Ichiro! not pleased with Mariners

[GrizBiz]

Interesting information trickling in from an interview that Ichiro! gave to a Japanese sports magazine. It was first reported and translated on a Mariners blog that I read:

http://drdetecto.blogspot.com/

Then today, the Seattle PI picked up the ball with two stories:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/248510_ichiro16.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/thiel/248518_thiel16.html


The gist of the interview is that Ichiro! isn't happy with the direction of the M's. (Other than Howard Lincoln who is, I wonder?) He's upset that he has to motivate himself with personal goals (200 hits, batting titles, etc) rather than team goals like wining championships. It sounds like he doesn't like Hargrove very much and thinks that the team has gotten used to winning.

Interesting stuff for M's fans. I imagine that the sports talk radio guys are having a field day with this in Seattle today.

 

[GRIZFAN20]

I think (and hope) this all blows over in Spring Training. I saw an article on FOXSports this morning that the M's arent even thinking about trading Ichiro. The Mariners have some holes to fill this offseason, but if they can get some big free agents and the team starts winning again, Ichiro will be fine.

 

[BWahlberg]

A few losing seasons in a row will do that to yah, it become frustrating, I'm sure.

Ichiro is a great player, but he's just one guy. If he's seriously unhappy with the M's I'm sure they could trade him for a few good pitchers, and drop Jeremy Reed in the #1 spot. The M's have done just fine trading off the superstars, Johnson, Griffey, A-Rod, if it's a problem, move on, send him packing.

On the other hand, I can understand some of it too, I don't like Hargrove either, he sucks.

 

[CerealCityGriz]

The M's have done fine trading off those guys but when they did have them they were at their best, such as in 1995. How much payroll do the M's have to use this offseason?

 

[BWahlberg]

M's tied the most wins record without a lot of those guys, I know they got bounced from the playoffs, but they've done well with out the "superstars" as well.

 

[GrizBiz]

Ichiro isn't going anywhere - he's far more valuable to the M's than any other team in the league. He brings in a lot of revenue - more than any player we've had since Griffey.

Kalamazoo: The M's have about $25 million/year to spend this offseason. That's a lot but the Yankees, Blue Jays and a couple other teams actually have more to spend and this year's free agent class is pretty thin. Word is that Seattle is set to sign the Japanese catcher Johjima this week - that should help Ichiro out a bit. Put his locker right next to Ichiro and give him someone like minded to chat with.