What should the Mariners do with Ken Griffey Jr. next season? The fans love Junior, and the Mariners love his positive impact in the clubhouse, but his declining performance hinders the ability of an otherwise pretty decent team to contend for a postseason berth.

Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times speaks to some of the value Griffey has had in the clubhouse this season:

He has been the godfather to the parade of young players who have come into the clubhouse. He has been a close friend to the veterans. He has offered advice on pitchers’ and hitters’ tendencies….

He has been good for the club, good for the city and great to have around again.

The thing is, there is a perfectly good way for the Mariners to get all of these benefits without wasting precious at-bats on him: they should simply make him a coach.  They could even pay him the exact same salary, if they think he is that worth it, but please, don’t waste precious at bats on a guy which could be given to better performers just because you like the advice he gives to younger players or his friendly presence in the dugout.

That’s the sensible part of my plan for Griffey. Now here is the slightly crazy part.

The Mariners should sign Griffey to a $1 million “personal services” contract or whatever, and then use him as a coach.  He’s not on the active roster, but he travels with the team, wears a uniform, sits in the dugout, gives advice, etc.  And as long as the Mariners are in contention, they should only put their very best players on the field.

But if Griffey is still interested in playing, here’s what you do.  Let him play in spring training. Let him take batting practice with the team during the season if he wants to. And then, if the Mariners actually do actually fall so far out of contention that they can’t possibly come back, the team should cut its worst player and install Griffey as the DH.  Or else, when the rosters expand in September, add Griffey to the 40-man and put him on the team for a few at-bats down the stretch.

Look, this plan is pretty silly, but if Griffey is already under contract as a coach, the only thing he really costs you is a roster spot, and only a 40-man roster spot at that, if you wait until September.  It’s still probably not the optimal use of resources, but in this darkened age of steroids, Ken Griffey Jr. is the one player who has emerged as still being beloved by pretty much the entire nation, and if he still wants to play a bit, and the fans still love to watch him (which they do), and the Mariners players and staff all love him, I say let him play a bit.

In any case, it’s a decent compromise with the foolishness of giving him so many at-bats this season when the Mariners actually had a shot at contention.

The initial reaction in my noggin’ upon hearing that Ken Griffey Jr. was headed to the White Sox was one of some surprise. Although he is certainly no longer the player he was just a few years ago, Griffey can still swing a bat decently enough and potentially help a team looking for an offensive boost in the outfield. But regardless of his potential offensive performance, the question needs to be asked: Where would he play?

Throughout his career, we’ve grown accustomed to thinking of Griffey as that center fielder who makes everything look so damned easy. But in case you haven’t been paying attention, Griffey’s been playing right field for the past two seasons due to injury concerns and diminished range. Meanwhile, the Chicago White Sox have arguably the best offensive corner outfield duo in the league this year with Carlos Quentin and Jermaine Dye (both have a 143 adjusted OPS) and are the two best hitters the team has. And although Quentin is a below average left fielder, the team can’t move him to DH since that spot is occupied by their third most effective hitter, Jim Thome (132 adjusted OPS). Assuming that none of these three guys will have playing time taken away, there’s really only two potential scenarios.

For one, Griffey plays center again. This is certainly plausible, but I think that most would advise against it. Back when Griffey was still a center fielder in 2006, out of the 21 players who played at least 850 innings in center, Griffey had the worst fielding percentage among them at .979. Moreover, his revised zone rating was .832 which was also the worst. And this year in RF, his revised zone rating is .826. And yes, this is the worst among qualifying RFers who have logged at least 590 innings.

