Ichiro or Gwynn?

[FRENCHREDSOX]

Woah woah woah. The Ichiro "support" skyrocketed! Where'd all that come from?

Yes,indeed - there is 1 difference in that Ichiro is still playing & his assessment compared to Gwynn is well,unfair as we don't know what he will do in the future.

Gwynn has 20 years with a .338 .388 .459 line,Suzuki only 8 MLB years & .331 .377 .431 so the differences might be closer or widen as time goes on.

At the moment I would vote for Mr "San Diego" as he was awesome even in his late 30's but I could change my perception depending on how Ichiro handles 09 onwards . I guess I am sitting on the fence,right ?

[oriole^]

Yes,indeed - there is 1 difference in that Ichiro is still playing & his assessment compared to Gwynn is well,unfair as we don't know what he will do in the future.

Gwynn has 20 years with a .338 .388 .459 line,Suzuki only 8 MLB years & .331 .377 .431 so the differences might be closer or widen as time goes on.

At the moment I would vote for Mr "San Diego" as he was awesome even in his late 30's but I could change my perception depending on how Ichiro handles 09 onwards . I guess I am sitting on the fence,right ?

I'm very much with the gent from au sud de France. Gwynn is better at this point - there's little question in that. Suzuki Ichiro has the chance, however, to be as good or possibly better, which is an amazing statement, as I don't believe any other ballplayer today fits that criteria (A-Rod or Pujols, perhaps).

I don't know if he will; I'd tend to believe otherwise. But there's a shot.

Gwynn was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the same time as Cal Ripken. It's worth it to mention that I didn't hear a single Orioles fan or writer - not one single one - who said that Cal's induction overshadowed Tony Gwynn's. O's fans saw little of Tony Gwynn during his career...yet I think all believed that Gwynn was every bit as deserving of the HoF as their own Cal Ripken.

[justanewguy]

Comparative to the leagues/eras they've played in, the separation between Gwynn and Ichiro is a lot larger than it appears. I don't think the numbers really do Gwynn justice, even as good as they are. He was baseball's best pure hitter (non-power division) by miles and miles and miles for most of his career.

Ichiro doesn't have the same distinction.

He'd have to actually improve on his past numbers, quite a bit, to truly be in any sort of rational conversation along with Tony Gwynn.

[HoustonGM]

Very true. Gwynn won 8 batting titles. Ichiro's won two, and I don't see him winning more than 1, maybe 2, more, if that. A lot of Ichiro's average is assisted by his speed, whereas Gwynn was a line drive hitter that ALWAYS put the ball into play. Gwynn's ability to hit for average held up as he aged for precisely that reason.

[filihok]

http://www.npbtracker.com/2009/02/ic...-as-a-pitcher/

But could Gwynn pitch?

[TheNamelessPoet]

so could Williams

 Year Ag Tm  Lg  W   L   G   GS  CG SHO  GF SV   IP     H    R   ER   HR  BB   SO  HBP  WP  BFP  IBB  BK  ERA *lgERA *ERA+ WHIP
+--------------+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+--+------+----+----+----+---+----+----+---+---+-----+---+---+-----+-----+----+-----+
 1940 21 BOS AL   0   0   1   0   0   0   1  0    2.0    3    1    1   0    0    1   0   0     9       0  4.50  4.51  100 1.500 MVP-14,AS

[Jeffy25]

I think had we had Ichirio since he was a rookie at age like 21-22 and if you compared the careers, I would take Ichiro...that true of a leadoff hitter is hard to find.