It’s Time

Dave · May 18, 2010 at 3:10 pm · Filed Under Mariners 

In 1987, Andre Thornton was given 97 plate appearances as a DH and posted a .118/.206/.141 line before he was removed from the roster and retired at season’s end.

In 2001, Harold Baines was given 94 plate appearances as a DH and posted a .131/.202/.143 line before he was removed from the roster and retired at season’s end.

In 2003, Dean Palmer was given 98 plate appearances as a DH and posted a .140/.235/.163 line before he was removed from the roster and retired at season’s end.

Those are the only three DHs in major league history to post a lower OPS than Ken Griffey Jr currently has in a season where they racked up at least 90 plate appearances. Not one of them made it to 100.

Ken Griffey Jr has 97 plate appearances. It’s time.

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Comments

111 Responses to “It’s Time”

  1. ilmariners on May 18th, 2010 7:27 pm

    Hope is not a means people! Happy retirement Jr.

  2. gloo on May 18th, 2010 7:28 pm

    Well, Milton is due to be back possibly tomorrow?! That is awesome. If he is not the primary DH going forward….

  3. Westside guy on May 18th, 2010 7:50 pm

    ell, Milton is due to be back possibly tomorrow?! That is awesome. If he is not the primary DH going forward….

    I fully expect to see Milton’s name filled in with “LF” next to it.

  4. Naliamegod on May 18th, 2010 7:54 pm

    Naliamegod: Like I said, there are other places to lay blame.

    I never knew I lived in some bizarro world where it is excusable to be bad at your job because others are also bad at it.

  5. ericthebarbaric on May 18th, 2010 9:04 pm

    This whole thing is obvious. Junior needs his best friend (Buhner) to take him out for a beer and explain what he needs to do. Don’t lay this on the team to do. Be a bigger person.

  6. ericthebarbaric on May 18th, 2010 9:05 pm

    Will the team suddenly become better? Not per se but it will have new air to breathe.

  7. scott19 on May 18th, 2010 9:28 pm

    Actually, I’ve been envisioning this scenario lately similar to that of Jonathan E. in the original Rollerball…where Junior walks into Z’s office, with the highlights of his career flashing in front of his eyes on a wall full of monitors, and Z — in his best Bartholomew voice — tells him, “We’d like you to retire from the game, Junior.”

  8. wabbles on May 18th, 2010 9:32 pm

    Once upon a time, an aged Mariner decided after 100 plate appearances and 85 at bats to finally end a 20-year career (only 1990 and 1991 as a Mariner). He was hitting .282/.380/.400 in that limited usage. But he hung up his cleats on May 31, 1991.
    Junior, it’s time you followed your father’s example and bowed out gracefully.

  9. Evoxx on May 18th, 2010 11:07 pm

    It seems clear the strategy is to play him continuously until he retires. Wak and Z are acting as if their hands are tied. It is time for another retirement as well…Chuck Armstrong.

  10. scott19 on May 18th, 2010 11:22 pm

    It is time for another retirement as well…Chuck Armstrong.

    Not to mention, Howard Lincoln, also.

  11. Rick Banjo on May 19th, 2010 6:09 am

    Now, if you really make Griffey retire, go to the games en masse and boo him. Sure, it’d be about as much fun as shooting Old Yeller in the back of the head, but it might just be the only way. Junior has incredibly thin skin. I’d wager it’d only take two or three games of constant ridicule for him to wipe away the tears and figure out that it’s time to walk away.

    Yeah, that’s really classy. Even if nobody owes him playing time, we all owe him a measure of respect.

    The guy is not an idiot, he sees the same numbers as we do, and he’s going to know. He’s not a player-manager; he’s a player. A manager has to make these kinds of decisions, and they are simply shirking their duties by sitting still and insisting that Junior be marched out on to the field to fail.

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