As expected Super Mario outbid himself to retain facial hair farm Casey Blake. He'll be back at the hot corner over the next 3 years for $17MM. Ned was able to lock that down after going to 3 years. Blake's only other reported suitor, Cleveland, dropped out of the running after Blake refused to accept a 2 year deal. Ned must have read 'The Art of War' recently. When you gain maximum leverage is precisely the time to cave to your opponents wishes.
Ned also managed to wrangle Mark Loretta away from nobody. However, I'm ok with this move. Ned nabbed Loretta on a 1-year deal for only $1.25MM. He can play all 4 infield positions and mashes lefty pitching (.904 OPS in 2008). Loretta should get a ton of starts at 2B and a few at 1B when facing lefties. His .361 career OBP is also nothing to scoff at.
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I like both of these moves. I don't think anybody else was going to go that high for Blake but I think this is about what it was going to take to sign him (if the money/years were equal I think he goes somewhere else). A third year doesn't really bother me (he's 35 but has only been a big league regular since 2003 so not a lot of miles on the tires) and at under $6 mil./year it isn't like we're breaking the bank. Getting a former all star who can play anywhere in the infield for just a million works for me too. Loretta is like Nomar (ok maybe not quite as good a hitter) for a tenth of the price. In fact, the two of these guys will cost less than what Nomar was getting paid and should be a good deal more productive. I just hope one of them knows how to grill some carne asada, otherwise the illegals who flood the stadium for Dia De Los Doyers are gonna be pissed.
Re-signing Blake was not a good move. If there was no competition, we could have offered him a year and told him to go fuck himself if he didn't take it. We don't need to pay 7 million to have the privilege of watching 38 year old Casey Blake stumble around.
If we had gone after Hudson for 2b and lived with a DeWitt/Loretta platoon at third, we could have gone after Beltre with Schmidt/Jones coming off the books next year. Though he'll never hit like the juice/walk year, I strongly suspect Beltre will be undervalued by the market next year.
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