OT - Ichiro to the Yankees

i live in seattle and have been watching ichiro's decline.  its not been pretty.  i suppose he could help the yankees out as a depth OF and a solid PH.  but he's really a bit too old.  or maybe safeco really is that shitty to hit in.

also, rumblings i'm hearing from locals is that this could be a precusor to the team being sold...

As a Mariners fan this is bittersweet and completely shocking. On one hand he has been terrible and it was time for the Ms to move on and start really investing in their youth movement. On the other hand he is Ichiro the face of the franchise since 2001.

This might actually be the best thing for both parties involved. Ichiro gets to go to a team that can and will compete for a world series now. He can gracefully retire after this season if he chooses. Meanwhile the Mariners don't have the lingering question of what to do with Ichiro hanging around their necks.

He's never been a power hitter and now all of his gaps are gone. Those gaps fit him well in Safeco. Now he's moving to a park that favors power hitters

Ichiro gets to go from the arguably the worst hitters park to the best hitters park for lefties, so his numbers will jump. With Gardner out for the year, Swisher banged up throughtout the year and Ibanez and Andruw Jones taking up the corner OF spots, it's a nice insurance policy for essentially farm feeder prospects.

It's been touched on above, but Ichiro is going to be 39 in October, and his AVG, OBP, and SLG have all declined each of the last three seasons, this one included. He's a sub-.300 OBP guy this year. I think he's almost done. See for yourself:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/suzukic01.shtml

They traded for the old beat up version of Brett Garder? Ok good one....

The deal will help the Yankees. He's a good fit as outfield depth and will help replace Brett Gardner. As for the Tigers deal making them the best in the AL, I couldn't disagree more. They're hot right now but don't have the pitching depth to win it all. I don't think their lineup is deep enough either. Jackson is backsliding and outdid of the two big bats in the middle there won't be much to scare opponents come the playoffs.

The Yankees play the Mariners tonight, which means Ichiro will face his old team and home fans one last time. Very strange.

Ichiro is batting .261 and has an OBP of .288, but on the road, he has a BA of .294, OBP of .314, SLG of .402, and OPS of .716, all signifacntly higher than the stats at home. He has 4 total HRs, 3 away. So a large part of his decline is playing in Safeco.

He's a significant defensive upgrade over Ibanez/Jones and adds some speed to the Yankee lineup. He's not a speed demon anymore, but he's still going to be one of the better base stealers on the Yankees.

He's not nealry the player he was in the past, but take him out of that awful Seattle lineup and Safeco, and put him in the Yankee lineup and Yankee Stadium, and he'll be a very solid player for the Yankees. Worst case scenario, he struggles, but is still a better bench option than Dewayne Wise.

No offense but the tigers used to love taking the old yankees players waaay past their prime. Ex: Johnny Damon and Sheffield.

Mariners had to send cash too. Ichiro is nowhere near worth his 18 million a year anymore. Not sure he ever was really. FA at end of year. Good move. Now move Chone and eat whatever cash it takes.

It's a solid trade. Nothing special though. The way ESPN and MLB Network are talking about it, you'd think it was the trade of the century.

It's essentially a one year deal, until Gardner comes back.  They have similar skill sets - fast, good field, good arm.  The Yankees need him to be okay, not a star.

I was looking at the Seattle stats last nght to see how Ichiro was doing this year and he wasn't anywhere to be found. Then it is on MGoBlog. I am always amazed by this site.