Ken Griffey Jr. watches a ball fly out of the park during batting practice. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

        SARASOTA, Fla. — Ken Griffey Jr. will hit third for the Reds this year. Almost everything else about their batting order is subject to tinkering.

        Manager Bob Boone, who used 152 different lineups in 161 games with the Kansas City Royals in 1996, said Friday that he wants to leave spring training with two or three lineups he can use to counter various types of opposing pitchers.

        Boone cited the following candidates for each spot in the order, from one through eight:

        • 1 — Barry Larkin, Alex Ochoa.
        • 2 — Larkin, Dmitri Young, Michael Tucker.
        • 3 — Griffey.
        • 4 — Sean Casey, Ochoa, Young.
        • 5 — Casey (if he bats cleanup, Ochoa and Young also are options who Boone didn't mention).
        • 6, 7 & 8 — A combination of Aaron Boone, Pokey Reese and Jason LaRue.

        Boone couldn't guarantee that the order will jell during exhibition season.

Griffey has a laugh. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        “Not everybody's going to play every day,” he said. “You're not going to put the starting eight out there together a lot until we get down to that last eight or nine days.”

        But Boone still will do his best to acclimate front-line players to each other before Opening Day on April 2 against Atlanta.

        “I want to get these guys familiar with who's hitting around them,” he said. “We're going to have pretty much a set lineup anyway, because they're going to come in (at the start of the season) knowing who's going to play every day.”

        Griffey has known throughout his career that he'll hit third. In 1,680 games he has batted fourth only 16 times, including once last year. On a team that lacks a prototypical No. 4 hitter, Griffey might fit that profile best. After all, he has hit 40 homers or more for five years in a row, and his 438 lifetime homers tie him for 25th on the all-time list.

        Boone admitted that he has considered Griffey for the cleanup spot but decided to leave him at No. 3 for obvious reasons:

        • Traditionally, the club's best all-around hitter occupies the third slot.

        • The third hitter tends to receive more protection from the cleanup batter than a cleanup batter would get from the No.5 man.

        • At No. 3, Griffey is guaranteed to bat in the first inning, giving the Reds a chance for an immediate edge.

        • Simple mathematics dictate that Griffey will get more at-bats hitting third than fourth, which could make a definite impact in certain games and perhaps through the season.

        Said Griffey: “The higher you hit in the lineup, the better pitches you're going to have to hit.”

        The possibility that Grif fey and Casey could hit back- to-back is mildly intriguing, since lefties rarely bat consecutively in the third and fourth spots. One notable exception was the legendary New York Yankees tandem of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Contemporary managers prefer to alternate right- and left-handed hitters to prevent opponents from using an excess of right- or left-handed pitchers against them, particularly late-inning relievers.

        But, said Boone, “I'm really not afraid of most of the left-handers in the league that come in against those two guys.”

        He added that he'd probably think more about lefty-righty alternation when the Reds face Randy Johnson, Arizona's dominating southpaw, or teams with a formidable relief duo consisting of a lefty and a righty.

        Casey thrived in the cleanup spot after Dante Bichette was traded to Boston last Aug. 31. He finished with a .397 average (31-for-78) in 21 games there with seven doubles, a triple, seven homers and 22 RBI.

        “Any place in the order where I can do my job is fine with me, and my job is to drive in runs,” Casey said. “It'll be interesting to see how it plays out during spring training. It's kind of cool talking to Bob about all this. He has a reason for all his different lineups.”

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