A couple weeks ago, with Joe Mauer set to debut atop the AL leaderboard with a .389 batting average and Ichiro Suzuki hitting .360, I wrote that "it would be great to watch those two duke it out down the stretch to see who can capture their third batting title."
Since then Mauer has slumped and Ichiro has kept chugging along, and yesterday they flip-flopped spots in the batting title race. Ichiro leads the league at .363 with Mauer second at .358, and Jason Bartlett is right there with them at .345 now that he has enough plate appearances to qualify.
There are three lesssons to be learned here. One, be careful what you wish for. Two, maintaining a .390 batting average is really hard. And three, Ichiro is really good.
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Ichiro will win breezing!
Hey Joe !! Get in the Box !! You don't deserve batting titles when other players have 120-130+ more AB's.
Dude, he was injured for the first month of the season. He deserves a batting title as long as he qualifies for the minimum number of plate appearances (not at bats), which he does.
They may be duking it out over batting average, but in all the important stats Mauer is kicking Ichiro's ass. As of today, Ichiro may be batter .362, but he doesn't even have a .400 OBP since he barely walks, just 19 for the season. Mauer on the other hand has walked 36 times to boost his OBP to .432, .36 points higher than Ichiros. Mauer also has 15 home runs, 13 doubles and triples compared to Ichiro's six home runs, 19 doubles and 3 triples. That gives Mauer a .594 slugging, compared to Ichiro's .480, a 114 point difference. Maure is also leading the league in OPS and OPS+ with a 1.027 and 176 mark respectively, while Ichiro is only slightly above average with marks of .876 and 134. And of course Mauer players the hardest defensive position at gold glove levels, while Ichiro finds himself at the third easiest position.
How is any of that relevant to winning the batting title?
Adam, take a deep breath and calm down a bit. They're talking about the batting title here. If you continue to expand, some Ichiro fan will bring up lifetime stats, then some Cardinal fan will throw Puhols at you. Stay on point now.