Considering ALL Things: Age, Position, Talent, Who's The Best Player in The AL

[TomGshotput]

Ichiro Suzuki is the finest all around baseball player I've ever watched but Pujols is making this very hard on me.

If by "all around" you mean actually helping your team win, Ichiro is very good, but I could come up with at least 20 to 30 players from the past 20 years who have done more

Saying Johnny Damon has had a better career than Carl Crawford is like saying Mike Lowell has had a better career than Evan Longoria. There is an eight year and 1 000 game gap between them. Obviously the older guy has done more, the question is what chances does the younger guy have to surpass him. Like Ichiro, Crawford needs to start drawing some walks to truly be among the elite

 

[SayHeyKid]

All things considered obviously Mauer is #1. Longoria is hands down #2 if you consider his contract into the equation. Crawford is also up there, most scouts believe he hasn't even tapped into his potential.

Ichiro is great stats wise, but "all things considered" I don't even think he's top 5. Last year it was reported his teammates were considering kicking the shit out of him because he was "only considered about his stats and getting hits". Which is very true if you watch him play often. He's much more concerned with getting hits than getting on base at all costs. Hard to knock a guy hitting .365, but when he creates that kind of atmosphere in the clubhouse it isn't good.

 

[silver7]

So I'm An Owner Of A Multi Mil. MLB Team

I dont even care about the age I would take Ichiro over anyone in the AL.

And I look @ Player A who's 26, and Player B @ 36. And I say even tho the kid has unlimited future, and right now they're close to even (very debateable) I'll just go ahead and throw those 10 yrs away and take the old guy because he may be a HOF! That's nonsense and you and everyone that knows BB also knows it!! Remeber AGE was a factor in the Q. Can't ignore it, and even if they were the same age I'd still take Maure, power, position, leadership, etc.!!

 

[Enfuego]

All things considered obviously Mauer is #1. Longoria is hands down #2 if you consider his contract into the equation. Crawford is also up there, most scouts believe he hasn't even tapped into his potential.

Ichiro is great stats wise, but "all things considered" I don't even think he's top 5. Last year it was reported his teammates were considering kicking the shit out of him because he was "only considered about his stats and getting hits". Which is very true if you watch him play often. He's much more concerned with getting hits than getting on base at all costs. Hard to knock a guy hitting .365, but when he creates that kind of atmosphere in the clubhouse it isn't good.

It was also reported that only one person had a problem with Ichiro not his teammates like you said. I am from Seattle and watch the guy all the time and if you could point out to me what he does different than any other MLB trying to win a game it would be appreciated. I guess trying to get a basehit is a guy concerned about personal stats maybe?

Oh by the way, he got two more hits on Wednesday including an HR against Verlander giving him 6 hits in the last two days.

 

[Boxer22]

And I look @ Player A who's 26, and Player B @ 36. And I say even tho the kid has unlimited future, and right now they're close to even (very debateable) I'll just go ahead and throw those 10 yrs away and take the old guy because he may be a HOF! That's nonsense and you and everyone that knows BB also knows it!! Remeber AGE was a factor in the Q. Can't ignore it, and even if they were the same age I'd still take Maure, power, position, leadership, etc.!!

Like I said... I'll take Ichiro.

 

[billhill999]

No denying Longoria is a terrific young stud, but the feeling here is he is slightly overrated.
He hit 27 dingers in his first full season, which is solid, but you would expect more than 85 RBI's, and it's not like he doesn't have the horses ahead of him in the lineup to get on.
The lack of the runs driven in can be attributed to the fact he struck out 122 times, or once every four at bats, and that is way too much.
.272 batting average was a little better than league average, and his .343 OBA was also a little better than league average.

The big thing that sticks out this year is he leads the league in grounding into DP's with 22.

So what you have here is a good (not great) power hitting third baseman, that strikes out entirely too much and grounds into way too many double plays.

 

[barman]

Longo's RBI potential in first season was greatly tempered by having Iwamura in the leadoff slot and a (at the time) fairly modest Bartlett batting ninth. Also for most of 2008, Pena batted third ahead of Longo and cleared a fair share of runners.

The DPs are certainly notable this year and he's got a lot to learn still about crunching LH pitching.

Bottom line is he's still short of 1000 pa and can be better evaluated after say, the 2011 season is done.

 

[SundayTiger]

No denying Longoria is a terrific young stud, but the feeling here is he is slightly overrated.
He hit 27 dingers in his first full season, which is solid, but you would expect more than 85 RBI's, and it's not like he doesn't have the horses ahead of him in the lineup to get on.
The lack of the runs driven in can be attributed to the fact he struck out 122 times, or once every four at bats, and that is way too much.
.272 batting average was a little better than league average, and his .343 OBA was also a little better than league average.

The big thing that sticks out this year is he leads the league in grounding into DP's with 22.

So what you have here is a good (not great) power hitting third baseman, that strikes out entirely too much and grounds into way too many double plays.

Good stuff.

 

[billhill999]

Thank you.