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Indians
Update Spring Training 2007
Casey
Blake
by CSF
Staff
03-24-2007
Casey Blake's (33) history so far
with the Indians:
Four full years with the team,
starting as a 3rd baseman, right fielder last year, and
supposedly the starting 1st baseman going into 2007. There is
some talk he will start against LHP in RF to keep Trot Nixon
from facing them.
Career averages (2,180 at bats):
.260 AVG, .330 OBP, .446 SLG (.776 OPS)
Blake will make 3.75 million in
2007 and is eligible for arbitration after this season.
That .776 OPS would be okay for a
good or better defensively SS or CF. It would be okay for an
above average 3B. It is not okay for a starting corner
outfielder or infielder.
So then the debate becomes: Blake
is not really a full timer. His great value to the team is that
he can play a variety of positions, both outfield and infield.
Maybe. Joe Inglett is a similar type of player, although I think
he could probably outhit Blake. Does that mean I think the team
should hand him almost 4 million dollars and count on him to
play the majority of time at a certain position? No. He's a
utility - backup, whatever you want to call it, type of player.
Like Blake, he can fill in at many positions - 2B, SS, LF. But
you wouldn't really want him at any of these positions as a
regular defensively.
Blake defensively is average in
RF, below average at 3B, and nobody knows yet at 1B. The real
problem with Blake though is that his weak bat is an
embarrassment at these corner positions. The only place his bat
might be acceptable happens to be the position he is below
average at defensively - 3B.
Inglett defensively is average at
2B, average in LF, and below average at SS. Unlike Blake though,
only one of these positions do you count on a certain minimum of
offensive production. And as said before, I believe Inglett is a
better hitter, or would be if given the chance.
For some reason the powers that
be have transformed their opinion on Blake from a filler player
in the first two years of the rebuild - to be replaced ASAP, to
some invaluable piece. He is now either a full timer at one of
the corners or some jack of all trades marvel at multiple
positions. This opinion changes, depending on the day and whose
mouth is moving from Indians management.
Casey Blake is becoming the
poster boy for what a growing number of Indian fans see as as a
personality over talent theme that has grabbed hold of Cleveland
management the last couple of years. If you want to know why he
seems loathed on various talk show and sites, this is why. We've
seen a string of other lesser lights in the same mold:
Aaron Boone
Ben Broussard
Ramon Vazquez
Jason Michaels
Jason Johnson (remember 'quality'
starts?)
Newest recruits - David Dellucci,
Trot Nixon, Aaron Fultz
Why Blake gets extra negative
attention is because he's been around the longest. Every year
for the last four years the fans have had to watch him go
through these painful & long fall-in-a-hole slumps. He looks
flat out like a choker with RISP.
And...what did they say? They are
going to bat him 5th? Unbelievable. So much for thinking that
Victor Martinez was going to break out this year with the bat. I
guess the genius platoons that Mark Shapiro has put together
this off season cannot even produce the equivalent of one decent
5 hole hitter. Nope. It's back to .776 hitter Blake.
Then there is the potential
problem in right field. Trot Nixon is another one of these blue
light specials that Shapiro couldn't pass up - much like he
couldn't with Aaron Boone. Coming off three years of a declining
OPS (with a new low of .767 in 2006), + back surgery in
December, Shapiro just couldn't leave it alone.
He's got good ML ready outfield
prospects coming out of the seams right now: Ben Franciso, Shin
Soo Choo, Franklin Gutierrez, but I guess it is more important
that Buffalo win the International League Championship than the
Cleveland Indians even making the playoffs this year.
So how does the Nixon signing
relate to Casey Blake? Well, the original idea was that Blake
would be the regular at 1B. Don't even pay attention to the "Garko
defensive watch" in spring training. This is a show until the
Indians go north for the season. There really isn't enough at
bats available to justify keeping the Garko on the club.
If Nixon can't go, or what I
think will happen, his gamer mentality will have many stops and
starts - but not enough to DL him, Blake will be playing more in
RF. As noted above, Blake's bat is not acceptable there either
as a regular.
I'm not going to put Blake's
spring training stats here because I don't believe in small
sample sizes, especially in the spring, good or bad. But from
watching him, he just looks old. His bat is slow right now. One
of these years he is really going to fall off a cliff and put up
a .600 range OPS. I hope it is not this year.
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