AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > October > 31
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Time for Braves to get Griffey
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Let’s try this again. After all, we’ve typed these words before, but never have they made more sense. The Braves need a center fielder until their youngsters are ready, and veteran Ken Griffey Jr. loves Bobby Cox, the accomplished Braves manager, and Griffey’s Cincinnati Reds aren’t going anywhere soon.
Not only that, Griffey is baseball’s cheapest superstar with a highly workable contract. He also lives maybe a seven-minute drive from the Braves’ spring complex in Orlando, which would suit the homebody Griffey just fine.
The same would apply to a Griffey stint in a Braves uniform. He still cherishes his time as a youth in the 1980s when he often took batting practice for fun at old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium with the likes of Dale Murphy, Bob Horner and somebody named Ken Griffey Sr., a Braves player back then after his noted career with the Reds.
Get him. Well, the Braves should do so regarding the younger Griffey after they use some of the money they’ve saved from their Edgar Renteria trade to acquire a starting pitcher for a troubled rotation beyond John Smoltz and Tim Hudson. “The strategy from there would be for us to get a center fielder,” said Frank Wren on Wednesday, the sharp baseball man who will make a seamless transition into John Schuerholz’s role as Braves general manager.
Wren is strikingly more personable than his predecessor, but they are similar in that they prefer not to discuss names in these situations. Even so, we can use Wren’s philosophies to narrow the Braves’ best option in center during the post-Andruw Jones era to Griffey, the most legitimate slugger of his era with 593 career home runs and no hint of steroid issues.
For instance: Would Wren seek one of those dandy center fielders available through free agency such as a Torii Hunter?
“I would say that going strong in the free-agent market would be our least likely alternative,” Wren said. “I say that just because, with the young players we have coming (in the farm system), it just wouldn’t make sense to go sign somebody for four, five, six years when we have what we think are better players on the horizon. With that being said, the free-agent market probably doesn’t make as much sense as a trade. The trade market is probably the most likely way we’ll fill center field.”
We’re back to Griffey. While that A-Rod guy, for instance, wants nothing less than $30 million a year from somewhere, Griffey is slated to make $12 million next season in the last year of his Reds contract. Plus, if Griffey is traded, the Reds would be required to pay approximately half of that amount. There also is every indication that he would defer a chunk of that amount to help his new employers strengthen other areas of their team. Just like that, the Braves could have a Hall of Famer in waiting for virtually nothing.
The Braves could have such a player for two years, maybe three, to help them on the field and at the box office. Then they could plug in one of their slew of rising choices. They have Brent Lillibridge, their Class AAA player of the year. They have Brandon Jones, owner of a collective 100 RBIs last season for two different teams in the minors. They have Jordan Schafer, 21, recently named the player of the week in the Arizona Fall League, and he is the league’s youngest player. They also have Gorkys Hernandez, a speedster just acquired as part of that Renteria deal with the Detroit Tigers.
Again, Wren won’t discuss names, but would he grab an established veteran in this situation for the short term? “Sure. No question, no question,” Wren said. “Actually, that would be the ideal. In a perfect world, that would be the ideal.”
Just so you know, Wren grew up in southwestern Ohio cherishing the Big Red Machine.
His favorite player?
Ken Griffey Sr.
Permalink | Comments (249) | Categories: Terence Moore
Richt should know better
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Guess those little green men who sneaked into Jacksonville last Saturday for the Georgia-Florida football game and yanked the real Mark Richt away in their spaceship have returned him.
Welcome back, coach.
We forgive you.
Now don’t ever do that again - or anything close.
The real Mark Richt wrote a letter of apology to the SEC office this week for ordering his Georgia players to ignore the consequences and celebrate en masse on the field after they scored their first touchdown against the hated Gators.
Yes, I know. Richt mentioned that his players misunderstood his instructions, and that the celebration became more elaborate than he had planned. He said he wanted just those on the field to go nuts while jumping and screaming and clowning in the end zone, not the entire team. It’s just that such confusion happens when you deliberately tell folks who respect you to break the rules.
This shows that even a typically level-headed guy such as Richt can get so wrapped up in trying to beat somebody at all cost that you can lose your mind for the moment.
Contrary to popular belief, Georgia was going to hammer a flawed Florida team anyway. Too much Knowshon Moreno. In fact, without the penalties after that end-zone silliness (five in the first quarter, contributing to two Florida touchdowns), Georgia’s 42-30 blowout would have been worse.
And what better way to fire up your players than to keep reminding them all week that those hated Gators had won 15 of the previous 17, eight of nine and two in a row? Plus, Richt had Georgia legends Vince Dooley and D.J. Shockley deliver pep talks to the players during the week.
That’s motivation enough.
The long-term consequences for Richt regarding that celebration (making it difficult for his players in the future to determine when they should play within the rules or outside the rules, triggering copy cats across the country, giving the Gators more anger next year) don’t justify the short-term pleasure (finally beating Florida).
The real Mark Richt realized as much - you know, when he finally returned to earth.
Permalink | Comments (222) | Categories: Quick Hit, Terence Moore
Services »
