AP- A personal director of a unidentified MLB team has seemingly reported that the Ken Griffey Jr. era in Cincinatti has come to an end. Reportedly the Reds have agreed in general to a trade that would send the oft-injured outfielder to the Houston Astros in exchange for OF Richard Hidalgo, P Tim Redding, and recently acquired P Brandon Duckworth. The Astros have been rumored to have had a desire to free up salary room to pursue pitcher Andy Pettite in free agency.
How much is Griffey getting paid? If not a lot, this isn't a bad deal. There's always the possibility Griffey can make a comeback, and why not at hitter-friendly Minute Maid, and Redding becomes expendable if we can get Pettite. On the other hand, this without a doubt makes Cincy much stronger...and it's never good to imrpove a divisional rival like that. Still, if they can pull it off, their main priority of the offseason after signing Pettite should be a speedy, high percentage on base lead-off hitter.
Oh for the love of god... YOU CAN'T TRADE THE MOST OVERPAID COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE YEAR FOR A GRANT HILL. Griffey might be a great hitter, but if the Astros NEED starting pitching, WHY ARE THEY TRADING FOR HITTING?!?!!?? I don't want this trade to happen, because the Randy Johnson affect will occur again. This team will suck in 2 or 3 years in the pitching department if this occurs. Currently, Hidalgo is: a.) the best outfielder in baseball. b.) capable of 40 home runs. c.) just as good of a hitter than Griffey. I hope this doesn't happen.
Mr. Mooch, I think you are looking at this from the wrong perspective. Essentially, if consummated, it is the Astros trading above average outfielder and average starting pitcher for dominant, experienced, left handed starting pitcher, or the salary room to acquire him. One thing everyone can probably agree upon is that Redding is an average starting pitcher. Solid win/loss record this year, but isn't overpowering in any way, ERA not too spectacular, etc. Hidalgo...well best defensive outfielder in baseball, yes. Best outfielder...not by a longshot. he's not even top 3 in National League, imo. He's hit more than 40 home runs once in his career...in his great year last year, only had 28, and that was the only time other than the year he hit 44 that he has hit more than 20. Only gone over 90 RBI's once in his career (not last year) and, seemingly, for every year he hits .309 he has a year where he hits .235. Which is besides the point...even if he continues to get better, is he worth $12 million a year for on a mid market team like the Stros...NO. Then there is the salaray cap room to sign Pettite. I think he is a dominant pitcher, and love the fact that he's left handed. Granted, sometimes he can suck, but when he gets in a groove, as he did for most of the end of the season this year, he is overpowering. I know nothing about salaries, though and am not thinking at all about Griffey, Jr.
I love the Dog, but shouldn't you say: c) just as good of a hitter as Griffey EVERY FOURTH YEAR. Or perhaps your implying that a healthy Hidalgo can hit better than an injured Griffey...suppose that could be true, but come on Griffey is one of the very best hitters in the game. I've never seen a player hit the ball as hard as Griffey...He freakin' crushes the ball! Some will say Bonds...I disagree Griffey hits every bit as hard, and in my opinion harder than Mr. Homerun. Now on to merits of the trade...Duckworth and Redding are not that steep of a price to put fans in the seats, which a HEALTHY (Big IF) Griffey Jr. would do. This type of deal feeds the marketing machine at the expense of run of the mill pitching depth. It's my opinion that those two are middle of the rotation, more likely bottom rotation starters anyway. You rid yourselves of Dog's contract (Price>fan interest, even though he's loved), two decent starters for a known SUPERSTAR (Price<fan interest). IF HEALTHY...which you never assume when dealing with Jr. Griffey...and ALSO we'd have to live in FANTASY LAND, which is the only place a deal like this would occur. If the Reds took on Hidalgo, I'd play grab @ss with Marge.
Eh, that can't be right. The whole point of trading Hidalgo is to shed salary. He's probably as good a player as Griffey right now anyway. Why would you trade Hidalgo and two pitchers for Griffey? To try to sell tickets for a guy who's hurt all the time (a 34 year old guy at that) and has a growing reputation for being an a-hole? Doesn't make any sense. Griffey is not a Houston's fan type of guy anyway. He's a pansy ass, hot dogging, whiny, sour b****. No thank you!
Last year he made ten million (at least I'm assuming it was last year.) Link Dude hasn't had seventy RBI's in over three seasons now, and his salary against Hildalgo's is nearly a wash. Why are we doing this again?
My apologies, Hildalgo's salary is 1.5 million less than Griffey's. We'd be taking on salary AND be giving up two young pitchers. If Hunsicker does this, I'm going to wish he would have left.
You know, the AP newswire is a pretty easy thing to check and verify online. Run your bogus, horse**** rumors somewhere else, please.
Ditto. I have never seen an AP report with so many grammtical erros and/or mispellings. If this story was legit, it would be all over the front pages of ESPN, CNNSI, etc. Because of Griffey's injury history, I might not even trade Hidalgo for him straight up, much less include two starting pitchers.
A "personal" director? Shouldn't this be personnel? Nice spelling error, "AP". Cincinnati, not cincinatti. I saw this same article posted on the astros board of ESPN.
BAD trade, thats all i gota say. Jr is injured half the time BUT if he stays healthy it could turn to be an even trade but as far as right now we are getting shaffted
There is no trade nor is there even a rumor of an Astros-Reds trade involving Griffey. I suspect 'benzman501' was simply bored during Algebra class so he/she posted a phony story.
