But anyway, back to the topic at hand—Ken Griffey back in Seattle. What should it take, and what will it take? Two different questions, and since they have two different answers, the short answer is that the deal should not be made.

Griffey is in the final year of an injury-plagued disaster of a contract that he signed when he was traded to Cincinnati in 2000, massively overpaid as it is, which is scary when you consider that he signed at a significant discount compared to what the Mariners had offered. As a hitter, the bat speed is gone. So is the fielding range for the most part, and the running speed. In short, you will not get Ken Griffey the kid. You will not even get Ken Griffey, Sr., remarkable in how well he aged. You will pay a Ken Griffey price to get Glenallen Hill.

So if we were to get him, we’d better be able to give up something equal. I’m thinking of something along the lines of a Jose Vidro or Richie Sexson trade here. No prospects involved. Salary for salary. Do not mortgage the future to sell a few tickets and give away a few bobbleheads.

Vidro in particular might make sense. Vidro makes less than what Griffey makes, though he is still grossly overpaid. So even though he produces almost nothing and would amount to little more than an expensive utility infielder or pinch hitter for the Reds (maybe even a trade-and-release deal), it still allows them to dump salary while giving us an upgrade at DH. The one downside is that it does crowd out Clement (why did the M’s extend Johjima???) Griffey could also see some time in right, taking some pressure off Balentien (though so far it seems as though Balentien can handle the pressure just fine).

But we all know the Reds won’t do a deal without prospects—so, no deal. If Griffey wants to retire as a Mariner, he can do it next year, and at a significant discount.

2. If you’re having a good year, especially in a contract year, stay out of it. If you must be in it, yell and maybe push and shove on the edges.

3. If you’re recovering from an injury, especially a knee injury, Milton Bradley, do not try to pick someone up and risk re-injuring yourself.

4. If you’re the pitcher, try not to throw at the biggest guy on the team. Don’t throw at Richie Sexson, throw at Willie Bloomquist. When he charges the mound, you will not get hit as hard.

Let’s face it. With few exceptions, baseball fights are more show than anything else. There hasn’t been a good major league fight since Robin Ventura charged the mound against Nolan Ryan and learned what a Noogie is. But while million dollar egos push and shove with seemingly no consequence, the occasional injury does happen, and today was no different. Kason Gabbard bends over, takes a helmet to the back, and then upon going back to the mound, finds he is suddenly hurting and has to leave the game. A little ill-advised retaliation (or was it? The pitch was up, but not that far in) really cost the Rangers, and now they have to go to the pen.

I’m writing this during the game, so we’ll see how this plays out. Will Franklyn German get out of it, and will the pen hold up, or will the M’s, minus Big Richie, take advantage?

So now, where do we stand?

Catcher:

Johjima–Not going anywhere. New contract not only didn’t help Clement, it makes Johjima less tradable down the stretch drive if we aren’t contending.

Clement–Not going anywhere. Should not be considered in any trade offers.

Burke–Will need to stick around because we want Johjima and Clement in the lineup together.

Infield:

Sexson–Probably untradable. Needs to start hitting.

Lopez–Decent, but overrated. Similar to Vidro in his younger days, but not as good a hitter.

Betancourt–Worth keeping

Beltre–Good player paid like a star thanks to one great season.

Bloomquist–Pinch running and versatility is only reason to keep him around. Hitting at best is unacceptable.

Cairo–No reason for him to be here, except that outfield is now so thin that if Bloomquist is in outfield and we need an infielder, Cairo is it.

Vidro–Maybe Cairo isn’t it. If Clement/Johjima DHs, then Vidro becomes the last infielder. He was awful when he was young and will be worse now. He hits better than Bloomquist or Cairo. Untradable, grossly overpaid, an absolutely insane acquisition.

Outfield:

Balentien–Young, raw. Will probably struggle to hit .250, but will hit some homers. Will also strike out a lot. We will be frustrated, but give him a year or two.

Ibanez–Still hitting well. Every year I expect him to slow down, and every year he defies me.

Ichiro–Still as good a pure hitter as there is. Not hitting well yet this year, but I don’t anticipate that being a problem. He has always been a bit of a slow starter.

And that is it. Bloomquist is our fourth outfielder, now that Wilkerson has been cut.

Rotation:

Batista–A good fifth starter, nothing more. His contract was ridiculous, but we haven’t been hurt too much by it.

Washburn–A good fourth starter, nothing more. His contract was ridiculous.

Silva–A good third starter, nothing more. Off to a good start, today’s game notwithstanding. His contract was beyond ridiculous (sense a pattern here?)

