Ichiro Suzuki’s willingness to wait on the Yankees has declined to the point where the veteran outfielder is talking to other teams.
“At the beginning we talked a lot but since that time, zero,’’ agent Tony Attanasio said of discussions with the Yankees. “As far as we are concerned we don’t care what the Yankees do. We have had conversations with multiple clubs. If we see something we like he will go through with it.’
In a week’s time, Ichiro has completely reversed field.
“There has been a lot of interest [from other teams] but he enjoyed playing for the Yankees so much it’s hard for him to say no to the Yankees,’’ Attanasio said a week ago yesterday. “His preference is to stay there instead of going someplace else, but we’ll wait and see.’’
...Bringing the 39-year-old Ichiro back wasn’t frowned upon by the Yankees, but with Brett Gardner returning to play left, using Ichiro full-time in right would mean the Yankees had very similar players who lacked power manning corner outfield spots.
As for free-agent outfielders, the Yankees aren’t going near Josh Hamilton or Michael Bourn. Even Shane Victorino is looking for three to four years. Scott Hairston is more of a fit for the Yankees. The Nationals might move Michael Morse and the Rockies will listen on Michael Cuddyer, who is signed through 2014.
Repoz
Posted: December 01, 2012 at 01:01 PM |
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1. Walt Davis Posted: December 01, 2012 at 01:22 PM (#4314047)chirp chirp
Would he trade for Michael Cuddyer?
Yes. He would like to be amused by Cuddyer's famous magic tricks.
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/pettitte_returning_to_yankees_for_one_year_at_about_11m
Ichiro also lacks on-base skills. And, frankly, defense, at this point. His "resurgence" with the Yankees produced 0.1 WAR.
(And his rebound with the bat didn't happen immediately upon joining the Yankees, but several weeks later.)
On this one I think your memory is playing tricks a bit. Ichiro had an ordinary first week with the Yankees (.259/.286/.407) but basically started hitting immediately thereafter, the first couple of weeks of August--he was traded July 23rd--he hit .348/.375/.478, which is obviously pretty good.
In this case my memory is better than your research. Not sure where you're getting your numbers from, but from July 23-31 he hit a tiny bit less than what you said - .258/.281/.387 but close enough - and from August 1-14 he hit just .282/.317/.410.
Then, after three weeks (*), he started hitting. .344/.358/.478 from August 15th through the end of the regular season.
(*) So not quite "several weeks," as I said, but it wasn't right as he arrived, either. From July 23rd through August 14th he hit just .271/.301/.401.
I'm gonna say listening on a phone would be a lot smarter.
I'm surprised no manager has apparently tried to get him to want to do this.
Probably because once he hit 40 HRs we'd learn that he "wanted" to hit .200 also.
Yeah he'd fill Juan Pierre's old banjo hitting LF slot well. If he wanted to.
No, it'd be .220 if he wanted to.
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