- Via Chuck Armstrong, Jack Zduriencik, and the Seattle Times staff, the current plan is for Junior to spend the bulk of his time at DH and the remainder in left. This ought to come as no surprise, but it's still nice to hear, since Griffey as DH has a little value and Griffey as LF makes one long for the sweet embrace of eye cancer. Of course, ideally we'd like to see the team burn all his gloves and chain him to the bench every time the M's are in the field, but it's not realistic to expect them to completely shut him out from playing defense, so here's hoping Wakamatsu's able to give him just enough time to stay happy, and nothing more. The more we get Endy in the outfield and Griffey at DH, the better.
- Zduriencik claims there was no "Plan B" behind Junior, and the Braves seem content to fill up their roster internally. Somebody might want to tell Garret Anderson that he has inadvertently retired an Angel.
- SBN might want to fix this.
- It seems Braves fans are absolutely furious with David O'Brien for leaking the Griffey-to-Atlanta stuff before anything was official. They're furious because there are rumblings that this leak contributed to Griffey's ultimate decision. That sounds kind of silly at first, but I guess when you're torn between family and fans, it doesn't take much to tip the balance. I don't know. Maybe it's all a load of hoohah. All I can say is that Braves fans are taking the completely wrong approach, because if O'Brien's leak really did play a part in all this, then he just saved Atlanta from a whole lot of defensive humiliation. It isn't often you can say "I think a beat writer just made our team better." This is one of those times. David O'Brien deserves to wake up to like three thousand muffin baskets in the morning.
- There's also a bit of blame floating around that's getting thrown Griffey's way for taking so long to make this decision. He doesn't deserve it. Look - for one thing, the whole saga got its lifeblood from the media, which couldn't stop shoving out fresh articles despite nothing new coming from the Griffey camp. And for another, when you have to choose between playing close to home and playing where you began your career, you should be granted several days to make up your mind, because it's not an easy choice. Give Griffey a break. I know the whole process was annoying and reminiscent of last winter's Bedard/Jones disastiations, but in the end, all it cost us was a day or two of Griffey working out with the team. And that's probably for the best. Don't want him getting injured.
- Should the Mariners play respectable baseball and stay somewhere near the race for much of the summer, I predict that, out of our many weaknesses, Griffey/Fuentes will be among the most consistently unpleasant.
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