Blake named AL Player of the Week
Posted on cleveland.com by Paul Hoynes, May 29, 2007 13:53PM
BOSTON -- Indians third baseman Casey Blake is the American League Player of the Week.
Blake hit .347 (8-for-23) with four homers and eight RBI. He scored eight runs and hit three doubles and one triple.
He's hit in 18 of his last 20 games, batting .347 (26-for-75) over that stretch.
The versatile Blake has started five games at first, seven in right field and 33 at third. He's hit second (25 starts), fourth (one), fifth (seven), sixth (six), seventh (one) and eighth (one) in the lineup.
Blake took over third base when Andy Marte was injured in April and has solidified the No.2 spot in manager Eric Wedge's lineup.
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Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
...and yet so Casey Blake gets so little respect.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
by world dictator on May 29, 2007 6:09 PM EDT up reply actions
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
None On: .312/.407/.624
Men On: .218/.307/.356
I know this is backwards thinking, but perhaps the Indians put him second in the lineup to get as few players on ahead of him as possible.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Blake batting second is pretty clear in hindsight, but I never thought about the advantages until he was actually placed there. I give Wedge tons of credit for trying him as a #2 hitter, and sticking with him there.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
by drerikbrady on May 30, 2007 12:52 PM EDT up reply actions
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
by Scott @ Let's Go Tribe! on May 30, 2007 4:12 AM EDT up reply actions
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
There was nothing strange about Rouse starting last night. I'm mystified that anyone has made a big deal about it.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Rouse, vs. RHP:
AVG OBP SLG OPS
.185 .290 .222 .512
Blake, vs. RHP:
.246 .310 .438 .748
if it was because of getting hit on the hand, fine. while Blake has often been labeled a AAAA player, Rouse should be lucky to have a job in Buffalo, let alone in the bigs.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
By whom? By those who irrationally hate him?
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
by drerikbrady on May 30, 2007 11:13 AM EDT up reply actions
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
I'm a Blake fan, obviously... I'm just questioning the purpose of an obvious downgrade in your lineup against the best ballclub in the majors.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
by world dictator on May 30, 2007 11:18 AM EDT up reply actions
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
a. Sample size.
b. Your argument is basically that Rouse should never start and Blake should never rest.
c. If you're going to rest your righty starter and start your lefty backup, of course you would do that against a RHP starter.
To sum up, duh.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
b.) Barring an injury, yes. As it stands right now, Mike Rouse should never start over Casey Blake, unless you're tanking games in an effort to draft Greg Oden. It's an offensive downgrade against right-handed, left-handed, and magical pitchers who will the ball to home plate with extrasensory skills. Additionally, it's reasonable to assume that if Rouse is having trouble against the average MLB pitcher, he's not going to provide much help against Josh Beckett.
c.) Blake received an off-day on May 22. He'll receive another on Monday, June 4. My point is in questioning WHY he needed a day off. Since he pinch-hit, you can't blame the previous HBP/K.
If you can debate any of these points, I'd appreciate it, rather than creating my arguments for me.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Sore hand? Other aches and pains? Preserving him over the course of season?
I'd assume that one of these is the reason that Blake sat. Wedge does not think that Rouse is a better player.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
In summary, we should trot out lesser batters for the majority of the game, in the hopes that our better hitters will have a chance to get one at-bat late in the game, most likely while we're trailing.
I did not catch whether Underwood concocted this idiotic plot to lose a baseball game by himself, or if this was an actual explanation provided by Wedge. I'm hoping it was the former, as I already have a low opinion of Woody.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
b. Blake is not the most durable player to begin with. Your suggestion is awful.
c. Players are rested-but-PH-available all the time. Any "blame" arguments are speculative anyway.
rather than creating my arguments for me
Bad news, dude: No one person gets to frame all the arguments definitively. Get used to it.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
This is the best answer.
Actually, the argument should be Rouse should not be on a Major League team, let alone one that is leading its division.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
I'm not sure what the discussion was focused on last year. But, to me, the bigger problem is that he's on the team at all, especially when they've had no problems dispensing of better alternatives over the past several years.
If he was just a late inning guy with 1 or 2 starts a month, fine, but he's on pace for 250+ AB's.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
He's actually on pace for 198 AB's. That's still 40-50 full games worth of AB's for him, which comes to 6-8 starts per month.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Multiple Choice Time!
A.Mike Rouse: good defense, bats left-handed, can't hit
B.Joe Inglett: bad defense, bats left-handed, can hit
C.Luis Rivas: decent defense, bats right-handed, can't hit
D. Hector Luna: horrible defense, bats right-handed, can hit
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
On one hand, there's no reason to whine about that. Very few teams have better. On the other hand, he's not a strength of this team, to the extent that someone like Shoppach is. Shoppach plays D and hits a little. Shoppach might have a shot at starting for another team.
Now that I think about, we're a little spoiled by the depth that this team has at catcher and in the outfield.
