Posts tagged Andre Ethier at FanHouse

It's been a roller coaster ride this season for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and their real-life equivalents in the Dugout Chatroom have felt it. They were accused of being yokels from the past, they acquired and perverted one of the most popular players in the game, and they discussed at length Andre Ethier's "tINCFoUTaCU".

Tonight is the last Dugout of the Dodgers' 2008 campaign. It's like those episodes of Buffy that didn't really involve a monster and were just there to move along the season-long arc. Not dorky enough for you? It's like the Cowboy Bebop episodes without Vicious.

I guess it was dorky enough before. Tonight's Dugout is after the jump.

With just over 24 hours to go before the first pitch of the National League Championship Series, the writers of the MLB FanHouse gathered for a discussion of the Phillies and Dodgers. It didn't take long for the discussion to veer away from who will win and onto the ever fascinating and potentially otherworldly Manny Ramirez.

Josh Alper: Is it just me or is it really hard to find a clear edge in this series? The Dodgers and Phillies each have strong rotations, bullpens and offenses. The biggest difference, to me, is that the addition/return of Manny Ramirez and Rafael Furcal give the Dodgers a stronger 1-8 lineup than the Phillies. Not by a lot but by enough to give them a slight edge over seven games.

Tom Fornelli: Both these teams are incredibly hot right now. The Dodgers are 20-8 (including playoffs) in their last 28 games, and over that same time period the Phillies are 20-9. A strong series from Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, or Pat Burrell can easily propel the Phillies past the Dodgers. Which is why I'm leaning more towards the Phillies because I think they have more options on offense, whereas the Dodgers are basically centered on Manny.

The sentiment from the Philly area today is that, yes, Manny Ramirez is a stud ... but there is much more to the Dodgers' offense than the dread-locked, polarizing, left-fielder who mashes opposing pitching like no other hitter on Earth when he's locked in. At least that's how the Phillies started off matters:

The Phillies made it clear before their Tuesday workout that Manny alone would not decide the NLCS. The return of shortstop Rafael Furcal, who missed all eight regular-season games between the teams, has added depth to the Dodgers' lineup. Their young hitters, including Russell Martin, Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp, could all cause problems during a seven-game series.

I'm a tad bit surprised they omitted James Loney, but we get the point.

Of course, the rest of the article was devoted to how the Phillies plan on dealing with Manny when he digs in. Let's hear it, catcher Chris Coste:

"I think if you picked out the guy we don't want to have beat us, yeah, he's clearly the guy."

Ok, so that means you want to pitch around him and walk him should there be an available base?

"There's a book on Manny Ramirez, just like there is for anybody else," catcher Chris Coste said. "It's just that he's more likely to hit a mistake than the next guy. If our pitchers can pitch to the game plan, I don't see any reason to walk him.

In the Playoff Pulse series, our MLB editor takes on a hot October topic.

These aren't your daddy's Dodgers, you know the franchise that had one playoff win in the last 20 years. Heck, these Dodgers barely resemble the team that was lagging behind the Diamondbacks and below the .500 mark in the NL West three months ago.

The Cubs found that out the hard way in the NLDS, and the Phillies (or Brewers) could be in for a similarly rude awakening in the next round.

Los Angeles won 84 games this season -- the fewest of any postseason team. It's worth noting that the last playoff team to win so few games -- the 83-78 2006 Cardinals -- went on to the World Series. But that team had Jeff Weaver and Anthony Reyes in the rotation and hit an extraordinary hot streak at the right time. This Dodgers team does not need to go on a fluke hot streak to win it all. It is much better than its 84 wins would suggest.

It will be all too easy to point to the Manny Ramirez trade as the key turning point in Los Angeles' season. His impact is undeniable. He hit close to .400 over the final two months of the regular season and he had two home runs in the three-game sweep.

But Ramirez is only part of a radical in-season makeover that has turned the Dodgers from an expensive flop into an NLCS team.

Every four years, Major League Baseball's postseason intersects with a presidential election. This is one of those years. In the spirit of the season, we here at MLB FanHouse have divided the playoff teams up for a series of debates. Matt Snyder and Will Brinson discuss the NLDS between the Cubs and Dodgers.