If this scenario plays out, it would also mean that Nick Swisher gets booted out of center field or out of the lineup altogether. Swish was the crown jewel of Chicago’s off-season. But to call his performance thus far a disappointment might be an understatement to some. He is posting career lows in batting average (.230) as well as in slugging percentage (.404). His OBP is near a career-low as well (.348). Despite this, Swish still isn’t the biggest disappointment in the Sox lineup this year, as that title has to go to first baseman Paul Konerko. If you blinked, you missed Konerko’s decline. From 2004-2006, Konerko was one of the most effective hitters in the game, posting adjusted OPS figures of 127, 136, and 134 respectively. Last year, that figure dropped to 116. This year, it’s 74. And he has a negative 7.7 VORP to boot. Swisher has spent a good chunk of his time over his career playing first, so if Griffey goes into center field, then I’m assuming that Swisher’s moving to first. Which would leave Konerko, the team captain, out in the cold.

Alternatively, Griffey becomes a 4th outfielder. Again, plausible. But as a 10 and 5 player, Griffey had the right to block any trade. Would he have approved it knowing that he would be riding pine? Would the desire to play in the postseason trump a starting job? And since Griffey still has a $16.5MM club option next season that the Sox did not have to pick up as a condition to the trade, the guy is still potentially playing for his next contract, unless he retires before that happens.

Of course, the White Sox wouldn’t dare consider just putting Griffey at first base – a position where he has played for two whopping innings in his entire career (once in ‘93, other in ‘98) – during a tight race for the division championship… Would they? Or do they have another trade up their sleeve that makes this all a moot point?

Well, this is shaping up to be one of the quieter trade deadlines in recent memory.  Nevertheless, as I have done every year on this blog, I’ll be here all afternoon to give you hasty reactions to each trade as they happen.  Newest trades will be on top

* * *

Boston dumps Manny Ramirez, cash on the Dodgers for Pirates OF Jason Bay.  Pirates receive Andy LaRoche, Bryan Morris, Craig Hansen, and Brandon Moss

Sigh. Yet more confirmation of Ned Colletti’s severe case of big-name-itis and Frank McCourt’s mad quest to acquire as many members of the 2004 Boston Red Sox as he possibly can.  The Dodgers are weakening their defense terribly.  Manny is the worst defensive left fielder in all of baseball by virtually every measure there is.  And it is not even all that close.  The short left field in Fenway was just about the only park in the majors where he was even serviceble. Now the Dodgers have huge defensive holes at third, short, second, and left.  Not to mention the huge logjam in the Dodgers outfield being made even worse.  If the Dodgers play anything other than Manny-Kemp-Ethier most of the time, this deal doesn’t really even help anything.  But you know that Torre is going to be sorely tempted to run Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre out there as much as he possibly can.

As for Boston, this is an insanely good deal.  It is ridiculous that they got JASON BAY, who is locked up through 2009 for just Craig Hansen and Brandon Moss (and Manny).  Those are two guys they didn’t even want!

As for the Pirates, this has to be a bit of a disappointment.  LaRoche has a chance to be good, but this is not anywhere near the return you would have expected for a year and a half of Jason Bay.

Reds ship Griffey Jr to the White Sox for P Nick Masset and 2B Danny Richar

This is a pretty baffling trade for the White Sox, one which smacks of big-name-itis and favorite player obsession.  Griffey can still hit a bit, and of course both 1B Paul Konerko and CF Nick Swisher are struggling at the plate this season, so playing Griffey in center can allow Ozzie Guillen to bench one or the other with Swisher either sliding over to 1B or riding the pine, but Griffey is not *that* much of an improvement over Swisher, and playing him in center is just asking for another groin pull or hamstring tear.  Not a bad deal for the Reds though, as they get out from under Griffey’s salary and buyout to an extent (splitting them with the Sox), and they also get Masset, who is a mediocre but usable swingman, and Richar, who is only 25 and was once heralded as the future 2B of the ChiSox, and may yet become at least a handy piece of the bench or something.

Mariners trade Arthur Rhodes to the Marlins for minor league P Gaby Hernandez

Meh. The Marlins already had a pretty decent bullpen (4th in the league in bullpen ERA), so this is just adding a tiny extra piece. Plus, Arthur Rhodes is old and has only pitched 22 innings this year, so he’s likely to wear down and pitch not quite as well down the stretch. But it does let them get the ball out of Taylor Tankersley’s hands and let him try to rebuild his shattered psyche down at AAA. Gaby Hernandez is a B-grade prospect, but that is not a bad return for a Mariners squad that is always in need of pitching and which was going nowhere this year.