Of course, Rouse is not our backup third baseman. Casey Blake is. The team has decided to send the starter to AAA to work further on his game. So we've already dipped into our depth once.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
E. Ramon Vazquez
F. Brandon Phillips
But, I understand your points. they need to do better than what they've got.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
by Kos @ Let's Go Tribe! on May 30, 2007 4:00 PM EDT up reply actions
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
So the short answer is: 100% of the alternatives.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Rouse is younger than almost all of them, much younger. Plus Rouse is much, much cheaper than all of them and especially cheaper than the ones who would be any kind of significant upgrade.
Rouse gets paid $380,000.
Nefi: 2,500,000
Alex Cora: 2,000,000
Alex Cintron: 1,900,000
Really, you're jumping to trade Rouse for any of these guys? Who gives a shit which one you have? At least Rouse saves us money.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
My original point was and is that the Indians seem to have no problem cycling through more talented players and letting them go. And now that they have their best team since '01 they've settled on Mike Rouse, ouch.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Mike Rouse isn't an "ouch." He's a completely innocuous and normal backup. If you want a stellar backup, like Cora, go cheer for the Red Sox. We can't afford to keep fringe starters as backups.
Where are all these talented players the Indians have discarded carelessly? If this is about Brandon Phillips, just say so and I will cease to care immediately.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
If most is 44% (including Rouse), than you are correct. Cairo has just a handful, Perez under 30, and Gomez has as many as Rouse.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Neifi's 2007 WARP: 0.0 (shocker)
Bloomquist's 2007 WARP: -0.4 (even less of a shocker)
by Kos @ Let's Go Tribe! on May 30, 2007 6:08 PM EDT up reply actions
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
I think we're very fortunate to have picked Rouse up off waivers. He is the first infield defensive sub, he's a lefty backing up three righties, he's the very last bat off the bench, and he's very well qualified for these role.
I think there are all-glove shortstops in starting roles who are no better than Rouse. Given a little more of an opportunity earlier in his career, Rouse probably wouldn't even be available.
My view of Rouse is that we basically got a Johnny Mac, which we badly needed last year. I think he'll be an Indian for several years, and I'm happy about it. Those who think other teams have it better are absolutely living in a fantasy world.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week

This is me giving Jay his gavel on our trip to the UN. Directly after this Jay suggested optioning the representative from Sweden to the League of Nations to create a roster spot for a right-handed power peacekeeper.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Also, I'm part Swedish, can't we unload Poland?
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
He's a fine backup infielder. Well-suited as you say. As I said before, you don't have to pretend that he's a potential starter (i.e. Shoppach) to say he's good enough for his role.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
(Well that should fire some people up.)
Not that they're really comparable, but if you're going to go to the numbers, use them right.
I like the Shoppach comparison, and Shoppach definitely comes out a bit ahead. Rouse gets the edge in contact hitting -- I'm thinking speed to first base is a significant factor there. Shoppach has a huge edge in power.
Power is in fact the only bad thing about Rouse's track record. His walk rate is a more-than-solid .11, consistently through the minors. So he fits the Indians model of piling up hitters with a patient approach at the plate.
So let's add it up:
- Above-average fielder at shortstop.
- Comfortable switching between 2B, SS, 3B.
- Decent contact hitter with above-average selectivity.
- Good speed.
- Pretty much no power.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Agreed: his walk and contact rate are acceptable, he's versatile, and he has no power. Maybe he could get by without the power as an everyday player, but he no plus skills. Nothing above-average.
Unless his defense is there. I guess I haven't heard any evaluations that put him on that Johnny Mac level, i.e. the kinds of things said about Drubs (yeah, I'm sticking with "Drubs".) That would make a big difference.
The Shoppach comparison is my point. If both are put on the market, would you not expect the returns for the two to be drastically different? (And can we assume that GMs will look at more than their small 2007 numbers?)
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
The Indians were fourth in line. AL teams get first dibs on AL waiver claims, in order of current record, worst-to-best. The Indians had the fourth-worst record in the AL when they claimed Rouse.
So you really only have to accept that Baltimore, Tampa Bay and Kansas City missed out on him. Starting to sound more believable, right? I would not be surprised if five or more teams put in a claim.
Rouse may not have Johnny Mac's skills, but he's above average and a faster baserunner, and Johnny Mac was even more of a zero at the plate. I think the value of the lefty bat is also being overlooked -- you won't find many skilled infielders who bat from the left side, and being able to rest a starter on a day that would have been an against-platoon day for him anyway does help.
I agree with you on Shoppach, I just don't see what that has to do with Rouse. Both are guys who would start on some other teams -- Shoppach on more than Rouse, and also Shoppach having more potential as a long-term answer than Rouse. But Rouse is still a potential starter and a better short-term answer than most teams would have in the event of an injury or trade or poor play -- e.g., the 2006 Indians.
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
Re: Blake named AL Player of the Week
SMALL SAMPLE SIZE ALERT: Blake is 2 for 5 with 2 singles and 1 K in his career vs. Beckett.

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