2 questions (from ESPN.com)

griffey is playing on borrowed time = thome

rivera's been there, gagne hasn't. i'd take either in a heartbeat but if i can only have one i'll take the known commodity.

griffey will either be betrayed by his body or turn back into the sullen prick he'd been acting like the last two years and be content with putting up marginal numbers.

Maybe he's a robot because of all the times he's been injured - they made him better, faster, etc. He needs to be, given that Torre uses him (& all his good 'uns) like a lawyer uses legal pads. Or it could be the same old boring He Came To Play When It Mattered blah blah blah. Thankfully, Torre's usage patterns allows Mariano to take some time off to rest for September & October. AND I also heard that he "dogs it" during the regular season in preparation for the inevitable playoff run.

Not that I wouldn't pick him, too. I still have memories of Gagne as a starter. Not good memories (obviously).

I love checking those unsubstantiated assertions, and whaddya know, BP has stats for Pitcher's Quality of Opposing Batters:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/statistics/pbatfaced2004.html

Mariano Rivera: 155 PA, 0.261 BA, 0.330 OBP, 0.416 SLG
Eric Gagne: 119 PA, .260 BA, 0.335 OBP, 0.413 SLG

In 2003:

Rivera 277, .262/.329/.419
Gagne 306, .263/.335/.420

Can't get much more identical, ratewise.

Thome is 96 HR behind Jr. Odds are still with Griffey, who's only a year older.

I would take Griffey, too, INJURIES NOTWITHSTANDING. I'm so happy to actually see him play (Griffey playing = Griffey happy = Griffey not having to deal with writers complaining about his worth & brittleness & his "I want out of Seattle" power play = interviews w/ HR about receiving death threats = less Griffey martyrdom = me happy), but, in the back of my mind, I'm waiting for the light to strike the glass in just the wrong way to turn full into empty.

For the record, I also wait around my house for terrorists to attack. And I fear dying in my sleep by choking on a spider.

Thome is at the peak of his career with perhaps a few more seasons to come, I don't know if you can say that about Griffey. The Kid is playing well again, but he isn't playing like he did in the late 90s.

as someone else mentioned up thread, there is a reason the gagne is a closer at such a young age: he can only pitch one inning of quality baseball. i saw a few of his starts firsthand a couple years ago, trust me, he made shawn estes look good.

Griffey's numbers have been steadily declining since about 1998, even before his recent injury problems. Thome is still at his peak. Even with the 100 homer difference, I'd say Thome wins this in the long run.