OAKLAND -- Before Don Wakamatsu became the Mariners manager, he had seen enough of Ichiro Suzuki to appreciate him. What he's learned this year, though, is you can't fully appreciate him without seeing what he does behind the scenes.
"To be with him every day, you see the little things that go on, the way he comes into the ballpark on off days to work out," Wakamatsu said. "It's mind-boggling. Most guys are looking to rest, to get away from the game. He just doesn't stop."
The day that Ichiro whacked his 2,000th major league hit -- a first-inning double against the A's on Sunday -- made for a good time to take a closer look at how he got here and where he's going.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
For the second consecutive year, the Indians have given a playoff contender a huge boost. For the second consecutive year, they traded the previous season's AL Cy Young award winner. And for the second consecutive year, he's absolutely dealing in the National League.
Through five starts, Cliff Lee is 5-0 with a 0.68 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 2 complete games and 39 strikeouts (with only 6 walks) in 40 innings. Sound familiar?
MLB Power Rankings: Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.
Big ups to Prez for taking the PR reigns over while I was off last week. But we're back in the saddle, fresh out of the All-Star break and ready to incite you with our rankings. Also, I should point out that this is, relatively speaking, the "home stretch." Where even the most minuscule of mini-streaks can change a team's fate. Or something like that. Anyway, let's go to the list, where we'll find out if an attack on Jack Nicholson by the Phanatic and the addition of Petey was enough to vault the Phillies into the top spot of the Week 16 MLB Power Rankings. Cue drumroll.
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.
Everyone knows the No. 1 prospect in Tuesday's draft (and if you don't, read this). But after Washington selects Stephen Strasburg, things get less precise.
"Anybody from [No.] 2 to 15 could be just as good as the other guy," an executive from an NL team with a high pick told FanHouse. "It's really a strange year because it is in the eye of the beholder."
For example, Arizona State right-hander Mike Leake has been discussed as high as No. 3 overall, to the Padres. But he's more likely to go in the middle of the first round, no lower than Arizona's picks at 16 and 17.
Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 26 games Tuesday in an 8-2 Seattle win over the Baltimore Orioles, setting a team record previously set by well, himself in 2007. Yet, the brilliant hitter remains 30 games from equaling Joe DiMaggio's astounding 56-game hitting mark set in 1941. That's 30 games. Another month of scratching out hits. Another series of bloops, bleeders, line drives and drag bunts.
That number isn't lost on Ichiro, who was asked about the probability of closing in on 56.
"I think it's true when they say that its the hardest record to break," he said Tuesday night.
Ichiro said his biggest regret Tuesday was not inviting his wife Yumiko and dog, (that's correct) Ikkyu, to the ballpark to watch him set the club record. Ichiro then pulled out a Japanese fan with an image of his Shiba on both sides.
"But at the same time, if you think about it, if I didn't invite them, it didn't mean that much to me," he said. "But once I got this far, I wanted to achieve it. Now I wish I would have asked them to come."
Ichiro Suzuki extended his hitting streak to 24 games tonight, so I thought "hey, maybe I should do a Mariners Dugout" and went to their homepage. I was greeted by images of the Mariners pointing at me, announcing that they want ME to vote "Mariners" in the 2009 All-Star Game. Always one to please, I opened up my ballot, wrote "Mariners" in for second base, and submitted it.
To save you the unnecessary confrontation of that, tonight's late night Dugout includes everything you need to know about the Seattle Mariners going into the All-Star Game: Ichiro is good at hitting, Ken Griffey Jr. plays there, and Jay Buhner is retired. I think?
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... That Ichiro Suzuki has another hitting streak going. Suzuki singled in his first at-bat on Saturday and ran his hitting streak to 23 consecutive games. Since Ichiro got to the big leagues in 2001, this is his seventh hitting streak of at least 20 games.
In that time, no one else in the majors has had more than two streaks of that length.
"It's not a fluke that a guy like that has consistency in his game," Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu said. "He's so strong mentally that you see the exact same approach day in and day out with him. Even if he does struggle a little bit, he seems to find a way to get either an infield hit, hit the ball the other way or pull the ball. So he has a lot of weapons, and obviously the ability to still run at his age allows him to do that."
Here's what's weird though. Although Ichiro has gotten to 20 seven times, he's never gotten past 25, the franchise record he set in 2007. Fifteen players have had hitting streaks of 26 games or more during that time.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the Roto Rush is your double espresso shot of fantasy baseball advice every weekday.
Remember 'Five Alive,' the juicy blend with five fruits that's fun for all the family? Well, Rick Porcello is a unique blend of rookie flavor who's reeled off five straight victories. You can hardly find that syrupy drink on the shelves anymore, but you can still find Porcello in about 30 percent of Yahoo! leagues. And that's not all there is to like about Porcello. After the jump, it's fun time for all fantasy owners! (sugar rush optional)
MLB Power Rankings:Where MLB FanHouse's editors, writers and bloggers team up to break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world.
Well, that took freaking forever ... but the Blue Jays finally started to stink the joint up. I swear to you, you can't stay long atop the MLB Power Rankings -- our failure by osmosis jinxing ability is just too strong, son. At any rate, it was a weird week for ranking baseball: the Cubs continued to skid, the Padres went on a tear and Toronto fell off the face of the planet. So, yeah, spiciness ensued, and you may take the jump to see how badly your team fared. Unless you're a Rangers or a Braves fan, in which case they couldn't have done that poorly.
Saturday Spotlight is a weekly lightning-round of questions delving into the personalities and stories of major leaguers. This week the Spotlight goes multimedia, with its premier audio edition.
Randy Winn has been overshadowed throughout most of his career because he's shared an outfield with Ichiro Suzuki and Barry Bonds, but Winn has put up some numbers of his own. He's been an All-Star and a member of Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. He's also a former teammate of a third MVP: Steve Nash.
OAKLAND -- Before Don Wakamatsu became the Mariners manager, he had seen enough of Ichiro Suzuki to appreciate him. What he's learned this year, though, is you can't fully appreciate him without seeing what he does behind the scenes.
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in 
Ichiro Suzuki 
Poppin' out the box scores and right into your cubicle, the 
