Andre Ethier: One Of The Most Overrated and Overpaid Players In All of Baseball.

Roy-Z over at Plain Gray Swatch wrote a post a while back in which he asked why so many Dodgers' fans seemed to be down on the "ever-consistent" Andre Ethier, viewing him more as a liability than as a star. I happen to be one of those people that has never been a big Ethier fan and advocated trading him long ago, so I thought I'd lay out the reasoning behind my stance.

Ethier has been a fan favorite for a long time, and in his early days had the support of pretty much all Dodgers' fans not running the day-to-day operations of the club. People clamored for him to not lose playing time to retreads, has-beens, and never-weres, as has so often happened to young Blue Crew players over the last decade when they first make it up to The Show (see: Matt Kemp, etc.).

Once Andre became a full-time starter, however, it was soon apparent that he was nothing more than a platoon player whom fans fell in love with because of things like batting average, RBIs, and the rantings of "analysts" like Steve Lyons, one of the few who has long held that Dre is a Gold Glove right fielder. Those RBIs and his perceived excellence led to a ludicrous contract extension of $85 million over five years with a sixth-year option that's highly likely to become guaranteed and push the deal past the $100 million mark.

Let's get the obvious, much-discussed out of the way. Andre Ethier can't, has not, and will never hit lefties well enough to be a full-time player you can count on for the majority of a season. His career slash line against southpaws looks frightening, mostly because it is:

.239/.297/.358/.655 with a .290 wOBA

Dear every God that's ever been prayed to.

Dre is shockingly bad against lefties, immeasurably bad, you could say. It's not that there aren't ways to measure his ineptitude against southpaws, it's just that I thought any statistical system would crash and be eternally demolished trying to run his atrocious numbers against port-siders (oooh, we should totally get that into the baseball vernacular as another term for lefties).

It's not as if Andre has been unlucky in these situations, as his BABIP against lefties is .292, meaning he's been neither lucky nor unlucky. What we've all seen is what he is: god awful when a right-handed hurler is not opposing him. It's also not as if this can be chalked up to a small sample size issue, as Ethier has put up these numbers - and I use put up very, very lightly - in 1,134 plate appearances entering April 16th.

When tacked on to his below-average baserunning (career -4.7 BsR) and defensive shortcomings (i.e. he's a terrible right fielder, costing the Dodgers ~ 23.2 runs per year), Dre's inability to hit lefties makes him the ideal candidate to platoon with a righty bat that can hit lefties and actually field the position.

The potential has been there, and the Dodgers definitely won the trade with Oakland to bring him to LA - giving up Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez - but Andre has never been able to live up to that potential. His fWAR has never topped 3.2, and it's likely to never top the 3.5-4 range because those massive struggles against lefties drag down his bat, the one area he can contribute in.

If left-handers didn't exist, not only would Andre be more appreciated, he'd be a star amongst stars. Well, if lefties and fielding and baserunning weren't on the table, he'd be upper-echelon easily. His career line against righties is an outstanding .310/.388/.523/.911 with a .389 wOBA. Andre walks more, strikes out less, hits for more power, and is actually competent against right-handers.

Unfortunately for Ethier, we live in a baseball world where lefties do exist.

And he should never play against them.

Ever.

Andre Ethier is not underrated in any sense of the word. It's quite the opposite, actually, as he's one of the most overrated players in baseball.

Sorry to burst your bubble, non-statistically-inclined fellow Dodgers' fans.

The Dodgers' Steve Lyons Is The Worst Announcer In Baseball.

Particularly now that Joe Morgan is out of the announcing game. And hey, at least Morgan was an all-time great, and either the best or second-best second baseman ever. Lyons was, shall we say, less than terribly atrocious.

Here's what Lyons is most well-known for: not his announcing, not his baseball insights, not his witty commentary, but this display of hilarious ineptitude. Thanks to Chad for the .gif:

It's not just that Lyons was an atrocious player: a .301 OBP, .286 wOBA, and 3.1 career WAR will take care of anyone's potential legacy. It's that he doesn't even realize what makes a good baseball player today. Clearly, he's not the venerable Vin Scully, but he's so bad he's dragged down whatever potential Eric Collins once possessed.

He has a complete misunderstanding of on-base percentage and its value and places far too much importance on RBIs while failing to see that statistic's irrelevancy and the connection between that and OBP. He also clearly has failed to master the art of fact-checking, or getting someone more knowledgeable than he to carry out that simple task for him.

