Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Casey Blake the Savior?

Listening to Dodger Talk last night, the hosts seemd to be implying that the return of Casey Blake was somehow a saving grace to a so-far hot-and-cold picture for the Dodgers. That is a scary thought. While Blake is a gamer who does add depth to the Dodgers, relying on him as a savior seems a little scary. It looks to me like he further clouds or hopefully will solidify the Dodgers infield. Juan Uribe can move to second, Blake can take over third, with Rafael Furcal holding down shortstop as long as he is healthy and Jmaes Loney at first. However, Don Mattingly seems to be speaking in tounges here, saying one thing one day and another thing the next. What about the supposed saviors, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and Clayton Kershaw? They will need to be the saviors this year if the Dodgers are to go anywhere, while guys like Blake should be prominent role players a la Scott Brosius of the 1990's Yankees. While Ethier hasn't hit a homer yet, he is hitting .353 with a .450 OBP. he is nearing free agency and the expensive arbritration years, so whether or not he wishes to be a Dodger, he is playing for his long-term career. Kemp has only one homer, but is hitting .313 with a .421 OBP, a .625 SLG and a 1.025 OPS with two doubles to go along with the HR. he seems to be engaged both on the field and on the basepaths, a good thing for a guy in a similar situation as Ethier. Kersaw has acted like an ace, with a brilliant Opening Day outing and while the statline wasn't outstanding at Coors yesterday, he still struck out 8 in 6 innings and gave the Dodgers a chance to win. These guys are basically doing their jobs, it's the rest of them, expecially offensively, that need to help out. That is where Blake comes in, I believe, to give a boost to the still-sleeping Loney and Uribe to help out the saviors.

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