IATM: Tasker: Maxwell > Jones > Wise > Ichiro

Hey Dude, don’t make it so bad
Take a smaller sample and make it better

Judging Ichiro Suzuki‘s performance for the Yankees thus far seems wildly unfair from the small sample size we have. After all, he has played all of fifteen games and come to the plate only 61 times. And yet it is not wildly unfair when you add in consideration for what he did for Seattle for all those games before being traded to the New York Yankees. The numbers in the fifteen games are a small sample size by themselves, but they are remarkably similar to his numbers this year in Seattle. In fact, they are a little worse. When the trade was made, many critics said Ichiro’s numbers in Seattle were who he is now. Those critics are looking pretty good right now.

...The one difference is that Wise and Ichiro bat left-handed. Maxwell was a right-handed batter. But how about considering who the Yankees kept as their right-handed hitting outfielder: Andruw Jones. Jones has a .780 OPS, a 104 OPS+, 0.6 rWAR and has saved two runs on defense (how?). Justin Maxwell beats every one of those scores in about forty more plate appearances. Plus, Maxwell was a more versatile outfielder that could play every position.

Perhaps it is unseemly to cry over spilled milk. Maxwell is gone for good. Wise is now gone for good. We are left with Ichiro and Jones. The progression of choices has seemingly gone down hill.  Perhaps Ichiro still has something to offer down the stretch run. But the early results when compared to his season in Seattle do not look promising. And Andruw Jones at this point seems like a lumbering wraith of his former self who runs into a fastball once in a while.  Is it wrong to wistfully look at Justin Maxwell from afar and wonder what could have been?