Note to the Seattle Mariners: Bat Ichiro third (please!)
So, say you have a guy on your team who led the AL in hitting last year with runners in scoring position (.372), batted .472 with RISP with 2 outs and .583 with the bases loaded, of course, for the good of your team, you position him in your lineup where he will hit with runners on base, right?

Wrong. With Ichiro in the leadoff spot of the Mariners batting order, he hardly ever strolls to the plate with runners on base. Consider the on base percentages of the batters usually in the 8-9 spots of order: Miguel Olivo (.182), Wilson Valdez (.225) and Willie Bloomquist (.179). Thus far in 2005, 91 of Ichiro's 131 at bats have been with the bases empty.

In 2004, when Ichiro broke George Sisler's hits in a single season record with 262, he had only 60 RBI's. This makes absolutely no sense. Moreover, many baseball writers discredited the hit record because Ichiro "hit too many singles." The fact is that you don't have to be a homerun hitter to drive in runs. If there is a runner on second and Ichiro hits a single, more often than not, the runner will score. In Japan, for example, playing for the Blue Wave, Ichiro did not bat leadoff and in only 135 games in 1997, Ichiro had 91 RBIs.

I am not saying that Ichiro isn't a good leadoff batter -- he is, but in order to make the most of say 262 hits, he needs to bat third. Pencil in Randy Winn at the top of the order. Winn's on base percentage is actually better than Ichiro's so far this season (.394 vs. .389) then sit back and watch the runs come home.

Why do I care? -- well 1) The Mariners are playing the Yankees right now and 2) I recently moved to Seattle so the Mariners are on TV all the time and it's getting painful to watch them lose (13-20).

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