Lou Piniella of the Mariners has always been a highly underrated manager. He's one of the craftiest men in the business. Piniella once called time out in a playoff game to talk to his runner at first base. Turns out Piniella had noticed the opposing catcher giving away pitchouts by his setup behind the plate. The forewarned runner stole second to set up a run.
Now Piniella is using his smarts to get Ichiro Suzuki more pitches to hit. Though Suzuki won the American League MVP Award last season as a dynamic leadoff hitter, Piniella moved him to third in the order last Sunday.
Suzuki already has been intentionally walked 11 times this year -- one more than in all of last season. One third of the way through the schedule this year, Suzuki has nearly as many total walks (27) as he had all of last year (30). Has Ichiro suddenly turned patient? Not exactly. It seems to be more a matter of pitchers being extremely careful with a bat magician who was hitting .512 with runners in scoring position entering this week.
The Yankees pitched Suzuki tough in a short series last October, frequently busting fastballs on his hands, but also changing the elevation of the pitches, or "changing the eye level'' of the batter, as pitchers call it. But Suzuki has shown there is no one way to get him out.
The move to the three hole -- Suzuki's most frequent spot when he played in Japan -- continues Ichiro's remarkably rapid transition to the big leagues. At the start of spring training last year scouts compared him to Brett Butler, Matty Alou and Ralph Garr, and even Piniella wondered if hard throwers might knock the bat out of his hands. Suzuki, though, showed power and a quick bat when he needed to and has turned out to be a clutch hitter, too. He's a better version of Willie McGee, the former MVP and career .295 hitter. Suzuki can be productive in each of the first three spots in the lineup. The key for Piniella is making sure Ichiro gets to see more pitches.
Source: CNNSI.com