Ken Griffey Jr. returns to the Mariners

[decoy562]

I'm starting to think the Braves are cursed...

[Fade2White12]

I wouldn't necessarily say he's only a publicity draw. I think he could really help them on the field. He still has a good contact rate for his age, he still has about a 1:1 K/BB ratio, and he still has the power to drive in runs and hit a few homers. Although he's a shell of his former self, I think for a $2 million contract with incentives, his contribution on the field will be worth more than his price tag.

He'll be spending a good amount of time DHing, and spelling OFs on certain days. If he concentrates on hitting and gets ~500ABs, I'd look for something like 70/15-20/80/.260. I'd say that's better than what Balentien, and maybe even Gutierez, will likely bring.

[Niffoc4]

I find myself wondering if its not an AJC problem. What if its a Frank Wren (or some other Brave higher up) problem. If the GM of my team leaked information like "we've got Griffey (or furcal...)" how could you NOT publish it? DOB's been pretty good on most other stuff. wherever the problem is though, if its costing the Braves FA's, they need to fix it. Either DOB has really bad sources, or the Braves front office doesn't understand FA situations as well as they think they do.

[Big Pimpin]

Like the brittle one has any real fantasy value in a std mixed league? He now goes to a pitcher's park and one of the worst teams in the AL. This will likely put some fans in the seats for the M's...that is about it imo. Is this the M's idea of a replacement for Ibanez? I mean are we to take a team seriously that has the following projected lineup now (depending on where Griffey plays):

Active Roster:
C Kenji Johjima
1B Russell Branyan
2B Jose Lopez
SS Yuniesky Betancourt
3B Adrian Beltre
LF Wladimir Balentien\Griffey
CF Franklin Gutierrez\Griffey
RF Ichiro Suzuki\Griffey
DH Jeff Clement\Griffey

I think the lineup looks more like this:

RHP/LHP
C Clement/Johjima
1B Branyan/Shelton (or Morse or Sweeney)
2B Lopez
3B Beltre
SS Betancourt
LF Chavez w/ a splash of Balentien
CF Gutierrez
RF Ichiro
DH Griffey/Balentien

I think Griffey will do very well as a DH against RHP. He shouldn't play the field and he shouldn't bat against lefties. I think Atlanta lucked out that they didn't sign him. He would have been a disaster if he had to play the field on a regular basis. As for the M's replacement for Ibanez, that was Gutierrez. FWIW he was a more productive a player than Raul was last year, racking up the very same 2.3 wins in 40 less games at a fraction of the cost.

As far as the team, I really don't think it's that bad. Right now they're probably close to a true-talent 75ish win team, and if you get a Felix breakout and a healthy year from Bedard all the sudden you're in contention. The AL West is not very good. People that think this is a really crappy team don't understand the value of defense (yeah again, I'm talking about defense... having the best defensive OF in baseball is going to go a long way towards making this team look a lot better than people think it is right now). The only important thing is scoring more runs than the other team, not whether you do it by scoring more or allowing less.

HOOTIE, I'm not sure I agree with your star comment. I think Griffey's value is fine as a DH against righties. I don't think he has much value as far as preparing the kids how to prepare. Maybe things have changed, but for all his talent (and as much as I was a fanboy back in the day), he was never very prepared. He wasn't a "student of the game" nor was he a tireless worker. In fact, he was the guy who'd loaf to first after popping the ball up and such. I never understood why ARod gets all the hate and Griffey gets all the love when at least ARod busted his ass until the day he left.

As for me, I like Griffey and I found today that I'm irrationally happy that he's coming back. Hopefully the M's catch lightning in a bottle and Griffey finds the magical fountain of youth and we have an exciting summer of baseball in the Northwest.

[HOOTIE]

BP, yeah i agree the defense looks good. The problem i see, is scoring enough the days Washburn/Silva pitch. I would take a .500 year. Griffeys star appeal will probably draw about 200,000 extra fans. I think the young guys will look up to him for advice. While he isn't a student of the game, i heard he was one of the 1st guys at the park, and one of the last 2 leave. I kind of believe the excitement from the fans, will make it a nice atmosphere.