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Tag: Andre Ethier (Page 6 of 12)
Jon SooHoo was all over the Yasiel Puig catch Friday. Check out his photos at LA Photog Blog.
Dodgers at Phillies, 4:05 p.m.
Kershaw CLXXXVII: Kershawue Detective
Dee Gordon, 2B
Chone Figgins, 3B
Yasiel Puig, RF
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Andre Ethier, CF
Carl Crawford, LF
A.J. Ellis, C
Erisbel Arruebarrena, SS
Clayton Kershaw, P
Kershaw CLXXXVII: Kershawue Detective
Dee Gordon, 2B
Chone Figgins, 3B
Yasiel Puig, RF
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Andre Ethier, CF
Carl Crawford, LF
A.J. Ellis, C
Erisbel Arruebarrena, SS
Clayton Kershaw, P
By Jon Weisman
Erisbel Arruebarrena gets his first Major League start tonight, as Hanley Ramirez takes a day off.
Andre Ethier is starting in center field, and there are hints that we might see more of him out there, as concern over Matt Kemp’s defensive performance has become more explicit. From Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“We continue to look at it and give Matt the opportunity to keep working and get better,” Mattingly said. “He doesn’t look the same. The burst, the outrun-the-ball thing. We’ve talked to Matt and don’t hear anything medically that he’s not feeling good. We just want to see the same burst. We don’t know if it’s a matter of him being out a few years. He’s trying, been working and we’ll continue to go from there.”
Four extra-base hits cleared Kemp’s head, contributing to all four Mets runs, one of them scoring because Kemp dropped a ball he picked up off the warning track.
“I just need to play better defense,” said Kemp. “Burst or anything, I’m not getting as good a jump as I need to. I cost us one run bobbling the ball, and it’s nobody’s fault but mine. No excuses. I’ve made a couple bad plays in the outfield. It happens.”
Either’s on-base percentage fell to .247 on April 24. Since then, in 62 plate appearances, he has a .419 on-base percentage and .455 slugging, with no home runs but six doubles and six walks. He has started 12 of the Dodgers’ 23 games in that stretch.
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Dodgers at Marlins, 4:10 p.m.
Dee Gordon, 2B
Yasiel Puig, RF
Hanley Ramirez, SS
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Matt Kemp, CF
Andre Ethier, LF
Juan Uribe, 3B
Miguel Olivo, C
Paul Maholm, P
Dee Gordon, 2B
Yasiel Puig, RF
Hanley Ramirez, SS
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Matt Kemp, CF
Andre Ethier, LF
Juan Uribe, 3B
Miguel Olivo, C
Paul Maholm, P
By Jon Weisman
Andre Ethier has delivered a bit more offense of late, going 7 for 15 with two doubles and three walks in his past five games.
The next step for Ethier would be to show some power. He has one homer (and no other extra-base hits) in his past 60 at-bats, April 19 against Arizona.
Ethier gets the start in left field today, with Matt Kemp in center. There’s no mystery of who is in right field: Yasiel Puig is starting his 13th consecutive game there.
Carl Crawford begins the game on the bench for the 13th time in 31 games this year. Crawford, who had a .905 OPS in April a year ago, had a .501 OPS when the calendar changed to May this year and is now down to .471 with a 1-for-9 start to the month.
Perhaps most strange: Crawford is 3 for 29 (with two walks and a sacrifice fly) since his last strikeout. His batting average on balls in play in that time is .100.
By Jon Weisman
Andre Ethier has faced Matt Cain more than any other pitcher during his nine-year big-league career and has gone 30 for 68 with four doubles, a triple, a homer, five walks and a 1.040 OPS against the righthander. Ethier has a .385 on-base percentage and .419 slugging in 26 plate appearances for the Dodgers in 2014.
Giants at Dodgers, 5:05 p.m.
Dee Gordon, 2B
Carl Crawford, LF
Hanley Ramirez, SS
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Andre Ethier, RF
Matt Kemp, CF
Juan Uribe, 3B
Drew Butera, C
Zack Greinke, P
Dee Gordon, 2B
Carl Crawford, LF
Hanley Ramirez, SS
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
Andre Ethier, RF
Matt Kemp, CF
Juan Uribe, 3B
Drew Butera, C
Zack Greinke, P
Zack Greinke has made 13 consecutive starts of at least five innings without allowing more than two runs. According to the Dodger press notes, only three pitchers since 1914 have longer streaks, led by Mat Latos with 15 in 2010.
