Is Ichiro a Hall of Fame baseball player?

He does if he can have another 3-4 productive years. He will have 2,000 hits after this year. If he can get to 2500-2600 hits, I think he is in. The key is his total number of hits because he doesn't hit homers or get many RBI's.

I must confess though that Ichiro is my favorite player so maybe I am totally biased in his favor. He seems to be similar in stats to 1st ballot hall of famer Tony Gwynn. OF course Gwynn had more than 3,000 hits and that will be hard for Ichiro to reach at his age.

dw wrote:

I am not the biggest baseball fan but this guy can play. Does he go in the Hall?

Without question.

MVP

Rookie of the Year

First 8 seasons with 200 or more hits (and on the way to a 9th straight season)

.332 batting average

Gold Glove every season so far

All Star every time so far

He should finish this season with 2,000 career hits. Even with his late MLB career start, he has a legitimate shot at 3,000 hits (depending on how he ages)

Before coming to MLB, he had 1,278 hits in nine seasons (130 games each season) in Japan with a .353 batting average. Had he started here, Pete Rose's 4,256 hits would be in serious jeopardy.

Hall of Famer for sure. First Ballot too. (Needs to get 10 years in of course to be eligible.)

I watch him play every day up here and I concur with gold counter - he's not there if he retired today, but a few more good years and I'd vote him in. A hard player to warm to, but his skills are obviously several levels above all but a very few.

I'd add that the way he is playing this year, it sure looks like he has several more good years in him. Great article on the relationship that has developed between him and Junior in the Tacoma News Tribune by exceptional beat writer Larry LaRue. Ichiro appears to be revitalized.

I think he's in as soon as he gets to 10 years.

How old is he anyway? 36?

Squid wrote:

I watch him play every day up here and I concur with gold counter - he's not there if he retired today, but a few more good years and I'd vote him in. A hard player to warm to, but his skills are obviously several levels above all but a very few.

I'd add that the way he is playing this year, it sure looks like he has several more good years in him. Great article on the relationship that has developed between him and Junior in the Tacoma News Tribune by exceptional beat writer Larry LaRue. Ichiro appears to be revitalized.

To be eligible a player has to have 10 years in, so he needs to finish this year and next and then as far as I'm concerned, he's got the goods.

He averages 230 hits per 162 games. He set the MLB record with 262 hits in 2004. His career batting average of .332 is only behind Albert Pujols' .334 among active players. He steals bases (325 career so far), wins gold gloves (every year), is and All Star (every year), lots of singles yes, but he hits doubles, triples and even home runs here and there (209, 66, 78 respectively). No one has EVER started with 8 straight seasons of 200-hits seasons, and he's on his way to his 9th straight. He is incredible.

Hall of Fame all the way without question. First Ballot too.

You are correct. He could have been the greatest hitter of all-time if he would have came to the bigs sooner.

He'll get in, there's no doubt. He'll certainly have had ten solid years, probably more. And even if he doesn't get to 3000 hits, the stats are amazing. The Hall has given special consideration to certain guys whose careers aren't really a full span - Jackie Robinson, who came up at about 27, and Kirby Puckett come to mind.

Plus the guy is a combination of hitting, running, and fielding like we haven't seen in....forever. Plus he's a pioneer, too. Think of the Asian fan base he's crated in Seattle.

Mr. Obvious wrote:

I think he's in as soon as he gets to 10 years.

How old is he anyway? 36?

He's 35.

Supposing he finishes this season with 2000+ hits and he can play until he's 40, can he get 5 more seasons averaging 200 hits per season to get to 3,000 hits? I think so. If not, maybe he plays until he's 42. Many do these days. That's just 143 hits per season average beginning next year for 7 more years. I think 3,000 is almost a sure thing for this guy. Of course he could really tail off at any time, but there's been no indication of that yet.

Yanqui wrote:

He'll get in, there's no doubt. He'll certainly have had ten solid years, probably more. And even if he doesn't get to 3000 hits, the stats are amazing. The Hall has given special consideration to certain guys whose careers aren't really a full span - Jackie Robinson, who came up at about 27, and Kirby Puckett come to mind.

Plus the guy is a combination of hitting, running, and fielding like we haven't seen in....forever. Plus he's a pioneer, too. Think of the Asian fan base he's crated in Seattle.

He better let them go, we don't look favorably upon that here in the states.

uh oh wrote:

Yanqui wrote:

Plus he's a pioneer, too. Think of the Asian fan base he's crated in Seattle.

He better let them go, we don't look favorably upon that here in the states.

I thought at first you were making a comment about US race relations but then I noticed the "crated" misspelling. Nice catch.

uh oh wrote:

He better let them go, we don't look favorably upon that here in the states.

No kidding, I thought FDR was the only one to do that.

Jamie Moyer is still playing. Ichiro should play up to 46.

First ballot and unanimous. Why is he "hard to warm to"?

Isn't his job to play baseball? I think he does that exceptionally well.

Jeez, my typo got the thread off track for three posts in a row. What do I win?

Sorry I bonked.

Anyway, Ichiro will be a first ballot Hall of Fame choice.

Folks keep commenting only on Ichiro's MLB stats, but I claim that there is no reason to discount Ichiro's stats from Japan. He averaged "only" 1.34 hits per game in Japan; but is averaging 1.42 hits per game in MLB. If the talent level in Japan were that much inferior, it would have shown up in the form of absolutely monstrous numbers in Ichiro's years there. But he is doing even better here in MLB.

An interesting note: should Ichiro top 2978 hits in MLB, he will have exceeded Rose's 4256 hits in professional baseball. So, if he gets to 3K hits in MLB, that would make him the most prolific hitter in professional baseball history.

Note that it is not without precedent to consider non-MLB stats when determining Hall of Fame Membership: Satchel Paige and other Negro Leagues players were selected to the Hall based on their Negro League stats rather than their brief or non-existent MLB stats.

Yes absolutely. Ichiro, being a pretty small guy should be pretty resilient in the years to come and play until 40 at the very least. The difference between him and Tony Gwynn is that Ichiro shouldn't face the late career injuries Tony faced, like knee problems.

At this point Ichiro's Japanese stats might subjectively convince somebody to vote for him who thinks he is marginal (maybe, but I think any sportswriter who thinks he is marginal is an idiot). The baseball HOF doesn't really consider foreign players or college players like, for example, the basketball HOF does. We are not going to put Sadaharu Oh in the HOF. Or, God forbid, somebody like Hideki Irabu.

Negro leagues are a different story, they have their own procedure and voting at this point.

You mention Oh in your post. When I read this thread earlier this morning I went to Wikipedia to see if Oh was in the HOF, and as you say he is not. There's an interesting part in his bio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadaharu_Oh about his single season home run record being protected against a foreigner breaking it. I just thought it interesting since there is always an on-going dispute about naturalized Americans breaking US record in T&F.

With 22 games to go Ichiro needs 17 hits for his 10th consecutive 200 hit season. I think thats pretty damn impressive. He will be 37 in October. Anyone think he will get to 3000 hits in the MLB?