him--better than anybody. If Yankee stadium presents an opportunity for lefthanded flyballs within the range that Ichiro can hit them, he'll take advantage.

(There was no quirk in Safeco. He benefitted in that his skillset was relatively more valuable in a park that suppressed power production, of course.)

Carmelo sort of had a very first quarter just now.

How come I didn't see any articles in the off-season about how crappy the Lakers were going to be?