Yasiel Puig’s thumb X-rays were negative, but he is having an MRI exam today. Ken Gurnick has more at MLB.com.
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By Jon Weisman
Until the end, the Dodgers breezed in their second game of 2014, finally dispatching Arizona in a 7-5 victory, one in which they had 23 baserunners. Ken Gurnick recaps the particulars for MLB.com.
As the Dodgers completed their two-game sweep and prepared for a happy flight home, you could find that already, several players were already tasting both the ups and downs of the baseball season.
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Reds vs. Dodgers, 1:05 p.m.
Dee Gordon, 2B
Chone Figgins, CF
Hanley Ramirez, SS
Juan Uribe, 3B
Andre Ethier, LF
Scott Van Slyke, RF
Justin Turner, 1B
Tim Federowicz, C
Paul Maholm, LHP
Dee Gordon, 2B
Chone Figgins, CF
Hanley Ramirez, SS
Juan Uribe, 3B
Andre Ethier, LF
Scott Van Slyke, RF
Justin Turner, 1B
Tim Federowicz, C
Paul Maholm, LHP
By Jon Weisman
Above, the sweet swing of Andre Ethier from Wednesday’s game. Ethier has been enjoying his exhibition at-bats this year, going 10 for 28 with a .500 slugging percentage.
Jon SooHoo has photos from Wednesday, including Matt Kemp, intrasquad-style.
- Seth Rosin, he of the eight innings and 0.00 ERA this spring, is scheduled to follow Paul Maholm on the mound today.
- Zack Greinke had “no added discomfort” in his right calf today, reports Dylan Hernandez of the Times.
- Chad Billingsley news from Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles: “After 11 months of laborious rehab and 16 bullpen sessions, he is about to face hitters again. That step will come late next week against Dodgers’ minor-leaguers, Billingsley said, and it could be followed up fairly quickly by pitching in real games.”
- Sidelight: Eno Sarris writes at the Hardball Times about being working the baseball clubhouse as a reporter with an advanced-stats perspective.
By Jon Weisman
Why yes, I have noticed that a certain Even Steven approach to the Dodger exhibition season. Cyndi Lauper is putting out her new single, “Tie After Tie,” as we speak.
Today’s 8-8 deadlock with Oakland widened the Dodgers’ Cactus League record to 4-6-4 and gave them ties in nearly 30 percent of their contests. In their past 10 games, the Dodgers are 2-4-4. Their past six games have been as easy as 1-2-3.
Last year, Los Angeles played 15 extra-inning games out of 162 in the regular season.
The Dodgers allowed a game-tying five runs in the eighth inning today, but it could have been worse. Brian Wilson, still mixing the occasional knuckleball, had a visit to the mound from an assistant trainer in the eighth inning (no, I’m not making a connection there), but the team reported no trouble to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com.
Wilson was charged with two runs, while Carlos Frias, who retired none of his four batters, was charged with three.
Los Angeles looked great at the outset, with Andre Ethier lovingly smashing a three-run home run in the first inning, Juan Uribe following with a solo shot, and Hyun-Jin Ryu scattering a run and four baserunners over five innings, striking out four.
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Miguel Olivo added a three-run double (not to mention a stolen base) in helping boost the Dodgers’ lead to 8-3. In addition, J.P. Howell and Dee Gordon each turned in fine defensive plays.
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Following the game today, the Dodgers optioned pitcher Matt Magill and reassigned Frias, J.C. Boscan, Brendan Harris and Clint Robinson to minor-league camp. Harris is the second of the pre-Spring Training infield candidates to miss the cut, following Justin Sellers, who was sent to Cleveland.
Magill has had a nice exhibition season, with six strikeouts against five baserunners in 5 2/3 innings.
And, a postscript: I know the story here is Zack Greinke and Matt Kemp progressing in their rehab, but what really tantalized me was the thought of seeing Kemp bat against Julio Urias. The 17-year-old gave up a sacrifice fly to Kemp in the intrasquad game, but also struck him out.
In short, call it Even Steven.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prvm5ZFPIrE&w=550&h=413]
By Jon Weisman
Take heed: With this year’s trip to Australia, the Dodgers’ process for determining the regular season active roster is even more unusual than you might imagine, according to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com.
First, there’s this rather stunning comparison.
“The Dodgers will have only 19 days of Spring Training games to make nearly all of their decisions,” Gurnick writes. “Last spring, they played 36 games before Opening Day.”
But further confusing matters is that the Dodgers’ don’t actually have to settle where everyone beyond the 25-man roster has to go before Sydney.