Joe Sheehan at Baseball Prospectus Unfiltered thinks people (or at least, Peter Schmuck) aren’t publishing The Truth about Barry Bonds. Some of his points are duly noted—Bonds is not the slow, broken player Schmuck casts him as. But with other points, you get the feeling that Schmuck just got deeply under Sheehan’s skin and then couldn’t get out again—such as when Schmuck claims that Bonds would create “a chronic public relations problem” and Sheehan responds, “Barry Bonds doesn’t create a public relations problem…Barry Bonds has a media relations problem.” That’s pretty weak hair-splitting. And Sheehan’s dismissal of Barry Bonds legal problems looks a bit different now that the indictment as been refiled. Nonetheless, if you’re looking for a spirited defense of Barry Bonds (hard to come by these days), it’s worth a read.

Respect Jeter’s Gangster weighs in on the Jobagate fist-pump controversy with some situations in which it may or may not be appropriate for you to pump your fist.

The Padres’ struggles have inspired a debate over at Gaslamp Ball about whether professional ballplayers even need coaches. I say they do. What do you say?

Ever wondered what happened to the old Tiger Stadium? Joe Lapointe has an article in The New York Times and Fabrizio Constantini an eye-opening slide show. (Did you know that they auctioned off one of the dugout urinals last year? I somehow missed that story. And somehow, my life was complete without that particular piece of information.) It’s weird to think that the Tigers have been in Comerica for almost ten years, and that Tiger Stadium has been mouldering scarcely a mile away the entire time. My one beef with the slide show—I like artsy detail shots as much as any amateur shutterbug, but I would have liked a picture of the entire field included, to serve as an establishing shot. And some “before” shots would have been nice to go along with the “afters.”

Bleeding Blue and Teal weighs in on Griffey-to-Seattle trade talk and how such a move might actually make sense.

As draft day approaches, Minor League Ball looks at some high school hitters of interest. If you root for a craptastic team with a high pick, you can start drooling over them now. If you root for a great team with a lot of money, you can start hoping they develop “signability issues.”

Yanksfan Soxfan brings us a blind item from the NY Daily News about a “formerly awesome” pitcher whose shoulder woes are actually due to “years of smoking pot” and “one drug-addled incident in which he had to carry a passed-out date up three flights of stairs.” Guesses in the comments range from the preposterous (Schilling, Pedro) to the “hmmmm…maybe” (Gagne, Zito, Pavano). Got a better guess? Let ‘em know!

If you’ve got cabin fever because it’s a gorgeous May Day and you came into work today like a good doobie instead of calling in sick and going hiking like you really, really wanted to, maybe you should take a look at Slate’s series on baseball in the Dominican Republic (with, of course, an accompanying slide show).

Dan Graziano of the Star Ledger prints some email correspondence with Carlos Delgado’s agent. Neither man comes off looking very good (hint: someone calls someone a retard). Yes, these men are professionals! Do not try this at home!

Razzball takes a look back at Pete Rose’s 1983 season, a year “Pete evaded success like it was the taxman.”

Joe Posnanski brings you Brian Bannister’s crazy day-night splits.

And I said Over The Monster’s picture of Mike Lowell (above) looked like “George Clooney-meets-Humphrey Bogart-meets-UFH.” Paul countered, “He just looks like he’s giving Tek the ol’ stink eye.” What do you think, UmpBumpers?

What else should I be reading? Help me procrastinate better!

Is it really only Wednesday? Alas, so it would seem. Let’s have some lunchtime linkage:

Barry Zito needs himself a slumpbuster. BabesLoveBaseball has some suggestions.

If that doesn’t work out, the Fresno Beehive would like him to come to Fresno. The AAA Grizzlies need an ace, Barry!

