Reds’ Outfield Is a Crowded House

The truth about those rumors that friends of Ken Griffey Jr. were lobbying for a trade that would send him back to the Seattle Mariners is that there was no truth.

Did they really think the Mariners would send Mike Cameron back to Cincinnati, or move him out of center field to make room for Griffey? Maybe if the Reds had thrown in another player or two.

Funny how the perspective has changed.

Cameron is now the Gold Glove center fielder drawing national attention with his home run accomplishments, even if he hit his attention-grabbing homers all in one game.

And it’s the Reds who face an outfield quandary when Griffey, sidelined by a torn knee tendon, comes off the disabled list soon.

Make no mistake, Griffey will return to center, but who goes, who stays and who plays where is uncertain.

The arrival of Austin Kearns and Adam Dunn, the Reds’ top two draft choices from 1998 and two of the most touted young sluggers in baseball, compounds an outfield logjam that includes two other talented young players, Juan Encarnacion and Ruben Mateo.

Kearns is the least experienced and probably will be sent back to triple A, with Griffey flanked by Dunn and Encarnacion.

There has been speculation, though, about a trade that would send Encarnacion and closer Danny Graves to Cleveland for starting pitcher Bartolo Colon, providing the Reds are convinced that Kearns is ready and they are able to lure former Dodger closer Jeff Shaw out of retirement.

Shaw, who lives in a Cincinnati suburb, rejected the Reds’ contract offers during the off-season, but he indicated a willingness to resume his career last week, even saying he would agree to serve as a setup man for Graves.

“The last thing I want to do is cause turmoil on the team,” he said.

General Manager Jim Bowden is scheduled to continue talks with agent Joe Bick over the next few days.

Meantime, as the Reds took two of three from the Dodgers in Los Angeles to sustain their strong start in the National League Central, it’s hard to decide which is more impressive, their array of young hitters or their resemblance to the linebacking corps of the Cincinnati Bengals.

Dunn is 6 feet 6 and 240 pounds, Kearns is 6-3 and 220, and first baseman Sean Casey is 6-4 and 225.

Casey was obtained in a trade with the Indians, but the drafting of Kearns and Dunn, and other muscular young Reds, was part of Bowden’s game plan.

When there’s a choice, Manager Bob Boone said, Bowden likes bigger over smaller--and power best of all. It stems from the general manager’s first spring, Boone said, when the New York Yankees arrived for an exhibition game and towered over the Reds physically.

In the cases of Kearns and Dunn?

“Talent is the most important thing,” Boone said. “They just happen to be big and strong.”

At that, the manager suggested, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

Congestion in the Reds’ outfield and weight room will become even greater next year, if not earlier, with the probable arrival of 20-year-old Wily Mo Pena, the most physically imposing of all the Reds, Boone said, at 6-3 and 220.

Pena was obtained from the Yankees for third-base prospect Drew Henson and outfielder Michael Coleman, and boasts more power, Boone said, than anyone he has ever seen.

“I kidded him in spring training that he shouldn’t be in baseball, that he should be training for the heavyweight championship,” Boone said.

If the young Cincinnati hitters continue to mature, the Reds could be playing for a championship a year ahead of schedule.

“So much has been made of 2003, when we move into the new park and our financial position will be strengthened, but we came into the season thinking 2002, not 2003,” Boone said.

“People also like to say we’ve been in a good streak, but what I say is that we’re not in a streak, we’re in the season. I expect us to continue playing like we have every night.”

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The Colorado Rockies opened a weekend series at Philadelphia, after sweeping the Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates at Coors Field to go 6-0 under new Manager Clint Hurdle.

Most impressive is that Colorado starters were credited with all six wins and had a 1.08 earned-run average in the Coors sweep. Denny Neagle, with ninth-inning help from Jose Jimenez, and Mike Hampton even pitched consecutive shutouts, a Coors first for the Rockies.

Said Neagle: “I’d love to see us change the aura and stigma about Coors, and I think we can.”

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The Chicago Cubs opened their weekend series against the Dodgers with a disappointing 9-17 record, trailing the Reds by 71/2 games in the NL Central, but President and General Manager Andy MacPhail, providing the Reds and Pirates with bulletin-board material, suggested his club was only three back because St. Louis is still the team to beat.

“At the risk of antagonizing people, I really [didn’t] think the Pirates [were] going wire to wire,” he said. “I generally keep an eye on St. Louis and Houston, and the fact that they haven’t gotten off to great starts gives you some solace.

“Cincinnati can be troublesome for us because they have good position players, but health and how their pitching holds up is going to be the key barometer for them.”

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A 9-18 April that left the Phillies’ surprising success of last year a distant memory, also wreaked havoc on Manager Larry Bowa’s pyrotechnic nerves.

“I started the season with a long fuse, but I don’t have much left,” he said.

On one hand, Bowa wanted to let off his customary steam. On the other, he was afraid of losing the team, having already had some high-decibel confrontations in his two years at the helm.

“We have some fragile egos,” he said. “The guys lack mental toughness. I would love to go off, believe me. I don’t want to sound negative, but we have some people who might just crash if I did that.”