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  Eric Degerman is SportsTriCities.com's managing editor. Eric is a longtime Tri-City Herald sportswriter who spent several years covering a variety of sports, including the Tri-City Americans and golf. Eric now produces a regular Web-based sportscast that focuses on Mid-Columbia sports. Have a question for Eric? Click here to e-mail him |
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Whether or not Seattle Mariners fans realize it, there are teams who would like to see Raul Ibañez playing for them.
A number of sites by fans and sabremetricians point to Ibañez's limitations in left field.
He does have value, though.
Last week, The Sporting News published its exclusive survey of MLB players, and a remarkable number of American League players — 212 — participated in the anonymous poll.
Ibañez tied with Texas shortstop Michael Young as the American League's most underrated player. Each got 8% of the vote.
An unnamed scout was quoted as saying, "Nobody knows him because he's in Seattle, but he goes out and does it every day."
Ichiro was voted to have the best outfield arm in the A.L. by a large margin (37%), with Vladimir Guerrero and Jose Guillen tied for second (19%).
According to the players, no A.L. team has a better left side of the infield than the Mariners. Yuniesky Betancourt tied with ChiSox shortstop Orlando Cabrera as the league's best defensive infielder, and Adrian Beltre was fifth.
Ichiro ranked No. 4 as the league's toughest hitter with two outs. Manny Ramirez easily won the category. Ichiro also came in tied for fifth in the voting for the league's best player. He was tied with Everett native Grady Sizemore.
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