We'll run through different aspects of each team -- starting rotation, bullpen, defense, starting lineup, bench, manager, and end with a prediction. We'll do it with numbers and snarky commentary (most of which was used by Brinson), and we'll get right to it after the jump.

With the playoff chase coming down to the wire, our MLB editor rounds up the five biggest pennant race stories in Eye Toward October.

- Oh, What a Night: It's easy to get wrapped up in the daily drama of the pennant races this time of year without stopping to smell the roses. If you didn't have playoff fever before last night, there's a good chance you have it now. I'll get to the gory details in a moment, but for now, let's take a moment to bask in the glow of this time of year.

The Red Sox and Rays played one of the better games all season long -- a see-saw affair that saw Boston darling Jason Bay give his new club a dramatic lead in the eighth, followed by the upstart Rays showing surprising fight and scoring twice on closer Jonathan Papelbon to win the game.

The White Sox dropped a pair of games to the red-hot Blue Jays, who are seven games back of the Red Sox with seven left to play against Boston, and saw their lead over the Twins shrink to just one game.

Carlos Delgado's continued resurgence helped the Mets eke out a dramatic, late-inning win over the Nationals. The Cubs and Brewers continued to slump, in the case of the latter creating an intriguing wild-card race where there wasn't one just a few weeks before.

Finally, out west, the Dodgers yet again got Herculean efforts out of Andre Ethier and Manny Ramirez to add another game to their division lead as the Diamondbacks wilted in the wake of ninth-inning rally.

It's all too easy to buy into the mantra that the games in April count just the same as they do in September. Of course, it's completely true. On the other hand, there's nothing more fun than baseball this time of year. Any fan can appreciate that.

The Dodgers' outfield has been plagued by unhappiness for a while now, most of it in the form of Juan Pierre. Pierre has taken to whining about his status on the team, about his playing time, and so forth, and he's been incredibly easy to mock because of it. The guy slugging .318 doesn't usually get to complain.

But for every needlessly unsatisfied player, there's someone who should be mad, but isn't. Say hello to Andre Ethier:

"There are times you'd like to lash out and say something, but at the same time you have to step back and look at the situation first," Ethier said. "That's more of an emotional or rash decision to go out and say something. You have to figure out why certain things are happening and look at the plus side of it. This is a situation where there's definitely a big plus. I'm getting the chance to play with one of the best players in the game and I'm getting to learn and [see] how he prepares himself."

"You have to know your place and know your role," he said. "I'm in a place and role in my career where I can't make a fuss about it. I still have a lot to prove in this game."

From a player that has somewhat routinely been screwed over by his front office, Ethier's deference is impressive. Not only does he compliment Pierre (or maybe he means Manny Ramirez; hard to tell), he willingly concedes the point that his youth puts him at a disadvantage. Either he's being diplomatic, or he's the nicest dude ever. Maybe both.

It's been a tough year for the perennially overpaid, overrated Juan Pierre. First, the Dodgers sign Andruw Jones after Jones' worst season as a pro, somehow hoping he would turn things around. He hasn't. Then Pierre goes out and actually gets on base a little bit -- not too much, but just a little bit -- before seeing his OBP drop back down into the .320s, where it currently sits. (.324. Ouch.) Then, just when Jones is getting ready to clear the way for Pierre once and for all, the Dodgers turn around and trade a third basemen and some other guys for one of the best hitting outfielders of his generation. Where's the love, people?

So now Pierre is confused and angered and all the things athletes say when they think they should be playing, even if they shouldn't be. Juan Pierre definitely shouldn't be playing, but actually still is, but is also still angry. I don't know, just read the blockquote:

"I wouldn't say it's bad, but it's been difficult. You go on the bench, and then you work your way back in the lineup and possibly going back to the bench. All I've ever done is be Juan Pierre when I wear this jersey. They're sticking it to me this year for whatever reason. "

There's more, but as the story notes, Pierre isn't even being benched. Andre Ethier is, despite the fact that he's much younger and much more talented than Pierre at this point in their respective careers. Yeah. Juan would probably do well to keep quiet, keep his head down, and hope no one in the Dodgers has a sudden wave of enlightenment along the lines of "Hey, um, I hadn't noticed this, but it seems Juan is slugging .318. Uh-huh. What in the world are we thinking?"