Hank Blalock

[Terrordome666]

What are everyones thoughts on Blalock this year. Playing in the DH spot he should avoid injuries.

I drafted Aramis Ramirez and picked Blalock up off the free agent list. However, I am thinking about using Aramis for trade bait and plugging Blalock into my third base spot.

If you look at last years stats and extend Blalock out to the same number of AB's as Aramis they are fairly close in stats

Aramis .289 27HR 111RBI 97RUNS
Blalock .287 26HR 82RBI 80RUNS

If you consider I used a 4th round pick on Aramis and Blalock was undrafted those numbers are reasonably close.

Right now the trade I have on the table is Aramis for Jay Bruce and Josh Johnson. Its a head to head league 9 categories in pitching and 9 categories in hitting. My other outfielders are Braun, Granderson, N. Cruz. Bruce would be my extra player for insurance on Cruz. I am very high on Johnson and he will vault my pitching staff to one of the best in my league.

[Niffoc4]

Wrong forum if this is just a discussion of whether you should make a trade or not... though if you move it to that forum more details are needed, who would Bruce be replacing in the OF? What are the other categories?

I think it is very risky to depend on Hank Blalock as a starter. He COULD stay healthy, and then he would provide good value, but that's a pretty big risk to take for someone who hasn't been healthy for awhile. If he does get hurt, he could even lose his DH role... especially if someone like Smoak is ready by mid-season.

I do think that Blalock is a good reserve pick though, since he has 1B/3B eligibility and if healthy he could be solid.

[Terrordome666]

Wrong forum if this is just a discussion of whether you should make a trade or not... though if you move it to that forum more details are needed, who would Bruce be replacing in the OF? What are the other categories?

I think it is very risky to depend on Hank Blalock as a starter. He COULD stay healthy, and then he would provide good value, but that's a pretty big risk to take for someone who hasn't been healthy for awhile. If he does get hurt, he could even lose his DH role... especially if someone like Smoak is ready by mid-season.

I do think that Blalock is a good reserve pick though, since he has 1B/3B eligibility and if healthy he could be solid.

Not really a trade question, I am more interested in peoples thoughts on Blalock. I just used the trade to show that playing Blalock is going to allow me to upgrade my team.

[Ender]

I wouldn't expect full time play out of him. He doesn't hit lefties very well and that team has a lot of depth on the roster so I can't see them clogging up the DH every day. If say Hamilton gets some little nagging injury or something they'll DH him for a few days and sit Blalock etc.

I'm ok with Blalock as a 'sleeper' but I wouldn't want him as my starting 3B, more of a CI or UT player.

[BillyHallDisciple]

Yeah, I don't think he's a bad guy to take a flyer on but I'm not so sure he's out of the woods with his injury problems yet and would be a little concerned about that even though he is only a DH.
(Note: He played 3B today in Spring Training and, just to prove he can't catch a break with injuries, he got a minor one today when he got a gash in his forehead diving for a ball!)

http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/news/artic ... p&c_id=tex

Anyways the thing to remember is that he went on an absolute tear to end his '08 season, and homered in 5 of his last 7 games. This was after several injuries as I just saw on his Sportlsine update, which states: "He originally strained his left hamstring in April, then developed carpal tunnel syndrome on a minor-league rehab assignment and needed surgery on his right wrist. Then, back on his rehab assignment, he hurt his right hand diving for a ball, and when he finally returned to the majors, he had to go back on the DL with right shoulder inflammation."

One crucial thing to note though is that he went on this hitting tear in Sept. after all of these injuries, so it seems he was right back to being healthy... and this spring, he's 10-for-35 with 2 homers, 2 doubles, and a triple so even if it's against ST-styled pitching it appears he's driving the ball with authority.

Again, I'm not sure if I trust the dude to stay healthy, but I like the odds better with him being DH only (and judging from the news above, he should probably think twice before running out to play third base ).

I would still much rather have a sure thing like Aramis at the hot corner, but if you take both of them and wait to see if Blalock ends up panning out then you can do as you suggested using Aramis as trade bait. Unfortunately the day after you make that trade, Blalock will probably get injured again. I also know that this isn't the right forum for the trade question but since you mentioned it, I do think you're not getting quite enough for Aramis because as good as Bruce/Johnson are, because even though they're quality players, they haven't proven themselves over the long haul like Aramis has.

Good luck to you. I'm glad you posted this 'cause it got me interested in researching Blalock a little bit and has almost convinced me to go the extra buck on him at the end of my auction tomorrow!

[BillyHallDisciple]

FYI Blalock has hit .287 and .293 against lefties in '06 & '07. Oddly, he was terrible against lefties in '04 & ;05 (.216 and 196, but in '04 hit .282 against them)... so his numbers are all over the place against lefties, hopefully the last two years signal a trend in the right direction as far as that goes.

[chargerss24]

I'm ok with Blalock as a 'sleeper' but I wouldn't want him as my starting 3B, more of a CI or UT player.

Agreed. I don't want him manning third for my team, but I'm perfectly fine with him playing my CI or UT slot. Barring injury, he's going to play every day save for the occasional day off. I think people tend to forget that this guy can hit.

[B-Chad]

I like Hank Blalock a lot this year, but I think it would be a bit foolish to have him as your starting 3B right off the bat. Not calling you a fool, I see your thinking, and I like that potential deal, but I think you'd be better off seeing how Blalock opens the season, because I'm guessing that offer will still be available in a month. Overall, I like Blalock this year where he'll likely be drafted in most of my leagues, his power potential and lineup is for real.

[hookem2003]

He's definitely worth a late round flyer, but I agree with the other posters that I wouldn't build my team w/ the idea that he could hold down the 3b spot on my team.

[Field]

He and Crede are pretty decent bounce back candidates. In one league I have Blalock as my starting CI with Crede backing up him. One of them should be productive for atleast half of the season.

If the Rangers were trying to showcase him for a trade by putting him at 3B the other day, it certainly back fired as he looked extremely rusty.