When I first penned my ode to Lyons' stupidity back on August 28th of 2009, here is some of what I wrote about Lyons and his belief that HRs are "rally killers":

Why? I'll tell you why, because that's baseball to the old-school, gritty, against statistics, pants-dropping, racially-insensitive* Steve Lyons: playing the game illogically because you can't comprehend the correct way to play.

But, if we're being honest, guys like Babe Ruth (good thing he pitched regularly/semi-regularly for 6 years, saved him from absolutely demolishing about 100 rallies) and Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds were really assholes, pure, selfish assholes, with all those rallies they killed. Jerks.

Steve Lyons, the epitome of not killing rallies! 19 career HRs, but 100 doubles. That's how you keep rallies alive and get that oh so beautiful career OPS+ of 77. 77! What an offensive dynamo. And I'll go out on a limb and surmise he also believes walks clog the bases.

The man is so out of touch that he even suggested a player of the stature of Albert Pujols - you know, one of the ten greatest players to ever step on the diamond - needed to be signed because the previous face of the franchise was close to croaking at the time of his comments. As opposed to, you know, him being a phenomenal player and one of the ten greatest ever.

Lyons makes me want to watch the game with the mute button on and broken off of my remote so I can't even possibly turn the sound back on. He makes a sea of vuvuzelas sound like serene ocean noises, a symphony of great classical music, or a beautiful serenade. When Lyons opens his mouth, I think gun, brain, bliss.

Steve Lyons Ain't No Fool With His Pants On The Ground

Oh wait, yes he is:

Much, much thanks to the always amazing kensai from Memories Of Kevin Malone for creating this.gif and honoring my request to see it immortalized forever in infamy.

Dodgers Notes From Tuesday's Game 6/15/2010

Dodgers 12, Cincinnati 0

Box Score.

• Hiroki Kuroda went 5 rain-interrupted innings (0 Runs, 3 Hits, 8 K, 2 BB, 84 pitches - 55 for strikes). I would not have brought him back after that epic rain delay.
• Bullpen: 4 IP, 0 Runs, 5 Hits, 4 K, 0 BB.
• Manny Ramirez hit his 6th HR of the season.
• Rafael Furcal (Double, 4 Singles) reached base 5 times. James Loney (3 Doubles, Single) and Casey Blake (2 Singles, 2 BB) reached base 4 times. Manny (HR, 2 Singles) reached base 3 times. Matt Kemp (2 Singles), Andre Ethier (Single, BB), and Russell Martin (Double, BB) each reached base twice.
• The offense struck out 8 times, drew 5 walks, and had 6 extra-base hits.
• Chad Billingsley hit the 15-day DL with a groin strain. Big loss.
• RAIN DELAY: 2 Hours, 24 Minutes.

Steve Lyons, please for the love of all that is holy, SHUT UP!

Steve Lyons Is A World-Class Wedding Photographer

Now that we know what he does with his free time (you know, instead of learning about baseball so he can move up to calling games in mediocre fashion), check out his portfolio below:


http://www.lyonswedding.com

Notes From Saturday's Game 4/10/2010

Florida 7, Dodgers 6

Box Score.

• Vicente Padilla went 4.1 shaky innings (4 ER, 8 Hits, 6 K, 1 BB, 1 HR Allowed, 96 pitches - 65 for strikes), and was especially shaky at the beginning and end. The delay to fix the outfield wall may have contributed, but again, it's Vicente Padilla. He also missed a squeeze sign that ran the Dodgers out of a potential rally. That, Steve Lyons, is what a rally killer actually looks like.
  
• Bullpen: 4 IP, 3 ER, 2 Hits, 3 K, 3 BB [2 IBB]. 4 Relievers.
• Jonathan Broxton was unavailable after having appeared in the previous two games, but had Joe Torre properly used his pen against Pittsburgh and used Brox in Game 2, he would have never pitched in Game 3 and been available today. It all comes full circle.
• George Sherrill: never that good to begin with. He could use a week off just to get mechanically right. It's safe to say that spring work hasn't payed off yet.
• Matt Kemp hit his first HR of the season, a towering, booming shot to left.
• Manny collected hit number 2,500, an infield single. Congrats ManRam, congrats.
• Casey Blake (Double, 2 Singles, BB) reached base 4 times, Russell Martin (2 Singles, BB) reached base 3 times, while Kemp (HR, Single), Rafael Furcal (Double, Single), and Blake DeWitt (2 BB) each reached base twice.
• Furcal picked up hit number 1,500.
  
• DeWitt has reached base twice in each of his 4 starts this season.
• Andre Ethier celebrated his 28th birthday with a 2-run pinch-hit single. He was out of the starting lineup for the third consecutive game with his ankle injury.
  

