Hank Blalock: Everyday Player?

For some reason, managers seem to think that Hank Blalock is an everyday player. New manager Ron Washington is no different. Blalock has been in a downhill slide the last three seasons and doesn’t look to be heading anywhere productive in 2007.

First, Blalock can’t hit lefties at all. For his career, Blalock has hit .223/.274/.347 vs. lefties with 19 HR and 180 K’s in 796 plate appearances. In 2004, it looked as if Blalock had figured it out, hitting .282/.344/.436 with 5 bombs in 218 plate appearances. However in 2005, Blalock fell to just .196/.228/.356 in 202 plate appearances with 53 K’s and only 7 BB. Then in 2006, Blalock “rebounded” to hit .216/.281/.351 in 178 plate appearances. He did cut his strikeouts in half in 2006 with just 27 versus lefties. In 2007, Blalock does not have enough plate appearances (17) for a proper sample size but in last night’s game versus Cleveland and C.C. Sabathia, Blalock struck out in his first two at bats bailing early and flailing wildly at Sabathia’s off speed pitches. It is safe to say that Blalock wasn’t very comfortable. Finishing the night with four strikeouts, it could have just been a bad night, but watching Blalock face Sabathia, he just looked overmatched.

The perplexing thing is that even if you were considering platooning Blalock at 3B, he doesn’t even really hit right-handers all that well. The last three seasons, Blalock has hit .283/.352/.475 against righties which, at 3B, most teams would like something better than that. However, in 2006, Blalock fell to .284/.342/.434 against righties which are very average numbers, especially by someone who is so routinely hailed as a power hitting third baseman.

Also considering that most of his damage is done at home (.296/.363/.498 the last 3 seasons) and that he is atrocious on the road (.241/.303/.391 the last 3 seasons), Blalock should not be getting regular duty.

Blalock is an average defender at 3B not providing the sort of defense that makes up for any offensive shortcomings that you might have. The Rangers had the opportunity to trade him the last couple of seasons and should have done so. Now that will be much harder to do, as Blalock looks like he will play everyday showing other teams around the league that he has nothing to offer.