Sleeper Watch

Coming into the season, many fantasy owners were excited about the promising young players who would be suiting up for the Cleveland Indians. Ben Broussard, Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, and Brandon Phillips were fairly common late-round draft picks by owners hoping for breakout seasons.

A few months later, Broussard is hitting .265 with just eight home runs. Hafner’s average is a dismal .222. Martinez, considered the top offensive catching prospect this side of Joe Mauer, spent most of the season in the minors, and is hitting .212 since being called up. Phillips was recently sent down after hitting for a lower average than Martinez. All remain solid prospects and have a place on keeper rosters, but for immediate help this season, fantasy owners have turned elsewhere for help.

But before you dismiss the latest crop of Indians entirely, take another look at Casey Blake. His season stats (.271 avg, .336 obp, 10 hr, 37 rbi) may not catch your attention, but since mid-June, Blake has put up numbers comparable to the league’s top third basemen (except for Albert Pujols, of course, if Pujols qualifies at 3b in your league), hitting close to .330 along with six home runs and 18 rbi. Impressively, two of those homers came at Detroit’s Comerica Park.

Will Blake put up similar numbers over the rest of the season? Well, maybe not quite, but as long as he’s hot, he makes a good pickup at a very shallow position. His 3b/1b eligibility (77 games played at 3b, 26 at 1b) is a nice bonus, and even though Blake is a late bloomer at age thirty, his keeper value looks to be solid.