Casey Blake retires

[Hermie13]

According to hardballtalk, Casey Blake is announcing his official retirement. Solid career for a guy who was a cast off of the Twins. Really helped out the Tribe in 2007 when Marte flopped to open the year (and was hurt). Underrated contributor to that team IMO.

Doesn't hurt either that we were able to land some guy named Carlos Santana for him either...

[Bearcatbob]

Man - add another member to the best bull pen in baseball. Nick should not be going back to Columbus. Hagadone and Masterson for VMart - that is one trade that worked!

Bob

[Rocky55]

According to hardballtalk, Casey Blake is announcing his official retirement. Solid career for a guy who was a cast off of the Twins. Really helped out the Tribe in 2007 when Marte flopped to open the year (and was hurt). Underrated contributor to that team IMO.

Doesn't hurt either that we were able to land some guy named Carlos Santana for him either...

Amen Bro. Unlike some guys who sign for big money & end up chronically injured, like that Grady Hafner Westbrook guy, Casey doesn't owe us anything. Like you said, with Santana included, Casey is the gift that keeps on giving.

[Prosecutor]

You really have to give credit to management on this one. Nobody even noticed when they signed Blake, who was pushing 30 and had spent about eight years in the minors and very little big league time. He hit his way onto the team and was a productive (and cheap) player for several years. IIRC, he was a regular on the 2007 team that came within a game of the World Series. Then they got Santana for him.

A huge front office success story. Finding hidden gems like Blake is something teams like the Indians have to do in order to compete with the big boys.

[Edible14]

A huge front office success story. Finding hidden gems like Blake is something teams like the Indians have to do in order to compete with the big boys.

Yup. I know fans get upset about the garbage-picking approach, but it has had some good results for the Indians over the years. They're not always huge successes, mind you (Delucci, Michaels being the big failures), but the Indians have a pretty decent track record. Hannahan, Milwood and Pavano all contributed good numbers in their rebounding years. Guys like Kearns (the first time), Branyan (the last time), OCab, and Eduardo Perez were also able to fetch some decent returns to re-stock the minors. Blake did both.