One of the many things that never ceases to amaze me or piss me off about the New York Yankees is their ability to completely surprise you when you thought nothing was coming. The Yankls, who have pretty muich been dormant on the trade talks all season long, acquired Ichiro Suzuki. You know, the Japanese version of Pete Rose that never, ever slows down or loses any of his baseball abilities.
Now, this move doesn’t surprise me that the Yanks got Ichiro, the following things made it just completely weird:
1. It happened on a Monday.
2. The Yankees and Mariners pulled off this trade while playing each other in Seattle, so Ichiro played one game against the Yankees, then suited up the next day for them.
3. Ichiro was on the trading block?
I follow baseball pretty religiously, and know the big name names on the trading block for no other reason than imagining them in a Red Sox uniform. But Seattle has been awful for a very long time, so why pull the plug on him now? They could’ve let him play out his final three to four years with the team he came over to, and let’s face it, Ichiro was a lifetime Mariner, he replaced Ken Griffey Jr. as the face of Seattle baseball.
This of course is going to set up all other dominos and the Yankees will somehow end up with Cole Hammels and any other All-Star available (I’ve made my concession for this season, the Sox suck, and the Yankees will probably at the very least be in the ALCS).
Its not that the move didn’t make sense for New York, and hey, if you can get him, why not? But for the love of god, give the rest of us (you know, those people trying to figure out what the hell happened to Carl Crawford after he left Tampa) a chance.