Mariners Reach Agreement With Ken Griffey Jr.

COOL! Now he gets to play the Reds when they go to Washington next year.

Prettiest swing in baseball.

Matsui to the Yankees soon to follow ... told you guys the feud btw him and the pre-Madonna Ichiro would factor in somehow.

David wright, fernando martinez, jon niese, flores and brad holt(throw mejia in there if need) for felix hernandez and ichiro

Oo wt to do

told you guys the feud btw him and the pre-Madonna Ichiro would factor in somehow.

Posted by: FreeSide | November 11, 2009 at 11:07 AM

I believe you meant "prima donna," not to be confused with A-Rod, whose "pre-Madonna" playoff performances paled in comparison to those since he hooked up with Kate Hudson.

^^ ha!

I guess M's fans will get another season of Junior & Ichiro having their pre-game tickle fights.

Let's get Bay to play LF & call it an off-season!

Junior's back with the M's? Since he is quintessentially useless now, I have to support the deal as an A's fan.

Langerhans nontendered just continues the cycle. WHo's next?

Another wasted year at the DH position for the Mariners. They really have no clue. Can we call them the Cubs of the Northwest?

No Bay dang it... unfortunately Matsui is a power LH who can't field. Better at this point in his career than Junior yes, but more expensive too. I expect our future every day DH to be able to play the field as well. Junior won't get more than 180-200 ABs unless he becomes the picture of health overnight.

Are some of you serious right now?

Junior will be a bench player. He will be in a reduced role and I fully expect the M's to go get another big bat for the main DH position. He's being brought back for marketing and chemistry, while the team sacrifices less than 1 win in talent by having him spend the year on the bench, and half the season on the DL.

This is a very small impact move. If the M's are dumb enough to make him the full time DH, that'd 1) be way more ABs than he got last year 2) There is no 2, because it'll never happen.

He's going to sit on the bench. Get a clue, some of you.

It's a good move. Costs next to nothing, sells tickets, works well with Wak, and keeps Ichiro happy.

Further-
a) Ms should NOT lock into another Sexson deal for the next 5 years with Jason Bay
b) Even if they were dumb enough to do this, Griffey's blip on the salary radar screen DOES NOT adversely affect the M's ability to accomplish this
c) Matsui is NOT a significantly better option than Griffey at DH when you figure in the need for a multi-year committment and salary increase over Jr.

This is a great move. If Sweeney somehow inks a deal, and they're looking at a Griffey/ Sweeney platoon in the 3 hole again this year, there are some problems, but I can't see this being a bad deal.

I wouldn't be surprised if Griffey struggles offensively and then suffers an injury and decides to retire midseason. I hope he has a good year and goes out on his own terms but given his output in 2009 and his injury history it's hard to see 2010 going well.

Awful signing. Not so much from a financial perspective but from a playing time perspective.

You wasted 454 PA's last year with your DH putting up an OPS of under 750. Why repeat that mistake?

If you only want the guy from a PR perspective, surely a deal for less than $2m could have been signed.

@PMC ...
Last year 3/4's of the AL West won more than 80 games. There is no reason to assume that it will be worse this year. More likely, a team like the A's ends up having a 500 year. Mix in the Rangers with their young talent and the M's with money and a decent team and the AL West might just have all 4 teams over 500 next year.

If you just look at the numbers, it seems so obvious that Griffey is just done... But I love this guy! What a fantastic career he's had. I honestly don't mind seeing that swing for another year (or portion of a year, as it will probably be).

While that .735 OPS is pretty ugly, he did hit 19 HR's and 19 doubles in less than 400 AB's last season though, so it isn't all bad. Maybe he can stay healthy for a couple of months and put up some decent numbers.

cmac1973 FTW