… Even though the 25-man roster officially doesn’t need to be submitted until March 21 at 1 p.m. PT, the Dodgers and D-backs will break camp on March 16 and take a maximum of 30 players to Australia from which to draw their 25-man Opening Day rosters.
Players on the disabled list can be back-dated to March 19, but those decisions might be made before the flight west, if not announced.
From the 30 players who can make the flight across the Pacific Ocean, three will be designated as “exempt” before Opening Day and would otherwise be active, be they starting pitchers left behind, players out of options (like Javy Guerra or Drew Butera) or Rule 5 selections (like Seth Rosin). Corresponding moves would need to be made to make room for their activation.
The other two players on the trip will be “extras” that can be players on the 40-man roster with options, or Minor Leaguers.
From these five additional players, clubs must be covered by position for an injury, whether it occurs as a result of the exhibition game against Team Australia, or the regular-season opener, because it will be impossible to call up a player and transport him to Australia in time for the next game. So, the five spots are likely to include at least one catcher, one middle infielder, one outfielder and one reliever. …
Read more about it here. Elsewhere around the Dodgers …
- Andre Ethier echoed Matt Kemp’s sentiments about no potential starting outfielder seeking out a spot on the bench. Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles adds context.
… Ethier moved from right to center when Kemp got hurt last year, but before that he was entrenched in right field the previous four seasons. He said he’s willing to give the utility role a go if it helps the team.
“I’ve done a lot personally and done a lot with this team and I think we’re still just missing one thing, [a World Series], so if it’s something that leads to that, let’s figure out a way to get it done,” Ethier said. …
- Saxon quotes Don Mattingly on Yasiel Puig weighing in at about 25 pounds more than last year: “We don’t feel it’s going to be a problem, but we’re paying attention to it, put it that way,” Mattingly said.
- There’s no urgency for Paul Maholm to be ready to pitch regular-season games before April, and given that he’s behind the other starters, as Gurnick notes, he could use the extra time.
- Miguel Rojas’ wife flew out of strife-heavy Venezuela this morning, reports J.P. Hoornstra of the Daily News.
- Today’s guest star in Ernest Reyes’ series on the 1961 Union Oil Dodger Family Booklet series at Blue Heaven: Willie Davis.
By Jon Weisman
The prognosis looks good for Sandy Koufax, who was hit in the left side of the forehead by an Andre Ethier drive during batting practice today at Camelback Ranch, but it sure had to come as a huge shock.
“Koufax had a cut but didn’t leave his feet,” reported Ken Gurnick at MLB.com. “He told pitching coach Rick Honeycutt he was OK, but a little dizzy. Koufax was taken by cart to the Minor League clubhouse to be examined, before returning to the Major League clubhouse 15 minutes later.
Sandy Koufax just got hit by a line drive during BP. Getting checked out by trainers. Was laughing so seems to be ok
— Eric Stephen (@truebluela) February 21, 2014
With trainer Stan Conte at the wheel, Sandy Koufax was driven off the base, presumably to be examined.
— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) February 21, 2014
Just saw Koufax drive by in trainers cart to main clubhouse he smiled and waved to crowd as they applauded
— David Vassegh (@THEREAL_DV) February 21, 2014
Sandy Koufax just walked into the clubhouse and told us he’s fine.
— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) February 21, 2014
Andre Ethier, whose foul ball hit Sandy Koufax: “Your heart kind of leaps out of your body right there for a second.”
— Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) February 21, 2014
Update: More from Gurnick:
By Jon Weisman
Thanks to all the fans who came out today for FanFest.
- Ned Colletti, Vin Scully and Don Mattingly are featured in Ken Gurnick’s FanFest roundup for MLB.com. Here’s perhaps the most memorable quote from Colletti, who as Gurnick writes, “credited the club’s brawl with the Arizona Diamondbacks as a key to the team’s midseason turnaround after beanings of Yasiel Puig and Zack Greinke.”
“Our guys took the field and went after them,” Colletti said. “As much as I don’t condone that, it kind of galvanized our club and got us together and brought friendship in the room and we got closer. In a bizarre way, it was a defining moment for the building of inside the room.”
- Even as FanFest was taking place, there was also the second annual Community Day at the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton. Yasiel Puig was among those visiting, writes Earl Bloom for MLB.com.
- Hyun-Jin Ryu getting into shape is the subject of two short pieces (here and here) by the Daily News’ J.P. Hoornstra, who also passes along this update about Dodger Stadium wi-fi and about the Union Rescue Mission learning center being named for Andre and Maggie Ethier. Nicely done, Ethiers.
