Posted: Wednesday May 08, 2002 12:24 PM
Updated: Wednesday May 08, 2002 7:15 PM
We have a few burning baseball questions, and we're sure you do, too. Drop us a quick one or two and, if we like 'em enough, we'll try to answer them here every week during the season. CNNSI.com's John Donovan takes a poke at these three this week ...
1
So what do the Reds do about Junior?
Not all Reds fans want to see Griffey leave Cincinnati.
AP
Well, as Bob the Tomato, the great animated star of Veggie Tales, once said, "You don't need to do anything."
The Reds may be faced with a decision once Ken Griffey Jr. and his bum knee come off the disabled list, but it doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing, future-changing decision for Griffey or the team. Not right away, anyway.
Yes, Griffey is at it again, complaining about the treatment he gets from fans and the media in Cincinnati. Our favorite line: "I came here to play baseball. I took less money. I didn't whine or anything, and this is the thanks I get? I don't need that."
And, yes, the fans do seem to be on him a bit. The hometown hero's welcome has long since worn out after all the injuries, the ill-timed whining and all the losses since he's been there.
And, yeah, the Reds are loaded in the outfield, prompting rumors of a possible trade and also prompting a local TV station to ask, in an online poll, who should sit in the outfield once Griffey returns. The overwhelming response was, of course, Griffey. Damn fickle fans.
(In a mirror CNNSI.com poll, of almost 4,000 votes cast by Wednesday morning, some 53 percent thought Griffey should sit.)
Here are the facts: The Reds, in first place in the National League Central, are playing well, going 16-10 without Griffey around. (They're 3-3 with him in the lineup.) That's part of the reason fans don't want to rock the boat.
With Adam Dunn, Juan Encarnacion and rookie Austin Kearns in the outfield, the Reds are in great shape. Dunn is the real deal, hitting .286 with eight homers and 24 RBIs. Rookie Kearns, after three hits Tuesday against the Brewers, is hitting .392 in his first 16 games. Encarnacion (hitting .277 with eight homers and 21 RBIs while taking Griffey's spot in center) is solid; so is Ruben Mateo.
When Griffey returns, the Reds are golden in the outfield. But remember: Griffey's patella tendon is torn. No one knows how healthy he'll be when he returns. Heck, he's a slip away from missing the rest of the season. The team needs all those guys for insurance.
And if Griffey stays healthy … Junior is only 32, still in the prime of his career. He's one of the premier home run hitters of this, or any, generation. Anyone who thinks he's finished is just not thinking straight.
Kearns may be headed for the minors again, though it'll be tough sending down a hitter that hot. And there have been rumors of trades for starting pitching. Encarnacion has been mentioned.
But Reds general manager Jim Bowden holds the cards here. There's no need to hurry. He says he won't trade Griffey, who besides ranking as a true superstar -- still -- represents Bowden's biggest coup as a GM. Griffey was traded to the Reds in 2000 and signed an eight-year deal for $116.5 million, with a lot of that money deferred. It remains way below market value.
Bowden may elect to trade one of the other outfielders, eventually. But the point is, he doesn't have to do anything just yet.
2
Can't we just contract the Devil Rays?
Horror author Stephen King is the push-pin target of some Devil Rays players, who connect his presence as a guest of the Twins on April 25 with the onset of Tampa's 12-game losing streak.
AP
No. It doesn't work like that. If contraction were based on poor play alone, well, let's just say the Devil Rays would have plenty of company in that slow walk toward extinction.
Granted, no one is playing quite as poorly as the Rays right now. Wooo, do they stink. If they get any worse -- a practical impossibility, by the way -- they may end up making the Tigers look good.
The problem with the Rays -- OK, one of the problems -- is that the bullpen has been a bit on the wanting side lately. As in, the pen always seems to want to give away games.
During their current 12-game losing streak (before Wednesday's game), the Devil Rays have a respectable enough ERA among their starters (4.37), but their bullpen is sporting a 7.20 ERA. Worse than that -- oh, yeah, it gets worse -- three times they've had a lead with two outs in the ninth inning and blown it. Three straight times, in fact. Overall, they have four blown saves during the streak.
Tampa Bay has scored only 30 runs in the 12 losses, which just doesn't cut it. The Rays are hitting only .198 in the slide. Greg Vaughn continues to struggle. He's batting only .107, the lowest mark among any regular in baseball.
Amazingly, the Rays have yet to score in the ninth inning all season. The score there is Everybody They Play 23, the Rays 0.
When you take all that, add in the pitching (opponents are feasting on Tampa Bay pitching, hitting .306), what you have is the longest losing streak in the majors since the Royals dropped 12 in a row in a slide that ended in July of 1997.
The Rays are the youngest team in the majors, averaging 27.5 years old. That always leads to the inevitable "Wait 'til next year" talk.
Well, maybe. But the rest of us aren't getting any younger waiting around for the Rays.
3
Sophomore slump? Alfonso Soriano?
Soriano swiped 43 bases last season, and is off to a decent start with six this season.
Jed Jacobsohn\Getty Images
Ah, you've been peeking at the leaderboards, too. You're right. If this is a sophomore slump for the Yankees second baseman, his junior year ought to be something else.
Though the Yankees have not exactly torn things up this early season, Soriano, a 24-year-old Dominican, surely has. Check out this list of offensive accomplishments:
First in hits (49), total bases (84), multi-hit games (17), extra-base hits (23) and doubles (17), he's sixth in hitting (.348) and seventh in runs (25).
When Soriano came onto the scene last year, hitting .268 with 18 homers, 73 RBIs and 43 stolen bases, many predicted big things for him. As it was, he finished third in the AL Rookie of the Year voting behind Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki and Cleveland's C.C. Sabathia. Soriano had a game-winning home run in Game 4 of the AL Championship Series against Seattle and a game-winning single in Game 5 of the World Series against Arizona.
As the Yankees' leadoff man this season, Soriano could probably walk more -- he has only six -- which accounts for his just-OK on-base percentage of .376. But when someone's swinging the bat like he is, you let him swing.
Soriano hasn't yet shown the consistent power of someone like, say, second baseman Bret Boone of the Mariners. But for overall play, it would be difficult to get better than Soriano in the American League. With Roberto Alomar gone to the National League, Soriano is gunning for an All-Star selection in only his second season in the league.
Not all Reds fans want to see Griffey leave Cincinnati.
Horror author Stephen King is the push-pin target of some Devil Rays players, who connect his presence as a guest of the Twins on April 25 with the onset of Tampa's 12-game losing streak.
Soriano swiped 43 bases last season, and is off to a decent start with six this season.
