That’s Some ‘Slump’ for Ichiro

As the Mariners sink in the West, Ichiro Suzuki prepares for his return to the Far East. He will not carry the hardware that he took back to Japan last year, including the most-valuable-player and rookie-of-the-year awards (he was only the second player to win both in the same season), but he will carry some surprising baggage.

Although his statistics for the season remain impressive, Suzuki was hitting .238, an average befitting a utility player, over his last 202 at-bats through Friday, which raised issues for the men who analyze such things.

“We’ve noticed some loss of intensity when he’s in the field and when he’s running out those ground balls he slaps around,” said one of the six New York Yankee scouts here to prepare reports on the Angels in preparation for a possible playoff meeting.

“We saw him hit a bleeder halfway to the mound earlier in the year and get to first base in 3.6 [seconds], but now it’s almost as if he gauges if he has a chance before turning it on. I mean, he’s still a very good player, but I think the league has done a better job of making adjustments to him than he has of making them back.”

The scout meant that pitchers have done a better job of keeping the ball in on Suzuki’s hands, preventing him from slapping opposite-field line drives or grounders to deep short, which his speed allows him to beat out.

Of course, many of those same pitchers weren’t doing a similar job over the 400 or so at-bats that preceded the last 200, because Suzuki, despite the falloff over the last six weeks, still will finish the year with more than 200 hits while batting about .320 with 30 or more stolen bases and a .360-plus average with runners in scoring position. The fact that he led the league with a .350 average, 242 hits and 56 stolen bases in his U.S. debut last year underscores the theory that the league caught up with him some.

Suzuki has another year on his contract, and Manager Lou Piniella paints a positive portrait.

“If you only measure what he did this year to last year, you say to yourself, ‘Well, he fell a little short.’ If you measure it to what you expect from any player, he’s had a damn good year.

“He’s going to get 200 hits, he’s in the top four or five in the league in hitting, he has a higher on-base percentage [.389 to .381] than he did last year, he’s gotten 26 intentional walks, which is unheard of for a leadoff man, he plays a solid outfield and he plays every day for you.

“You’ve got to remember two things. I probably overplayed him because of our lack of depth, and he had such a great year last year that he became the focus on everybody’s scouting list as to how to pitch to him, how to defense him, and he’s the guy scouts are saying ‘Don’t let him get on base because he makes their offense go at the top of the lineup.’

“What makes a sophomore jinx--and he hasn’t had one--is just that, the added attention and focus, but if Ichiro played here eight more years and had the year he’s having this year each of those eight, I think everybody would be very pleased.”

Mr. Humility

Alex Rodriguez arrived in Oakland with his Texas Rangers on Friday, with Miguel Tejada sitting in the opposite dugout, and decided to change his self-effacing MVP approach.

“I would vote for myself,” Rodriguez said. “Why not? In ‘96, I said I wouldn’t, and it cost me. I’ll be a little less humble this time.”

Juan Gonzalez of Texas won the MVP in ’96. Rodriguez, then with Seattle, was second, followed by Albert Belle of Cleveland and Ken Griffey Jr., who was A-Rod’s teammate and whom he encouraged the two Seattle writers on the MVP committee, Bob Finnegan and Jim Street, to vote for. His mantra at the time was: “How can I be MVP of the league when I’m not even the MVP on my team?”

In Oakland, however, Rodriguez said: “Sure, I’d be disappointed if I’m not the MVP. I’ve been in the race three or four times. I’ve come close--’96 was my closest. The two local writers didn’t vote for me, and that hurt. I’ll never forget those guys. They really helped motivate my career.”

Well, isn’t that something?

Two writers helped motivate his career, not money and pride?

And it was the two Seattle writers?

A-Rod is confused, geographically and otherwise.

Both Finnegan and Street had Rodriguez high on their ballots but behind Griffey, as he had urged. Rodriguez finished three points out of first and has berated John Hickey, now with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, more than once. Hickey had A-Rod seventh on his ballot but was then working for a Bay Area newspaper, hardly a “local writer.”

Split Decision

The A’s have lost to the Yankees in the opening round of the last two American League playoffs and would seem to have had enough of that route, which they would have to follow again if they lose the division title to the Angels, but they offered mixed opinions after they beat the Angels on Thursday.

Third baseman Eric Chavez cited the sideshow of a playoff encounter with former teammate Jason Giambi and said: “I don’t want to play the Yankees. I’ve always felt that besides having them knock us out the last two years, the series itself would take second stage because the whole Jason thing would overshadow the playoffs. It would be Jason and the A’s instead of the Yankees and the A’s. Let’s see somebody else in the first round. If we get to the second round and see the Yankees, so be it.”

However, pitcher Tim Hudson, thinking about the A’s Big Three of Barry Zito, Mark Mulder and himself, said: “I think we’d have a better chance to beat the Yankees in a five-game series than a seven-game series. I don’t know the rotation plans, but I think we’d have a better chance to beat them if we go with a three-man rotation--and that would give us another quality arm in the bullpen with Cory Lidle.”

Pot Party

New York Met General Manager Steve Phillips can demean the Newsday report that marijuana use was rampant among the Mets and throughout the Met system as being largely based on anonymous sources, but there is one irrefutable fact:

Baseball has no meaningful drug policy that would include testing for all banned substances. A game played on grass may never be free of grass, but it requires more than a toothless steroid plan and a policy that tests only those already known to have used. Perception is everything.