Ichiro hitting 3rd. A hypothesis

You also for some reason want to move a high OBP into a relatively low leverage spot.

Odd.

Ichiro might have to totally change his gameplan from a contact hitter, to a power hitter; and I just don’t think he will want to do that. Interesting idea though

suggesting that Ichiro! can just flip a switch and become a power hitter, if he wanted to. If anyone could do it, he could, but the question then becomes…if it’s so easy, why doesn’t he just flip that switch from one at bat to the next.

I think more likely that he could indeed hit more homeruns, but he’s not going to suddenly become a prolific middle of the order bat. Also, as Graham mentioned, sticking him in the #3 hole robs the effectiveness of one of his greatest weapons.

My preferred order of the aforementioned three would be: #9 Figgins, #1 Ichiro, #2 Ackley. While Figgins speed is optimal for the #2 hole, I’d like to see someone with a little more pop in that spot. Ackley should develop nicely into the prototypical #2 hitter, down the road.

The three spot see the most bases empty + two out situations of any spot in the order. You don’t want Ichiro constantly hitting in that type of a situation, you want a batter that get their share of extra base hits so they can either drive in runs or get themselves into scoring position.

I don’t get why people want to move Ichiro from the leadoff position, it’s very clearly the best spot for a speedy singles hitter to bat.

Baseball Musings’ Lineup Analysis
It’s obviously a limited tool and doesn’t account for important stuff like ground ball rates, and base running, but it can be used as a first pass sanity check.
Plugging in this year’s numbers, it was saying Ichiro first, Figgins 9th, but that’s because Figgins has sucked this year. Tweaking the numbers to what I thought was more likely going forward, it was recommending Ichiro and Figgins 1-2, with Figgins leading off most often. Basically a coin flip, with the big caveat that it doesn’t account for groundball rates.
Ironically, the worst lineups possible all had Saunders hitting 9th.

Just coming from about 15 years of playing experience, including college time, you don’t change something that isn’t broken. Ichiro hits extremely well in the manner that he does. Why would he ever change that? EVER! The answer is that he wouldn’t. In all the years of coaching I’ve received, and have given in the past few years, you’re always told that once you find something that a) works for you, b) is comfortable and c) is an effective way of getting on base, never change it until one of those three items doesn’t work for you anymore. If Ichiro is still hitting .320, with whatever acceptable Ichiro-like witchcraft numbers you guys have, then why change his methods if it’s still working? Talk to me when you put him in the 3-hole and his numbers drop 60 points, which is what you’re trying to do.

I think the “fastballs because there’s a great hitter on deck” concept is a little silly.

This is comical. Of course you’re going to see fastballs with great runners, hell even average to good runners, on base. This concept has little to do with how great the hitter behind you is. The idea is to prevent baserunners from advancing to the next base and offspeed doesn’t do that. It’s a concept that’s worked for many years and will continue to be a part of standard baseball strategy for many more to come. As a hitter with a runner on base you have to be looking for fastball, react to anything else. If you don’t, you’re silly.