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...For the record, I don't mean "DONE" as in "CANT PLAY ANYMORE", but more along the lines of Ichiro rapidly declining.

He's now hitting .263 on the season after striking out against Chicago.

What do you guys think? His bat speed sure seems to have fallen. So many times he has swung and missed (and struck out) and his late reaction to pitches has also caused him to ground out a TON this season. I don't feel very confident in him at all at the plate this year. Started off well, but May was horrid and it seems to have continued a bit here in June.

I hope he can turn it around.

I'm notoriously poor at predicting these kinds of things. He was over .300 as of May 18, but there's no question he's been in a wicked slump the last month. 2011 has been a strange year for him, traditionally he struggles in April but gets hot in May. This year, he was at .328 on the last day of April, but he's down to the .260-level currently.

I'm hoping it's just a slump.

He's clearly past his best days. I'd like to trade him.

At the end of April he had a .320 average. He then went on to hit .210 for the month of May and his average tanked. He's always been prone to prolonged slumps...if we get to the end of July and he's got the same numbers then I'll be pretty concerned.

Is he declining? That's not an unreasonable assertion given his age, but declining how? Just one month ago he looked like normal Ichiro. Then this past month he's been off...missing a lot at the plate, making weak contact...

Jeff23 wrote:He's clearly past his best days. I'd like to trade him.

He's a 37 year old player with two years remaining on his deal [including this one] worth $34 million [without prorating this season]. If he's truly declining I can't think of a team that would trade for him.

Ichiro must have seen my thread.

Bay_Areas_Finest wrote:Ichiro must have seen my thread.

i think the day off came just at the right time for him... your reverse-jinx thread is was also pretty good lol.

16/34 in the last 8 games, hopefully Ichiro can keep his 200+ hits per season streak alive.