Notes From Monday's Game, 4/5/2010

Opening Day, the most glorious of glorious days.

Pittsburgh 11, Dodgers 5

Box Score.

• Vicente Padilla was his usual mediocre, at best, bad self, going 4.1 putrid innings (7 ER, 6 Hits, 2 K, 3 BB [1 IBB], 2 HR Allowed, 2 HBP, 93 pitches - 55 for strikes). Again, this is not a surprise. Padilla's never been great, and never even been that good. He's much more likely to pitch like this than to pitch like he did for a few starts at the end of last season.
• Bullpen: 3.2 IP, 4 ER, 4 Hits, 1 K, 1 BB, 1 WP, 1 HR Allowed. 5 Relievers.
  
• Ramon Ortiz appeared in his first game since 2007. He went 2/3rds of an inning, allowing 2 Hits and giving up 1 ER. He also allowed 3 inherited runners to score.
  
• Garrett Jones's 1st inning mammoth HR is still traveling. Not only has it left Pittsburgh, but it's also left the state of Pennsylvania, heading towards points unknown. It wishes Vicente well. Jones also had a second HR and a couple of nice catches out in right field.
• Matt Kemp drove in the first runs of the season for the Dodgers with a 2-run single in the 1st inning.
  
• Russell Martin (Double, BB, HBP) reached base 3 times, while Kemp (Single, Double), Manny (Single, Double), Blake DeWitt (2 Singles), Rafael Furcal (Single, BB), and Casey Blake (2 Singles) each reached base twice.
  
• Martin had himself an interesting first game after missing much of Spring Training due to injury. He committed an error and a base running mistake, taking himself out of scoring position, but also lined a nice opposite-field double in the 5th inning.
• Carlos Monasterios made his Major League and Dodger debut, throwing a scoreless 6th inning (O Hits, O K, O BB, 8 pitches- 6 for strikes). Congrats on the nice debut.
• Russ Ortiz appeared in a Dodgers uniform and pitched. I took a picture with my cell phone camera, and the phone then proceeded to die.
• The offense drew just 2 walks while striking out 5 times.
• Blake also made an error on a routine grounder.
  
• Steve Lyons, just shut up already. Stop talking about wins and losses, about stats, and generally, about anything and everything.
  
• Nice 3rd inning interview with Clayton Kershaw, very interesting.
  

Spring Training Games Come To A Television Near You

14 of them in fact, more than ever.

Vin Scully gets the call for 3, and there's even a Steve Lyons sighting. Oh boy, tell me more about statistics Steve!

I also expect Lyons to give us his rendition of pants on the ground.

The song of course.

Of course.

Steve Lyons Caught With His Pants Down

And his head up his ass. And this isn't even the first time it's happened.

On tonight's broadcast, Lyons once again made the claim that HRs are "rally killers", and that he would prefer a hitter hit a double instead of a HR, unless the HR ties the game or puts your team ahead. Now yes, it would be great if every HR pulled your team even or put them ahead, but hitters don't have a ton of say in what the score of the game is. They could play stellar defense and be potent offensively, yet still find their team down by a wide margin. And guess what helps your team pull closer to the other team: HRs!

Using tonight's game as an example, the score was 4-0 and the Dodgers had 2 men on. Lyons made the point of saying how a double would be more beneficial, and listed off a bunch of reasons why. Clearly math was never his strong suit, as a double, assuming both runs score, only makes it a 4-2 game. There is no guarantee the man now on 2nd comes in to score, and we easily could be looking at a 4-2 game when the inning ends, especially with the Dodger's recent offensive struggles. What would be even better than a 4-2 score, you ask? How about a 4-3 game, which occurs if the batter hits a HR instead of a double. That HR guarantees you of being closer to the other team when the inning ends. Plus, why would you be against guaranteed runs, when the outcome of the game is determined by who scores the most runs?

Why? I'll tell you why, because that's baseball to the old-school, gritty, against statistics, pants-dropping, racially-insensitive* Steve Lyons: playing the game illogically because you can't comprehend the correct way to play.

But, if we're being honest, guys like Babe Ruth (good thing he pitched regularly/semi-regularly for 6 years, saved him from absolutely demolishing about 100 rallies) and Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds were really assholes, pure, selfish assholes, with all those rallies they killed. Jerks.

Steve Lyons, the epitome of not killing rallies! 19 career HRs, but 100 doubles. That's how you keep rallies alive and get that oh so beautiful career OPS+ of 77. 77! What an offensive dynamo. And I'll go out on a limb and surmise he also believes walks clog the bases.




* I actually thought his Sal Fasano comment was very funny.*