A Chink in Ichiro's Defensive Armor
Posted Aug. 28 at 11:49 am by Mike Seely
Sitting in the 300 level at Safeco has its advantages. One of these is you get a great perspective on fly balls and the lines outfielders take to try and catch them. And I'm here to tell you: Ichiro Suzuki takes really crappy lines in his pursuit of fly balls. There were at least two critical occasions in yesterday's sweep-stopping loss to the Twins (have the M's swept anyone this year?) where his Little League-esque tendency to lurch forward at the crack of the bat turned potential outs into base hits. Maybe the reason why I never noticed this before is that Ichiro used to have the speed to compensate for such habits. Now that he's lost a step — this claim is no longer debatable, by the by — he might need to adjust his game a bit.
Topics: Mariners
