Saturday, August 25, 2007

Bench This Man...NOW!!!!!!

I can't take it anymore. It's brutal. It's painful. No, I'm not talking about the Indians offense as a whole (although, I could be). I'm talking about Casey F'ing Blake. Where's Jeff Gillooly and his Henchmen Shane Stant with the tire iron when you need them? Every single night, we are stuck watching this stiff come up in key situations and fail miserably. Does he EVER come up with a big hit? Ever? Nope. Take tonight for example. While the Tribe offense was in its usual futile mode, a couple of times they actually put runners in scoring position with a chance to tie the game. What did our boy do you ask?

With two out in the 6th, and Asdrubal Cabrera on second after a single, Casey The Dog shockingly struck out.

In the 8th inning, Asdrubal Cabrera tripled with one out. After Kenny Lofton K'd, Fake stepped to the plate in a big spot. Guess what he did? Got behind in the count 1-2 and weakly grounded to second.

With those two failures under his belt, take a look at his stats as a whole and in the clutch this season. Keep in mind, somehow unfathomably, Fake had a 30 game hit streak earlier this year. (STATS provided by stat king Matt G)

Season: .260 Batting Average, 15 HR, 59 RBI

With Runners in Scoring Position: 21-130 - .161 BA

With Runners in Scoring Position and 2 outs: 9-72 - .125 BA

Is that a joke? Eric Wedge's blind loyalty to this guy defies logic. Its not like he is a 10 year all star, Fake has been this way for four years! Remember how bad he was in 2005 in these situations? Nothing has changed except in '05 he was hitting 8th and in '07 inexplicably Fake rests in the 2 hole EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. What's even more laughable is that at points this year, Wedge had him hitting third! The Ags-imposed moratorium on bad-mouthing Casey Blake is officially over. He should personally apologize to C.C. Sabathia for being responsible for ruining another great start by the big left-hander. Poor C.C. has only one win in his last seven starts, yet has an ERA of 2.13. If Casey isn't sitting tomorrow night, I may fly to the home of the technique, Kansas City, and strangle our manager.

Note: This column was dedicated to my father and sportstalk host Les Levine, best friends who had many things in common, one of which was their deep hatred for all things Casey Blake.

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