Ichiro Traded? Griffey to Retire?

By Blaidd Drwg

In case you missed it, Larry Stone wrote an article entitled “Five rejected April Fools prank stories (No, Prince Fielder is NOT coming to Seattle)” in yesterday’s Seattle Times. He was trying to be funny, but in reality, 2 of the 5 stories would actually make the Mariners a better team if they happened:

2) Mariners trade Ichiro for Prince Fielder in blockbuster deal – Oh how happy would I be about this, a genuine power hitter in the lineup and a guy who probably has not hit his best seasons for a guy who probably is on the verge of a serious decline. Fielder is going to end up eating himself into the DH role in a couple of seasons, but the way I look at it, he is better than Ichiro currently and he will still be a significantly better than average hitter in 5 season when Ichiro is league average or worse. Besides, you can replace Ichiro pretty easily for a season while Mike Saunders gets ready to be a full time MLB player. Trade a slap hitter for a masher? In a second.

3) Griffey announces retirement – oh, one could only dream. I am not a fan of Griffey (and I am not shy about it) and I don’t understand how a city could love a guy who basically said that he hated it here and forced the team to trade him. The guy needs to call it quits – he was overmatched last season, but his ego is causing him to stay on. Yes, he can still hit mistake pitches over the plate a long way, but frankly, teams aren’t afraid of pitching to him anymore. He was pretty awful last season, is batting under .200 in spring training and is probably going to get 450 – 500 plate appearances this season since Wak just has to have him in the lineup (an probably batting 4th). If this team is serious about contending, can you really waste that many at bats on a guy who will hover in the low .200’s all season in an already suspect lineup?