Twins, Dodgers Lead Charge For Blake

Rotoworld made a nice point last night on Blake...

The winner in the Casey Blake Sweepstakes will be the team that does NOT get him...

He is old, mediocre, and will likely be another Ned Colletti Free Agent Bust!

I am cautiously optimistic about the prospect of Blake signing with the Twins... I have a better feeling about it than I did with the Lamb signing, but maybe my expectations are low BECAUSE of signings like that.

The nice thing about a Blake signing for the Twins is that:

1) He should be able to capably fill the position and he's RH, allowing Valencia and/or Romero more time to develop.

2) He allows the Twins to devote ALL of their excess resources (Young/Cuddyer, Perkins/Blackburn, excess bullpen like Boof/Guerrier/Humber) to the SS position. All their other holes are pretty well filled. They should be able to come up with a damn good SS with that group of trade bait.

My point is that signing Blake allows the Twins to solve BOTH 3b and SS pretty easily.

I don't look at "3 years" as longterm. This year he'd be the starter, and the start of next year, with Valencia maybe (hopefully) forcing his way into the starting role by the end of 2010. And if he does, then Blake becomes a very solid bench utility guy with pop for the last year of the deal.

That's not a problem to me at all. Also, I'm not high on Hughes at all. I think he's a UTIL guy at best personally.

The Twins want to sign Blake to a 2 year deal, hardly a long term solution. I'm OK with a Blake signing as long as its part of a plan that includes a long term solution at SS.

"I don't look at "3 years" as longterm. This year he'd be the starter, and the start of next year, with Valencia maybe (hopefully) forcing his way into the starting role by the end of 2010. And if he does, then Blake becomes a very solid bench utility guy with pop for the last year of the deal."

Yeah, he would be nice in terms of that. But not at the price of 3/20. You're telling me that you would be okay paying a 38 year old Casey Blake $6-7M to be a bench bat? For a low budget team like the Twins?

I'm sorry but the Twins don't have the resources to waste that kind of money on a player like Blake.

Blake is a fine player and a good stopgap option, but the price at which he comes is a huge part of whether this would be a good idea for Minnesota.

Oh, I probably wouldn't do 3/20 either. But 3/17-18, I think I would. 5-6 million for a very good bench bat for 1 season is fine IMO, and I think that's what he'd likely be in 2011.

As for Atkins, I want no part of him. I think the Twins would be just as well off putting Cuddyer back at 3b (both offensively and defensively) in that scenario.

Buscher/Harris is NOT as good as Blake. Not even close. Not because Blake is a great option at third, but because Brian Buscher is the furthest thing you could ever have from a real Major League player and he'd be getting the lion's share of time at third base.

I've NEVER seen a third baseman as bad defensively as Buscher is. If it weren't for Morneau across the diamond being a Gold Glove caliber first baseman, Buscher would have one of the most embarrassing fielding percentages in recent history. The guy simply cannot make the throw from first to third. It's absolutely pathetic.

Couple that with the fact that he can't hit left-handed pitching (a non-issue in a platoon, I know), can't hit for power, and really doesn't hit much besides singles, and you've got a guy who barely belongs on a team as a pinch-hitting specialist in the NL.

Buscher hit an INHUMAN .386 with RISP last year, so Minnesota fans have this delusion that he's a run-producer. He won't come close to repeating that.

Buscher can't field, can't hit, and can't run. His fielding stats are terrible, but it's sad to say that if you haven't actually seen him play in the field... he's WORSE than the numbers make him out to be.

Casey Blake can provide a .270 average and 15-20 HR and provide a steadily mediocre glove at third base, which is sadly a tremendous upgrade over the Butcher. He needs to be GONE, plain and simple.

MorneauVP- Morneau is not a GG-caliber 1B. Well, he's a GG caliber 1B in the same way that McLouth's a gold glove caliber CF.

Twins should offer two years to Blake. No more than 3. Blake's defense sucks too, and it will probably keep going downhill, due to his age.

If the Twins are insistent on signing a third baseman on the wrong side of thirty, I'd much rather they wait and see if the Red Sox sign Tex, and then try to swing a trade for Lowell. You'd think Humber for Lowell + Cash would probably get it done, with Lowell coming off an injury and not really having a place to play on that team.

I don't hate the idea of the Twins signing Blake, it just worries me a lot. Especially because I'm more than comfortable with the Harris/Buscher platoon, or even just Harris, manning the hot corner. Short is the real hole on this team, and that's what I'm the most worried about. Here's hoping we can swing Escobar or Hardy, but I'm thinking Little Nicky Punto will be playing a ton of short for us next year.

If the Twins are insistent on signing a third baseman on the wrong side of thirty, I'd much rather they wait and see if the Red Sox sign Tex, and then try to swing a trade for Lowell. You'd think Humber for Lowell + Cash would probably get it done, with Lowell coming off an injury and not really having a place to play on that team.

I don't hate the idea of the Twins signing Blake, it just worries me a lot. Especially because I'm more than comfortable with the Harris/Buscher platoon, or even just Harris, manning the hot corner. Short is the real hole on this team, and that's what I'm the most worried about. Here's hoping we can swing Escobar or Hardy, but I'm thinking Little Nicky Punto will be playing a ton of short for us next year.

Signing a glove man for SS didn't really work out too well last year...

Here's hoping our left side of the infield doesn't contain either Brian Buscher or Nick Punto.

I was referring to signing Adam Everett.

And Bartlett's defense last year was average at best.

"Bartletts defense was a huge part of the Rays success last season."

Agreed. Just because Bartlett was better defensively than what the Rays had going for them at SS in 2007 doesn't make him a good defender. He's average at best.

Blake is better than a lot are giving him credit for. He's an average 3b, and again, signing him really upgrades the bench because Harris is a fine utility guy.

Also, I don't get the logic that "they should trade for a 3b instead to solve the OF logjam". Blake is cheaper than Furcal, the only really "good" SS in FA this year, so it makes more sense to sign Blake and then trade for a SS with that OF/SP excess. And I think that's exactly what the Twins will do if they get Blake.

Casey Blake and a "good" SS via trade is a whole lot better than Kouzmanoff (for example) and a below average SS combo.

I'm not sure acquiring Beltre will take overpaying.

With a real GM and 3 months less on his contract than he had in July when talks began, the price should be down a bit.

I'd love to at least hear what they're asking on Beltre.

If he can be had for Perkins and one other mediocre prospect, I think that's perfectly fair.

If they're asking for Slowey or something, that's another story.

Dodger Stadium is quickly becoming the home for the washed-up, injured, never very good, and the old free agents in baseball...

Jones
Schmidt
Pierre
Blake