J-SLANTED
Ups and Downs of Baseball
By Jordan Ikeda
Saturday, May 30, 2009

Associated Press
Kosuke Fukudome finds himself in a mini slump after starting hot, while Travis Ishikawa and Ichiro look to continue their recent streaks.

Two weeks ago, Kurt Suzuki of the Oakland Athletics was on a tear and had pushed his batting average to .331. Since then, he’s gotten only six hits in his last 37 plate appearances.

Two weeks ago, I wrote about how Ichiro Suzuki, who was at the time hitting around .306, needed to pick up his batting average pace by a lot in order to break the record for most consecutive seasons with 200 hits or more, one that he currently holds with Willie Keeler who did it over a century ago.
I wrote about how he had to hit at or around .350 the rest of the way. I mentioned about how hitting .350 with 200 hits after you turn 35 is seen about as often as Halley’s comet. And that’s including juicers. I also noted that attaining this record would help make a solid case for #51’s induction into the American baseball Hall of Fame.

Well over the past month, Ichiro has ripped off a 20 game hit-streak as of Wednesday morning, raised his average to .333 and is currently on pace to reach the 200-hit plateau.

He’s doing what he has to do.

But there are some signs that are not so promising. May has historically been Ichiro’s hottest month where he’s a career .362 hitter. Problem is, even though he’s been raking at a .348 clip—blistering hot by any other hitter’s standards—he’s still well below his career average in May.
Along those same lines, career-wise, his numbers have trended downwards as the season wears along going from .340 in June to .322 in September.
Simply put, that’s not going to cut it if he wants that record all to himself.

The other problem doesn’t have to do directly with the record, but more the chase and to a certain degree, Ichiro’s place in Seattle. When he was on the disabled list to begin the season, the Mariners jumped out to a surprising 6-2 record. Since his return, they’ve struggled to a 15-24 record and currently sit dead last in the entire league in runs scored, 28th in OPS and 24th in batting average.

Are any of those things explicitly related to Ichiro? Heavens no. The early wins were more a testament to the pitching staff then the offense. And the M’s pathetic O has to do a lot more with the loss of clutch hitter Raul Ibanez and the impotent showings of Jose Lopez and Adrian Beltre who are both hitting around the Mendoza Line.

After all, Ichiro can’t knock himself in (though, he is on pace to have his second highest homerun total of his American career).
But implicitly? Losing while record-chasing reflects poorly on the superstar of any team and tends to rub said superstars’ teammates the wrong way. And this team has had problems with its periphery players not liking its superstar as recently as last season where a group of Ichiro’s teammates wanted to “knock him out.”

So far, there’s been no grumblings. Perhaps good managing?

Injury Report
Following the news of Tampa Bay Rays infielder Akinori Iwamura shutting it down for the season due to a torn ligament in his left knee, Seattle Mariners catcher Kenji Johjima is out for six to eight weeks with a broken toe. Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Koji Uehara will also miss some time on the 15-day DL with a right hamstring injury. An no surprise, Houston Astros second baseman Kazuo Matsui is day-to-day with a frail body.

Around the League
Kosuke Fukudome has cooled off recently. He’s still hitting .310, but his power has dropped sharply and he’s not stealing many bases. The good news is that he is getting on-base at a very impressive .442 clip, good for fifth best in the Majors.

Travis Ishikawa of the San Francisco Giants had a memorable Memorial Day going 4-4 with his first homerun of the season—a three run shot that helped seal a Giants victory over the Atlanta Braves. Finally, a sign of that preseason power…and only nine weeks into the season. Maybe this will get the kid rolling, but I’m not holding my breath.