The Seattle Times today credits Ichiro Suzuki's success this year to taking more first pitches. That isn't quite right. Ichiro is taking more first pitches this year, but he looked at a career-high first pitches last season and had nearly 40 less first-pitch hits than he did in 2004. So, his first-pitch take percentage is not the determining factor.
The table below shows Ichiro's first-pitch trends. In 2005, his first-pitch hit rate was about 20 points off his previous norm. This year, he's back on it, but because he is taking more pitches, he is going to have fewer first-pitch hits. He's making up for it later in the count, though, as he is on pace for 254 hits.
YEAR HITS *HITS *TAKE % *% Swings *HIT RATE
in Play
2006 254** 28** 85.2 56.8 39.1
2005 206 13 79.8 44.8 20.0
2004 262 52 74.1 59.0 44.6
2003 212 39 74.8 56.3 36.3
2002 208 39 77.7 58.8 39.3
2001 242 42 79.2 62.9 43.0
*First Pitch
**Projected
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