I know I’m something of a broken record on this point, having urged that the aging and injury-prone Cliff Floyd and the declining Rafael Palmeiro could both benefit from a platoon arrangement to keep them fresh and healthy and alleviate their growing ineptitude against lefthanded pitching. But I’ve got one more candidate for a platoon: Ken Griffey. It’d be a shame to move Griffey to an AL team to DH, losing the value of his glove, but something has to be done to try to keep him healthy. And the splits are getting more and more pronounced:
| Griffey | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | K | AVG | SLG | OBP | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 vs RHP | 189 | 54 | 10 | 0 | 15 | 32 | 40 | .286 | .577 | .391 | 968 |
| 2004 vs LHP | 111 | 22 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 27 | .198 | .405 | .276 | 681 |
| 3yrs vs RHP | 436 | 120 | 24 | 1 | 31 | 92 | 70 | .275 | .548 | .380 | 928 |
| 3yrs vs LHP | 227 | 49 | 14 | 0 | 10 | 29 | 58 | .216 | .410 | .314 | 724 |
The same problem arises as with Floyd: how do you justify making a guy with that salary a platoon player? Well, you accept that this is the best way to use him. And how do you tell a guy with a big ego that he’s now a platoon player? Sell it to him as regular rest, I guess, although for a guy who thought he was chasing Hank Aaron for much of his career, that’d be hard to take.
I don’t know if I whole-heartedly agree with you on the value of Griffey’s glove these days. Aside from the fact that’s he’s a little older now, leg injury after leg injury has taken it’s toll on his range. Recent;y (when he’s active) it just seems like balls that he used to get to with relative ease are either dropping in front of him or one hopping to the fence. Throw in the emergence of Dunn, Pena, and, if he can slow up on his Dave Kingman like K’s, Kearns, and those Griffey trade rumors may start popping again. And for his sake, I hope it’s to an AL team.