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Junior!

JMB · August 28, 2005 at 6:28 pm · Filed Under General baseball 

Homer #33 today, the 534th career and good for a tie with Jimmie Foxx for 13th all-time. Also his 1000th career extra base hit. Oh, and a 14-game hitting streak to boot. Season line: a robust .302/.371/.578 with 45% of his hits going for extra bases.

We still love ya, man.

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Comments

56 Responses to “Junior!”

  1. Steve Thornton on August 29th, 2005 2:12 pm

    You could make a case that Edgar was a better HITTER for us than Griffey, but there is no way you can compare a DH with a CF. Griffey’s by far the more valuable player. Even though his defense was for the most part poor, not great. He did not “get to more”, he got to fewer balls than average centerfielders did, at least for the first part of his career here. I know folks love to watch the spiderman catches on the wall, and the full-spread dive, but the former are a a trivial part of outfielding, and the latter is usually counterproductive (when you need that burst of speed, why take your feet off the ground?) With Jay Buhner in right, one of the most immobile outfielders of all time, the Mariners in the 90s had more flyballs dropping in than anyone.

    This is objective fact: the percentage of fly balls to center that dropped for hits when Griffey was playing there was extremely high.

    To his credit, he did improve. And I think the Kingdome was an historically bad environment for fly balls; the great Rick Miller said once that he found it impossible to hear the ball off the bat there. But Griffey on his best day was never in Gary Pettis’s or Dwayne Murphy’s league with the glove. But with his awesome bat, he was overall an outstanding player, the best CF overall in the nineties along with rival Bernie Williams. By far the best M player after (second place: Randy Johnson; third Edgar).

    He’s no Willie Mays, though.

  2. Nick on August 29th, 2005 2:30 pm

    #51 “Even though his defense was for the most part poor, not great.”

    Are you sure you’re talking about Ken Griffey Jr., not CRAIG Griffey or Griffey Sr.?

  3. Steve Thornton on August 29th, 2005 3:24 pm

    Yup. Ken Griffey, Jr. let more fly balls drop for hits than just about any CF in the game in his early-to-mid career.

  4. jim on August 29th, 2005 3:27 pm

    Derek,
    Ok I left out the part about “assuming he finishes his career as a Red”. He should have had more “prime” years there than here, but injuries have significantly limited his ABs and effectiveness – moreso than in his Mariner days. Also in his first few years here he put up some quite good numbers, but the 40-50 HR years were toward the end – and at age 29, these should have continued for much of the past 6 years. Not sure how hits, doubles, RBI, total bases etc. would measure up when looking at, say, 89-94 vs 95-99 vs 00-05.

    I guess my point is that if he played the expected 10-12 years as a Red and kept his health, his career totals would likely show more production as a Red than a Mariner. I would expect BA to decline but SLG to increase as a Red. Can’t exactly double one’s batting average, but you certainly can cut it in half (as demonstrated by Speizio and nearly by several other recent M’s!)

  5. Tom on August 29th, 2005 3:51 pm

    Here’s my question, do you think Griffey will ever be a Mariner again?

    Because if it’s gonna happen, it would happen in the next year or 2.

    Especially right now with the team having some questions about having a 4th outfielder.

    I believe Griffey even said he’d be interested in a comeback with us.

    Also, we talk about needing a left handed power hitter.
    HELLO!?!?!?!

    He’d fit in, just the questions are this:
    1. Would he be willing to move to LF or DH for the last 5-6 years of his career

    2. If he moved back to CF like he probably would want to do, could Jeremy Reed be willing to move to left field or designated hitter.

    Hey, why not?

    He’d sell tickets, he’d be a left-handed power hitter, he’d fit right in. It’s a high risk, but huge reward.

  6. Ralph Malph on August 30th, 2005 9:59 am

    Tom–

    You’re suggesting he play CF at first and then shift to LF or DH for the last 5-6 years of his career. Are you nuts? He has as much chance of playing baseball when he’s 42 years old as I do.

    He will be 36 years old this year. This is his first full season in 5 years. Every year for him at this point is borrowed time. Playing him in CF at all is a bad idea. Figuring him as a regular CF is nuts. Playing him there ahead of Reed would be preposterous.

    He’s having a great year. Enjoy it. But figuring on him as a piece of future M’s teams would make as much sense as signing Rich Aurilia to be our SS.