- An update from Kershaw’s Challenge: “After discussing our plans to renovate and add on to Destiny Community School in Lusaka, Zambia, we have solidified our plans and will begin construction soon.”
- The last batch of Dodger Pitching in the Community Caravan photos, from Friday’s fifth day, can be found at the Dodger Photog Blog, thanks to Juan Ocampo.
- Ex-Dodger pitcher Chris Capuano is a potential free agent bargain for some team, writes Jeff Sullivan at Fangraphs.
- Sixteen-year NBA vet Tracy McGrady is looking to make a switch to pitching, at least on some level. D.J. Short at Hardball Talk rounds up the basic info.
- More than half of the teams in the majors are planning to platoon or divide up playing time with at least one position, writes Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com.
By Jon Weisman
I worry. A lot. Which makes me a pretty good barometer for not worrying. If it doesn’t bother me, it probably shouldn’t bother you.
This fear that the Dodgers have one too many starting outfielders, I’ve pretty much dismissed. Not just that there are worse problems to have, but that this isn’t even a problem.
Whether it’s the timing of Matt Kemp’s return to regular action, fear that Yasiel Puig will run into one wall too many or general concern over the vulnerability of Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier, the chances that the Dodgers will have four healthy outfielders for the entire year seem about as likely as the 2013-14 Lakers will string together four wins in a row the entire season. (Yeah, I went there.)
Worrying about a surplus is so Spring 2013. There was the Dodgers’ so-called overload of starting pitchers, and we know how that turned out.
But since no one’s rooting for bad health or bad karma, and it is possible that Kemp and Co. hit April at full strength — even if Kemp were to sit out the Dodgers’ Australia games — how uncomfortable could it be?
Let’s start by defining some kind of ideal. In 2011, the year of his near-Most Valuable Player campaign, Kemp played 1,380 innings in the outfield and had 689 plate appearances. Let’s call those the benchmarks of happiness – or to make them easier to remember, the Benchmarks of Happiness.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers can expect to have no more than 4,400 innings to pass around the outfield this year (162 games x three outfielders x nine innings = 4,374). That number’s on the high side, even allowing for extra innings, if you factor in that some games will require only eight outfield innings unless the Dodgers go undefeated on the road. Plus, there will be 10 games in American League parks in which a healthy starting outfielder might be the designated hitter.
That means that if all four outfielders were completely healthy and Don Mattingly divided their time equally, they could each get 1,100 innings, or 80 percent of the Benchmark of Happiness. Not bad, especially considering how good their bodies would feel under this scenario.
Of course, this isn’t the scenario that worried people. That was the scenario where there were four healthy outfielders but one got the short straw, the straw that, to paraphrase Reggie Jackson, doesn’t stir the drink, unless that drink is in a shot glass.
If three teammates each took 1,300 innings in the outfield and left you with only 500, that’s a pretty big difference, especially if you consider yourself All-Star caliber, as Kemp, Ethier and Crawford have been and Puig is poised to be.
Lazy as I can be, I wouldn’t want to be the 500-inning guy, not if I felt I could do more.
Nevertheless, to that, I say the following:
- You probably don’t become the 500-inning guy unless you’re having a rough season at the plate. It’s simply not in Mattingly’s nature to marginalize a productive player.
- If three outfielders are so good that they render the fourth irrelevant, well, at least you’ve got three great outfielders.
- Even coming off the bench, you can be a difference-maker.
- None of the four outfielders has a contract on the line this season – or for quite some time. Crawford’s deal runs through 2017, Either’s through 2017 with a club option for 2018, Puig’s through 2018 and Kemp’s through 2019. Puig reportedly has a clause in his contract that allows him to opt into arbitration after three years of service time, but that’s not an immediate worry. Each is already earning more money than they could have dreamed of. This is a good time to be selfless.
- It’s one thing to not be happy that you’re not playing every day, but to actually cause the team trouble because you’re not playing every day, knowing that a World Series is at stake and knowing that at any moment, you could be called upon to play more … I just can’t even finish the thought. It’s too extreme. It’s also why you have a Don Mattingly as your manager – to deal with that.
The bottom line is this: Would it be worth it for the Dodgers to weaken their outfield depth, in the face of potential injuries, just to ward off this potential of pouting so powerful that it would derail the team? I don’t see it.
