I intentionally oversimplified because the whole point of this discussion is whether or not Ichiro could have come close to reaching Rose's hit record if he had played nearly his entire career in MLB, not who was the better player. I acknowledge that Ichiro has a lower OPS and slugging in MLB, but that's beside the…

See my other reply above as well, but the difference between AAA, the Japanese league (AAAA?) and MLB is not likely to account for a large statistical difference for a player of Ichiro's caliber. If, for some reason, Ichiro had spent his entire career in AAA, he may have hit over .400 a few times, but he would not…

That's exactly the point. Ichiro transitioned from the Japanese Leagues (often considered a sort of AAAA) to MLB with only a tiny drop in his hits per game. This suggests one of two things: either the NPB is better than it's usually considered or Ichiro is a special player who was already MLB ready early in his…

If Rose's argument were true, it would require that Ichiro's statistics in the Nippon League and MLB show significant differences. He did have a major drop in his power numbers after his arrival in the U.S., but Ichiro put up only slightly lower batting averages with the Mariners. The Japanese leagues also play about…

This is by far the most determined bear I have ever seen. This is perhaps the best bear I have ever seen. This is the bear of wisdom, this is the bear of rubbishness. This is the bear of belief, this is the bear of incredulity ... in short, this bear is so far unlike the other bears, that some of its nosiest…

Beautiful.

+1

We swear we're not picking on the Phillies

+1

This is similar to the NBA's attempted Pro Bol rule change requiring at least one player 7'6" or taller in the All Star game.

A condom there. One more time, a condom there. Oh, look out, there's another condom. Aaand a condom there.

+1

Before you point out a spelling mistake in the second tweet, you should know that Marcus is actually writing a sequel to the Tao of Pooh.

Well, it's true what they say; it really does feel better if you do it with a mintonette.

+1

Meh. If I wanted to watch an obvious parody of baseball fundamentals I'd just turn on SNY.

Leave it to Cooper to try to put somebody over a barrel.

Peavy ... will immediately bolster a rotation that's been treading some water

Five nesting black men? Good on Russia for breaking down racist stereotypes.