This pretty much confirms all my worst fears:
"I think when I feel that I can't play that position, then I will be able to go into the office and tell them," he said Friday. "If I feel that I'm hurting the team being out there, then I'll do that. But I don't think that I'm hurting this team at all being at the position where I'm at." [...]Griffey's range isn't what it once was, but he insists it doesn't need to be for him to do his job well. He says his ever-expanding knowledge of opposing players and his studies of their skills and tendencies allow him to position himself far better than he did in his more fleet-footed youth, and that makes a significant difference.
"I mean, if they go out and get Carl Lewis to play the outfield, that's a different story," he said with a smile. "But we don't have that type of runner."
I'd like to see a foot race between Ken Griffey Jr. and Chris Denorfia. Actually, I wouldn't. I'm not sure my heart could handle seeing Griffey humiliated.
It's time to see whose team this is, Ken Griffey Jr's or Wayne Krivsky's. Junior is going to be 37 years old in November. He's clearly thickened as he's aged, and he's simply not quick anymore. What kills me is that all of that is ok. Junior is still a valuable player playing left field or first base. But he's detrimental in center field. I found him painful to watch at times this year.
The Reds don't have good enough pitching to overcome poor defense. Put a guy like Denorfia or Freel in center and the whole team gets better. It's a simple problem, but it'll take guts from Krivsky to implement the solution.