Posted by: mike (MIKE@PGAW-ARCHITECTS.COM) on Wed Sep 22 12:44:12 2004

It seams that Bonds and Ichiro represent two opposite styles. Ichiro is successful and many would say it works for him and so he should do it that way. But... I have to think that maybe Ichiro with his talent would be an even better hitter and more valuable to his team if he hit using rotational mechanics (more doubles, triples, homeruns, walks, higher on base percentage). Lots of players have the same or better on base percentage as Ichiro including Travis Hafner (???) and drive in a lot more runs. You would never pitch around Ichiro and walk him to keep him from getting a single. (Imagine Ichiro hitting in front of Bonds in the Giant's lineup.)