Bedard–Potential ace with health issues. If he stays healthy, he’s a potential Cy Young.

Hernandez–Potential ace, but still very young. Needs to be kept from overuse, which is especially an issue with our bullpen.

Bullpen:

Baek–Long reliever/spot starter. Could be decent #5, certainly at far less price than Batista.

Green–Ground ball specialist. Struggles with control too much to be relied upon.

Lowe–Setup man/backup closer struggling to return from injury. Control has been strong in past but horrible this year.

Morrow–Setup man who needs a clear role. Control is awful. Probably rushed. Doesn’t handle pressure at all. We need to either develop him as a reliever or as a starter, but stop this rigmarole of using him as a major league setup man and telling everyone he will become a starter.

Putz–Closer, normally dominant but struggling this year with control and injuries.

Rhodes–Setup man returning from injury, handles pressure better than anyone.

Rowland-Smith–Setup man struggling with control after strong last year.

Overall impression: We have a strong rotation–the back end is overpriced, but solid. Down the stretch drive, we should look to trade the back end if we are not in contention. The bullpen is an inexperienced mess without defined roles. Half the pen needs more minor league seasoning. The infield is overcrowded, the outfield is too thin.

Recommendations:

Release or farm Cairo. Call up Jeremy Reed and install him as a fourth outfielder and pinch hitter–maybe even platoon him with Balentien. Call up R.A. Dickey and have him replace Morrow for a veteran presence in a young bullpen and additional long man, while Morrow pitches the full season in Tacoma as a starter. Next year, Morrow, Feierabend, and Baek compete for Washburn’s and Bautista’s jobs, saving the team two huge salaries.

OK, seriously… His minor league career started a mere 30 years ago, in Butte, Montana in 1978, during the Mariners’ second year of existence, and he first reached the majors as a shortstop in 1982 with the Phillies, meaning he just missed the 1981 strike that knocked out a third of the season. Looking at the Mariners’ 25-man roster, only 11 players were born before Franco’s first minor league game, with an additional six coming before he hit the bigs.

Franco had a pretty amazing career, in that he had been all but left for dead right in the middle of it. His defense was a major issue, leading him to move first to second base and then to DH. Then, after two subpar years, he left for Japan in 1995. A decent year led to him returning to Cleveland, where he had played for most of the eighties, but after one good year, he again began to struggle, and eventually returned to Japan in 1998. In 1999, he saw one at bat in professional baseball, striking out for Tampa Bay. For a 40-year old, that should have been it. Instead, he went to Korea the next year, hitting .327 and earning himself a spot on Atlanta’s roster the following year. He spent the next five years in Atlanta, then went to the Mets, then back to Atlanta, to the minors, and now to Mexico, where he finally retired at the young age of 49.

For the record, a player who seemed to be left for dead at the age of 35 wound up with 2,586 hits in the majors, just under 3,700 in his whole professional career. Now, if his normal age progression continues, he should be coaching and managing until sometime in his late nineties.

Wilkerson was off to a slow start, no question. However, he had a minor injury that was slowing him down, he had been misused by McLaren (this will most likely be the last time I can say this… He can hit lefties) and he is fairly versatile. Plus, with Morse out for the season, we are just a little thinner in the outfield. And finally, Wilkerson was coming around–and I say that before considering the monster game he had last night.

Norton didn’t do that much for the M’s–just hit .438 in his limited time. There was nothing for him to do, so he never had a role on the Mariner team. He was a bench player, and McLaren does not like to use them, so no surprise that nothing was ever going to become of that. One possibility there that I don’t think exists with Wilkerson–he may accept an assignment to the minors.

So who were the right players to let go? Miguel Cairo for one. He is purely surplus. He is 0-5 in nine games, basically doing nothing. Anything he can do, Willie Bloomquist can do better, and Willie is the one getting the playing time. The only reason to keep them both around is if we need to put Willie in the outfield–which we may need to do now that Wilkerson is gone.

The other is Jose Vidro. He is doing nothing, and at his best will not do much. By keeping him, all we are doing is robbing Clement of playing time, and if we decide to bench him and play Clement more at DH, we have Vidro on the bench–one more utility infielder, only this time one with no defensive ability whatsoever. On the other hand, he can pinch hit–but then again, so could Greg Norton, and Norton was doing a better job.

So maybe we need to think about a couple more roster moves. Maybe it’s about time we designate Bavasi and McLaren for assignment.

