Griffey Dreamin

I awoke this morning from a dream that I’ve had several variations of over the last four years.

In my dream, I saw Geoff Baker’s Seattle Times Mariners Blog page. The headline read, “HITTING COACH FIRED”. The lead sentence went on to say the M’s axed Jeff Pentland after he complained about an imminent acquisition involving Ken Griffey Jr.

Now I realize I’m coming off like Paula Abdul on the sauce, but am I really that nuts?

Long before everyone jumped on the “Bing Back Junior” bandwagon, I was busy assembling the damn bandwagon. I’ve agonized over different trade scenarios that would send Junior back to his real home. And at this point, I truly don’t believe it would take much.

The Reds surely won’t pick up Junior’s $16.5 million option next year, so they might as well get something in return while they can. Why not dangle Ryan Feierabend and Jeremy Reed? (Throwing in Reed wouldn’t make much sense on the Reds side. I just want him gone from the organization. Too many bad memories). Simply put, the M’s are flush with mediocre AAA pitching. The Reds are flush with too many outfielders and not enough AAA pitching (they seem to prefer AA).

This deal needs to happen because for as good as they will be, Wlad Balentien and Jeff Clement simply can’t be relied upon to salvage the M’s disastrous offense. This deal needs to happen because bringing back Junior opens up endless lineup possiblities (Junior in right, Balentien in left, Ibanez at first, Clement DH/Junior at DH, Balentien in right, Clement at first, etc.). I’d even support using Griffey’s “fun lineup” from 1993. This deal needs to happen because not only is Junior the best player from my generation, he is also a great person. Does anyone remember this Ruthian act? Even yesterday, still mourning the loss of his best friend, Junior damn near hit a bomb in his honor until rat boy Felix Pie climbed the wall and brought it back.

But most importantly, this deal needs to happen because this Mariners team will be out of contention before June 1 if it doesn’t. Mariners GM Bill Bavasi needs to make this move now. For the first time in a long time, the M’s starting pitching is ripe. Unfortunately, the hitting is rotten. Junior would stabilize the shaky offense. He would also stabilize my shaky state of mind.