Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki gets the respect he deserves from readers of The Athletic

When Jayson Stark of The Athletic created his MLB All-Quarter Century team, he made a glaring omission. He left out Seattle Mariners Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki in favor of Yankees two-time MVP Aaron Judge.

Perhaps it's worth debating. Judge's peak has certainly been impressive. However, Ichiro still owns the advantage in bWAR (60 to 57.3) and batting average (.311 to .294). Furthermore, in counting stats, Ichiro runs laps around Judge. He has scored 629 more runs, logged 1,975 more base hits, stolen 452 more bases, cranked out 174 more doubles, and raced for 89 more triples.

The Athletic readers right a wrong by voting for Ichiro Suzuki over Aaron Judge

Stark tried his best to justify his choice to elevate Judge over Ichiro, explaining: "I told a few people I was leaning toward Judge, and they all tried to talk me out of it."

He said he weighed his options, but chose Judge because he believes Judge to be the greatest right-handed hitter of all time.

"I wasn’t sure. But I just finished writing a column that argued that Judge is the greatest right-handed hitter of the last 100 years," wrote Stark. "So am I trying to prove my own point by putting him on this team? Maybe. But it’s my point — and I’m sticking to it. My apologies to all my friends on the other side of the Pacific."

Unfortunately for Stark, he's been outvoted. The fans weighed in and The Athletic published a second All-MLB team. This time, Ichiro has supplanted Judge in right field.

It was close, but with 39.3 percent of the vote, compared to Judge at 37.4, Ichiro won by about two percent. The fans have spoken, and Ichiro is the best right fielder of the past 25 years. Quite the honor for the Hall of Famer.

Six players earned the nod by both Stark and the fans, including another former Mariner. Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter, Adrian Beltre and Jose Altuve were all given the nod in both articles.

The fans also disagreed about another former Mariner prospect. David Ortiz was selected as the DH by Stark, but he was outvoted by the fans, who chose Shohei Ohtani by nearly eight percent. He was also overruled at catcher, where he chose Yadier Molina over the fan choice, Buster Posey.

Mariners' former ace Randy Johnson was also honored by both the fans and Stark as a member of the starting rotation, though it's worth noting his contributions in the 21st century were after his time in Seattle. Felix Hernandez came in 10th among pitchers, with 15.2 percent of the vote.