Link: Congrats to Ichiro on 4257 hits in professional baseball. Se the dbate Rose v. Ichiro below.

[Mr. Potter]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/blogs/...ho-is-baseball-s-true-hit-king-233915669.html

 

[john4psu]

It's Rose to me but it does not take away from Ichiro's greatness. I would guess Ichiro's lifetime average is higher than Pete's but to me Rose is the hit king just like Aaron is the HR king not Oh.

 

[LafayetteBear]

Give Ichiro (who did not start in MLB until he was 27) an extra six years in MLB, and multiply that by 200 hits per year. He'd be right there with Rose.

Actually, I think Ichiro's arm may be more impressive than his hitting prowess. I watched him play right field for the Mariners at an A's home game. The A's were up, with a runner on first base. The guy at the plate singled to right and the A's runner thought advancing to third would be a no brainer. Ichiro threw a friggin' PEA to third (just a frozen rope), and the runner was out by a good five steps. The Coliseum crowd went nuts. The man has a hose. I'd put him right up there with Clemente and Dewey Evans.

 

[artsandletters]

Give Ichiro (who did not start in MLB until he was 27) an extra six years in MLB, and multiply that by 200 hits per year. He'd be right there with Rose.

Actually, I think Ichiro's arm may be more impressive than his hitting prowess. I watched him play right field for the Mariners at an A's home game. The A's were up, with a runner on first base. The guy at the plate singled to right and the A's runner thought advancing to third would be a no brainer. Ichiro threw a friggin' PEA to third (just a frozen rope), and the runner was out by a good five steps. The Coliseum crowd went nuts. The man has a hose. I'd put him right up there with Clemente and Dewey Evans.

And Johnny Callison. Callison and Clemente were contemporaries. Clemente led the NL in assists 5 times, Callison 4.

 

[Glen]

And Johnny Callison. Callison and Clemente were contemporaries. Clemente led the NL in assists 5 times, Callison 4.

Clemente's arm intimidated runners - they didn't even try for extra bases. Many of his assists were throws behind the runner if they took too big of a turn around first after a hit. Aaron was the only one I ever saw that baited Clemente into a throw and then took second. I would root for a ball to be hit to the right side with a runner on first. Either Maz got 'em for a double play or if it was a hit, they stopped right at second.
I watched Ichiro play with the Yankees - nice arm, but not in Clemente class.

 

[artsandletters]

Clemente's arm intimidated runners - they didn't even try for extra bases. Many of his assists were throws behind the runner if they took too big of a turn around first after a hit. Aaron was the only one I ever saw that baited Clemente into a throw and then took second. I would root for a ball to be hit to the right side with a runner on first. Either Maz got 'em for a double play or if it was a hit, they stopped right at second.
I watched Ichiro play with the Yankees - nice arm, but not in Clemente class.

They didn't run on Callison either. That was my baseball era. I saw both Callison and Clemente throw out lots of runners. Clemente had a stronger arm but Callison was more accurate.

 

[PSU Mike]

Reggie Smith had a cannon.

 

[tboyer]

We lived in Seattle when Ichiro came to the Mariners -- it was so much fun to watch him play. Someone mentioned his arm which was one of the best in baseball. But his baserunning was so amazing. The one thing he did better than anybody in baseball was bunt for base hits. When he batted from the left side he was incredibly quick to first base -- almost any bunt not right back to the mound, he'd have a base hit. Drove catchers and third basemen crazy. And then once on first, he was an amazing base stealer because he could get to full speed in a single step. It put so much pressure on everybody.

However, as a leadoff hitter he had one huge weakness -- he almost never walked. He pretty much ignored the strike zone and could make contact with the ball anywhere -- that was just his method. But it meant pitchers could throw the ball all over the place against him. They almost never struck him out but they could get a lot of popups and shallow fly balls with shoulder high fastballs. So his OBP was not really good for a leadoff hitter -- lifetime .357 OBP, which is actually low for baseball, down there with high strikeout power hitters like Darryl Strawberry. By contrast Edgar Martinez who played with Ichiro for a few years has a lifetime OBP of .418. Martinez could barely run bases at all but he did know the strike zone.

 

[Mr. Potter]

We lived in Seattle when Ichiro came to the Mariners -- it was so much fun to watch him play. Someone mentioned his arm which was one of the best in baseball. But his baserunning was so amazing. The one thing he did better than anybody in baseball was bunt for base hits. When he batted from the left side he was incredibly quick to first base -- almost any bunt not right back to the mound, he'd have a base hit. Drove catchers and third basemen crazy. And then once on first, he was an amazing base stealer because he could get to full speed in a single step. It put so much pressure on everybody.

However, as a leadoff hitter he had one huge weakness -- he almost never walked. He pretty much ignored the strike zone and could make contact with the ball anywhere -- that was just his method. But it meant pitchers could throw the ball all over the place against him. They almost never struck him out but they could get a lot of popups and shallow fly balls with shoulder high fastballs. So his OBP was not really good for a leadoff hitter -- lifetime .357 OBP, which is actually low for baseball, down there with high strikeout power hitters like Darrell Strawberry. By contrast Edgar Martinez who played with Ichiro for a few years has a lifetime OBP of .418. Martinez could barely run bases at all but he did know the strike zone.

Thanks for posting