According to Barry Bonds, Ichiro would win the T-Mobile Home Run Derby if he entered
The T-Mobile Home Run Derby is always swirling with speculation. Who's in? Who's out? Will there be a pitchers-only derby? (Maybe next year, guys). And every year, one name is conspicuously absent from the conversation: Ichiro Suzuki.
Now, Ichiro may not immediately jump to mind as a prodigious home run hitter: He's closing in on 3,000 hits, sure, but only 113 of those have been homers. He's never hit more than 15 in a season, and he only has two over the past three years (including none so far this season).
Despite all of that, Ichiro's own hitting coach, Barry Bonds, is on the record affirming the 42-year-old's power:
"He hits more home runs than anyone in batting practice, every day," Bonds said in an interview from June. "I said, 'You know what? You got to stop hitting all of these home runs.' He said, 'Why?' I said, 'Because you're wasting them all in practice. We want you to hit a home run in a game.'"
And if he entered the Derby?
"I would think he'd win, easy, hands down," Bonds said.
Considering Bonds knows a little something about home runs, we might want to take his word for it.
h/t Deadspin