Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 30, 2002
Watch Out Monty:

Bob Montgomery wrote me about Ichiro's improved selectivity:


I wanted to comment on something you wrote today, specifically: "It seems
plate discipline can be taught. Imagine how good Ichiro will be if he learns
to take pitches in the dirt and over his head."

I think maybe he already has.

Some observations:
Ichiro's walks last year: 30
He is currently on pace to draw 65 this year.
Ichiro's OBP-BA, 2001: .031
This year, so far: .074
He has maintained his .380+ OBP even as his batting average is 40 points
below last year's average.
Ichiro's pitches/PA, 2001: 3.39
in 2002, thus far: 3.73

For a comparison (admittedly a limited one) I looked at pitch/PA for Jason
Giambi.
His lowest number was 3.89 pitches/PA, in 1997, and his highest was 4.19,
last year. That's a difference of .3 pitches/PA, over a span of 5 years.
So far this year, Ichiro has increased his pitches/PA by .34 - which is
quite a difference, I think.

Anyway, the season is young and Ichiro's apparent change might just be
random variation over the first 100 AB of the season - but, as I wrote a
week or so ago
(http://vdub_bobby.blogspot.com/2002_04_01_vdub_bobby_archive.html#75292931)
, through the first five games of the season, Ichiro was hitting .250 with
no walks and no extra-base hits (a .250/.250/.250 line). In the 20 games
since then (he has played in 18 of those), he is hitting .329 with 10 walks
and and 10 extra-base hits (producing a post-first-5 line of
.329/.427/.529). After not drawing a walk in the first five games of the
season, he has not had a similar streak of more than 1 game until the last
four games. :(

I don't know if his new plate discipline will last for the whole season, but
I certainly hope so, being a Ms fan.


Thanks, Bob!


Posted by David Pinto at 09:39 PM | Baseball