STrib says Twins no longer negotiating with Casey Blake

[BleedGopher]

http://blogs2.startribune.com/blogs/neal/

Win Twins!!

[ruppertflywheel]

Won't give him a third year. How many ways to you spell "cheap"

[Khaliq]

Won't give him a third year. How many ways to you spell "cheap"In this case I'd spell it s-m-a-r-t. Although to be honest they shouldn't have been pursuing him in the first place. Blake is a mediocre defender that does not offer an appreciable offensive upgrade over what a Buscher/Harris platoon at third would provide. Handing out three guaranteed years to a guy on the wrong side of 35 would be a bad move.

Blake's total line this year was good, .274/.345/.463. That's a bit above average (110 OPS+). Compare that though to Buscher against RHP and Harris against LHP

.274/.345/.463 Blake against LHP/RHP
.316/.362/.437 Buscher against RHP
.265/.323/.391 Harris against LHP

And Harris struggled a bit in the first half of the season until he found a regular position and role, which affected his numbers overall. Once he settled into his platoon role at third he hit .296/.389/.510 in 114 ABs. I wouldn't expect him to be quite that good over the course of an entire season, but over his career he has a .295/.360/.440 line against LHP.

The Twins realistically do have limited resources and they'd be wise to invest it elsewhere. However, even if they did have carte blanche to go out and acquire players I still don't think Blake would be a good investment.

[Ski U Mah Gopher]

I don't know if Nick Punto can be an everyday shortstop.

[Khaliq]

I think they need to find an every day shortstop either way. Harris doesn't have the range for the position and is a poor defender overall. And I agree that Punto is not an every day player, though he does have utility off the bench. Two big marks against existing options at short.

The best use of resources would be to move Casilla to his natural position at short and look to options at 2B in my opinion.