Ichiro Press Conference Thread
Dave · July 13, 2007 at 1:21 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Sorry Sean Green – your personal thread will have to wait until another day. Ichiro has bumped you.
Press conference starts in about 15 minutes. Commence WooHoo’ing now.
Comments
76 Responses to “Ichiro Press Conference Thread”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
The deal is:
– $17 mil base salary per year
– $5 mil signing bonus
There is also “deferred” money, not exactly sure of the details on that. I’d say that this is a pretty solid bargain.
I just posted this over at LL, but I’m saying it again…
Ichiro, from the bottom of my heart, welcome to Mariners immortality.
I pointed out some of the posts regarding Ichiro’s translations. She speaks a little Japanese, and here is what she said about it:
somehow the “to my wife” got dropped from the first line of post 53. That is who I was quoting.
Geoff Baker blogs about the contract and the conference
So, if its really $90m, then based on Dave’s prior analysis, this is a significantly-below-market contract.
Way to go Ms.
Vidro …. $5.00 worth of the eastbound I-90 Greyhound?
WOO HOO !!! This is a ridiculously good value for the team. I just hurt my head reading the comments over on the ESPN article with people spouting the same useless drivel they always spout about Ichiro. Thank god for baseball, the Mariners, USS Mariner, and Ichiro!
Ichiro!! And the $10 million savings is even better news for everyone!
Wow… so according to Geoff Baker, Bavasi is going to be feeling Ichiro on the field? I wouldn’t think that would improve his fielding percentage.
I know, that was lame. Sorry.. it’s Friday afternoon and I just had too much caffeine.
I wonder if someday the Caffeinated Confines link on the main page will be fixed to be spelled correctly?
Dave,
Is there a way to quantify what Ichiro is worth to the M’s based on the revenues brought in internationally, Japan specifically? Isn’t this something that should be considered in concert with his on field talents? His is a special case when you bring international markets into play. Is his value in the US is greater to his home club because of the following that he generates overseas?
As you’ve shown, based solely on WPA his contract in under market value. It also proabably doesnt change much in terms of payroll budgets or how the team operates within that budget, but it certainly makes the M’s more valuable overall. This fact included may make his contract even more of a bargain for the M’s.
I read through some of the ESPN comments on the deal, and one quote made me nearly fall out of my chair laughing:
“How can Ichiro be the most overrated player when Derek Jeter is still around?”
To celebrate his new contract, Ichiro hits 3 homeruns.
#32. Also, just because Ichiro is comfortable conversing in English with his teammates and coaches/manager on the bench doesn’t mean he’s as comfortable conversing in English with “the outside world” and that would DEFINITELY include all forms of media. It’s a baseball thing, nothing personal (which is a phrase used frequently with baseball players when dealing with non-baseball players).
#43. Isn’t 5 years $90M just about the same deal ARod/Boras rejected 7 years ago?
Ignore the people on ESPN. They follow other teams. They don’t have Ichiro, we do. They obviously wouldn’t appreciate him if they did, so it’s no loss to them and it’s a big win for us. Let the ignorant wallow in themselves.
Meanwhile, I’d like to take this press conference and shove it… uh, I’d just like to send a big Nelson-esque “Ha Ha” out to all the mind-readers who “knew” that Ichiro was unhappy in Seattle and insisted that he would never re-sign with the M’s and yadda yadda yadda.
40/41: I think Samson is just jealous, since he knows he’ll never be able re-sign Miguel Cabrera once his contract is up as long as only 8k or so are showing up for the games.
I don’t know where they get their information, but Cot’s already has this:
– signed extension 7/13/07
– $5M signing bonus
– 08:$17M, 09:$17M, 10:$17M, 11:$17M, 12:$17M
– Suzuki agreed to defer an undisclosed amount, reducing average annual value of the deal to about $16.5M
Considering Vlad will be earning 14.5M next year and a club option for 15M in ’09, on a contract he signed in ’04, that’s a steal.
Yuppers.
He’s sorta the anti-obnoxious loudmouth type of player as far as the media goes. That’s bad for quotes, but not for fans…
You know, Mike Skinner (aka “The Streets”) said something along the lines of “how am I supposed to do a line of coke if everyone’s got a damn camera phone?”
It’s the same thing with Ichiro. When he talks to his teammates or opponents, there’s not microphone to record what he says, to dissect his words as so on. I’ll bet at this point his use for an interpreter is not because of poor english, but what they like to call “plausible deniability”
The blog isn’t shutting down, Ben. I can cover Sean Green on Monday, when the thread won’t be overrun with people talking about the Ichiro press conference.
Here’s hoping that Monday’s Sean Green article gets bumped by the post on Adam Jones being called up.
Ichiro is ours and you can’t have him.
1. Much better suit and tie, Ichiro.
2. I really liked what he said about fans in other communities asking him to come, but that Seattle’s fans’ pleas resounded the most. Very classy.
3. First came the ‘he’s not worth it’ next will be ‘There he goes again, being conservative; he would have gotten more as a free agent.’ I’ve watched players chase the WS rings and get nothing but frustration, or chase the huge contract and get nothing but grief and stress. Think Miguel Tejada is happier for being in Baltimore? That Barry Zito’s sleeping well at night? That Giambi doesn’t miss the easy love of Oakland? That A-rod enjoys his daily drama? Oh, wait, I think he seeks it out, so erase that one.
I know people say all the time, I’d be fine with whatever pressure came with the huge contract, and I think Ichiro can take pressure–look at the pressure he had to face coming here. But I don’t see him as being someone who *needs* the big contract for his ego.
4. Now I won’t have to ritually bury my Ichiro rubber ducky when he left.
that just reminded me of the story that went around when he first arrived about the Japanese magazine offering money for a lockerroom photo
I heard that he’d changed to take his wife out to dinner when they called him out for the MVP festivities– and that he missed his dinner reservations
I think he doesn’t need the BIGGEST contract (he’d certainly be insulted if he got lowballed). And I think he wants a chance to compete for the ring. I always thought if he saw he had a decent chance to do it here, he’d probably re-sign with the Ms.
What a great week.
Ichiro! The USSM referred to in national media,somewhat respectfully. The general wailing and gnashing of teeth around the leagues: “We really wanted him, but he’s not worth it.”
Would that teams around the leagues underrated Ichiro as much as their fans do on their blogs.
A lifelong BoSox fan friend e-mailed me that his blogs had Ichiro a BoSox target in FA just after I had read the initial reporting on this site about the imminent signing. I was able to use a DMZ line: ‘Ummmmm No.’.
Oh noes.