E-mailers came through with some baseball questions this week, although as always, Ken Griffey Jr. was on their minds as well.

Question: If Bob Boone does not like the way Jason LaRue calls the game, why doesn't he call the pitches from the bench? Other teams do it.

Boone micro-manages everything except obviously the only thing we all can agree he knows something about - a catcher calling pitches.

A: I asked Boone about that when I did a LaRue story. Boone said he did call some pitches, but not a lot. "I want him to learn how to do it, not be a robot back there," he said.

From Cecil in Seattle: Living in Seattle, I had a lot of opportunity to watch Junior's progress in his early career, and I have become increasingly disillusioned with him. He has immense natural talent, and often has performed outstandingly, but he always has been somewhat fragile, both physically and emotionally. I am not convinced he ever believed he would age, and hence he did not work at maintaining his physical gifts. I was not sorry to see him leave the Mariners, who seem not to have suffered inordinately from his absence. Prediction:Griffey will retire in the next two years, leaving a large "asterisk" concerning what might have been.

A: This is a big season for Griffey - there's no question about that. But I'd be stunned if he retired. He has said many times all he wants to do is play baseball. Griffey doesn't like to talk about conditioning, but according to all reports, he worked hard in the offseason.

Q, from Bryan in Louisville: Why isn't Danny Graves in the bullpen? We have five starting pitchers who should do OK for us: Ryan Dempster, Jimmy Haynes, Paul Wilson, Chris Reitsma and Jose Acevedo. There are more in the minor leagues, like Luke Hudson, Seth Etherton, Luke Prokopec, Davis, Fernandez, Jose Rijo and Pete Harnisch. I think we have a lot of starting pitching and we don't need more unless it is a No. 1 starter. The bullpen would look be Graves, Scott Williamson, Scott Sullivan, John Riedling, Gabe White and Bruce Chen. Now that is a bullpen. Please tell me what you think and why Graves is a starter.

A: The Reds feel Graves' stuff is more suited for starting. He relies heavily on a sinker pitch, inducing groundballs. That makes him very pitch-efficient. And they feel the bullpen will be strong without him. Williamson is more of prototypical closer, i.e., a strikeout pitcher.

E-mail jfay@enquirer.com