Another installment in Deadspin’s excellent series of horrifying moments in sports journalism, this post features a deaf Ken Griffey Jr, a naked Jay Buhner, and a mostly-naked Lou Piniella.

The 25th anniversary of Lee Elia’s famous tirade (Eighty-five percent of the f*ckin’ world is working. The other fifteen percent come out here!) brought you by FanIQ.

Do-gooding HBW alert: Kelli Pedroia.

Beyond the Box Score says Ryan Zimmerman’s not sucky, just unlucky.

Some great ballparks to check out for that minor league road trip you’ve been planning, courtesy of Bus Leagues Baseball.

Boston’s DL payroll exceeded the payroll of the entire Marlins ballclub. But hey, at least it was cheaper than New York’s DL payroll. (Center Field)

And as always, I like to read good stuff. So if you have some, share it.

- Nope, not Perlozzo’s fault. The Orioles would be far better off if more of their players were like Nick Markakis.

- The A’s are torn about the ensuing return of Mike Piazza from the DL (as a DH); so much so that they’ve decided to make him their back-up catcher even though his right shoulder sprain renders him useless in that position. Scott Ostler at the SF Gate has the story – and the best line: “…but Mike Piazza is Mike Piazza, and Jack Cust isn’t.“

- Sure Terrence, Bonds’ controversial career would’ve been smooth sailing had he been a Brave. Just ask John Rocker.

- Carlos Lee. Prince Fielder. Doesn’t the Marlin’s press corp realize that a hefty slugger is the way to go? Get off Miguel Cabrera’s back; he’s heavy enough as it is.

- This is the epitome of Interleague play: Griffey returns to Seattle.

- Now, all is not well in Interleague land. They’re charging $75 bucks a seat to the fine folks in Denver for the privilege of watching that “fine-looking ballplayer” Derek Jeter. “But the biggest rip-off of consumers in Denver? The Rockies win, the Rockies win!“

Yes, that’s right: Ken Griffey Jr. is injured yet again.

He can’t even stay healthy in the offseason! This time, it’s a broken bone in his left hand, that he suffered in what reports are only calling a “home accident” because Griffey will not allow anyone to say exactly how the injury occured.

You know what that means!  Either the way he got injuried was terribly embarrassing, or else he got injured doing while something he shouldn’t have been doing.

Reports are now saying that Griffey broke his hand “playing with his children” but that could easily be part of a cover story. What do you think? Was Griffey injured while carrying deer meat for his children, or does “playing with his children” really mean he was popping wheelies on his motorcycle (for his children)?

In my last entry, I listed five guys who would be on the DL before the All-Star break. Since the article was posted, three players have already been stricken by the injury bug. Gary Sheffield and Kerry Wood have both been placed on the 15-day DL and Barry Bonds has missed five straight games with a sore left side. In this column, I have listed five more players that present intermediate injury risks to your fantasy team. Proceed at your own risk.

J.D. DREW

If you were to start a Fantasy Injury League, Drew would be a top-three pick. J.D. has missed 27 games or more in six of his seven full professional seasons. On average, Drew misses approximately a month per season and consistently breaks fantasy owners’ hearts with lingering hamstring pulls. It’s only a matter of time until Drew blows a gasket again this season and hampers your fantasy team’s stretch run. He’s been posting great numbers this season, so try to work a trade with another owner and get market value from a less-risky outfielder.

JAKE PEAVY

The damage may have already been done to Jake Peavy. By looking at his numbers this season, one could assume that Peavy is pitching hurt and just doesn’t want to admit it. At 4-7 with a 4.96 ERA, Peavy is nowhere near his form from the 2004 and 2005 campaigns in which he posted a combined record of 28-13 with an ERA hovering around 2.50. It’s possible that Peavy is pitching through pain to help his Padres stay in the NL West race – an unselfish but extremely dangerous notion. Be weary of Peavy’s progress and check-up on his health regularly.

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