To me, this is a perfect time to bring in J.J. Putz. No, he does not get the save. He gets out of the inning, and Brandon Morrow, Mark Lowe, Ryan Rowland-Smith, someone else gets the save.

But the book, as currently written says you don’t bring in your closer unless he is going to close it, and here he is not going to, especially since he struggled last night.

So you leave in Felix one hitter too long, tie up the game, then bring in Brandon Morrow to lose it.

I’m sorry, but the end result for J.J. is the same–either way, he doesn’t get the save. The only difference is that one way, the M’s get the win, the other way they don’t. And I thought that’s what we are playing for.

And if we did, it would be.

Frank Thomas was released for a reason. Or actually, for a couple of them. Frank Thomas was a great player in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. His time is past, and now he is a behemoth with a slow bat and a huge ego. As a DH, he would be no better, and probably worse, than Carl Everett or Glenallen Hill–more power and walks, but a lower average and less speed (and neither of them had any).

As a DH, Vidro is not good. True. But he is not so bad that we need make panic poor decisions. We have other options–one of which I mentioned in my previous post–allowing Kenji Johjima and Jeff Clement to split time between catcher and DH.

The other option is the Rotating DH. The only manager I have ever seen use this consistently is Sparky Anderson. His great 1984 team, one of the best of all time, no DH to speak of. He never used a regular DH until Cecil Fielder came along, and then Cecil was the DH only because you didn’t dare put him elsewhere. DH was a way of giving his regulars a day off while keeping them in the lineup and keeping his bench sharp. Are you listening, McLaren?

As I mentioned in “McLaren Challenge #2″, I would like to see McLaren use his bench more to keep them sharp. One way to do this is the rotating DH. We reduce Vidro’s playing time a bit (though I would not cut it entirely–he still hits OK), maybe even have him play some second and/or first to keep him sharp. Meanwhile, Sexson, Johjima, Ibanez, Beltre, Ichiro–all the guys who hit decently enough to keep in the lineup everyday–give them about 2 games a month at DH while someone like Bloomquist, Vidro, Norton, Cairo, or Burke plays the field.

But on the other hand, I do not like great hitting catchers who have caught large numbers of games and suddenly start struggling. A few of them come to mind: Tony Pena, Gary Carter, Terry Kennedy… Before you look them up, let me summarize this one for you–they were not hitting .290 with 20 homers three years later. Not even close. Sure, it is too early to close the book on Kenji, and he could easily snap out of this, but I would never have offered him $8 mil a year while he’s in this deep a tailspin.

Jeff Clement is our top prospect. Sure, he has had some struggles, but nothing I have heard is catastrophic–maybe they have spun it well? I don’t know, but I have the impression he has done better than Ryan Christensen. What is the plan now? Make Clement a right fielder? I hope not. A DH? Certainly not a first baseman? The guy’s a good hitter, but not that good.

The deal is done, and now, what I would recommend is that we continue making Clement a catcher. We haven’t been able to find a DH worth a snot in several years, not since Edgar retired. Well, maybe we have one, or two, now. Find out who is comfortable throwing to Johjima and who isn’t. Those who like to work with Johjima get to have him catch, while Clement DH’s. Those who can’t communicate well with him throw to Clement while Johjima DH’s. Keep Burke or some other third catcher around for third catcher/Clement’s defensive replacement so we don’t lose the DH if we need to pull one of them (or take the chance, knowing that if we do, it is late in the game and we start cycling through pitchers and pinch hitters anyway)…

The end result is that both catchers work about 75-85 games, their careers run a lot longer, they don’t wear out as the season goes along, and we get better performances out of both of them. And the pitchers who have had problems throwing to Kenji don’t have to worry about it, while Clement’s defensive shortcomings won’t hurt us every day and maybe he can improve on them.

Or, maybe McLaren can platoon Wilkerson with Willie Bloomquist.

Let’s pretend I didn’t just write that…

I guess there is one other option–bring up Wladimir Balentien. Not a bad option, but not really a good one, either. I think Wlad is still a bit raw at this point. No, let’s make it Wilkerson’s job to lose for now.

[Cut to commercial].

I’m sorry, but this seems a bit tacky to me. OK, so we did have about a five second moment of silence, and there was a graphic with his birth and death dates on the screen (albeit the one with him decking Paul O’Neill in a fight, not my choice for a tribute). But at least do something to close the moment before cutting the silence. Wait for Hutler to acknowledge the moment of silence. Have the announcers say something nice about Marzano. Anything. Don’t just cut to a commercial–this just makes it look like the network sees the advertising bucks as more important than the tribute to Marzano.