When Spring Training arrives next month, we’ll no doubt see a round of stories addressing the four-outfielder dilemma, and the Dodgers’ position, I suspect, will be as it’s been this offseason – that there is no dilemma. And they’ll be right. True, one of these guys will be on the bench for the first pitch of the season. What happens next is anyone’s guess, which is why it’s not worth worrying about.
Andre Ethier will be a guest on the upcoming third season (which begins February 17) of Disney XD’s “Lab Rats,” reports Michael Schneider of TV Guide. So sometime while Ethier is gearing up for the 2014 season, you’ll also see him gearing up with these bionic teens.
By Jon Weisman
In addition to discussing Don Mattingly and Yasiel Puig, Ned Colletti touched upon several other aspects of the Dodgers in his conversation with reporters today.
- Colletti’s priorities now for 2014 are to fine-tune the club, including another infielder off the bench that would give the club more versatility, and making sure the team is healthy. “I talk to our medical people every other day to see where we are at,” he said.
- Miguel Rojas will get “a good look” during Spring Training for playing time at second base, thanks to his defensive wizardry. Rojas had a .303 on-base percentage and .307 slugging with Double-A Chattanooga last year, but Colletti calls him an “excellent defensive player.”
- Alexander Guerrero is still leading the pack of contenders at second base, but Colletti said “we still have questions.” The Dodgers are taking a conservative approach with Guerrero and the hamstring issues he dealt with this winter.
- Caution is also the byword with Matt Kemp, but the outfielder has had his walking boot off for the better part of four weeks now and is beginning to hit.
- Josh Beckett should be ready to go for Spring Training, but Scott Elbert and Chad Billingsley remain targeted for midseason. Elbert could come sooner than Billingsley, thanks to being a reliever.
- Andre Ethier and Hanley Ramirez have generated nothing but positive medical reports. No lingering issues.
- Colletti is eager to see what Rule 5 draft-day acquisition Seth Rosin can bring. “Again, some of what we do is to continue to build the depth you need for a season.”
- Preliminary conversations with the agent of Japanese pitching star Masahiro Tanaka have taken place. Colletti described it as a “feeling-out process.”
- Infielder-turned-reliever Pedro Baez, essentially following the path of Kenley Jansen, “still has some things he’s got to learn, but he’s a very interesting talent.”
By Jon Weisman
Though the Dodgers might not know exactly which three of their outfielders will start Opening Day, injuries aside, they should return seven of their eight position players from the starting lineup that ended last season. Only at second base, where Mark Ellis will be supplanted (the leading candidate, Cuban newcomer Alexander Guerrero) should we expect turnover.
That level of stability initially struck me as somewhat rare over the past decade, and in some ways, it is. Though at this time last year, the Dodgers had only one significant lineup change (replacing Shane Victorino in left), that only came after the tumultuous changes in the second half of 2012. There’s a parallel with what happened in the second half of 2008, when the Dodgers made the dramatic acquisitions of Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake, then held things relatively steady into 2010.
Certainly, you can be excused for thinking that every couple of years, there is a pretty significant reboot of the Dodger starting lineup. The chart above will take you down Lineup Memory Lane, a trip that became kind of foggy for me fairly quickly. (Who was the regular left fielder as 2010 was ending? You tell me.)
Don’t blame Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp, however. If health and circumstances allow them to play alongside each other this season, they’ll become the first Dodger teammates to each tally 1,000 games together since the Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey infield. (Pedro Guerrero, Steve Sax and Mike Scioscia almost did so, but weren’t quite in sync.)
James Loney nearly made it a trio with Ethier and Kemp, before being traded away in 2012, but even so, first base has been fairly stable for the Dodgers. The Dodgers have relied upon four principal starting first basemen in the past 10 years (Hee Seop Choi, Nomar Garciaparra, Loney and Adrian Gonzalez) and the same number of catchers (Dioner Navarro, Russell Martin, Rod Barajas and A.J. Ellis). Rafael Furcal’s presence, healthy or not, also helped limit the number of shortstops the Dodgers have needed since 2005.
On the other hand, left field has been a spin of the wheel more often than not. If Carl Crawford remains the regular in left this season, he’ll be the first in the past decade to hold that position down for two consecutive full seasons, with Manny Ramirez, among others, just falling short).
Third base and second base (particularly since Jeff Kent’s retirement) have also been places of change, which is what makes the Guerrero signing so intriguing. If you were to guess which Dodgers are most likely to become the next 1,000-game teammates, are there any more likely choices today than Yasiel Puig and Guerrero? At least, they have better odds than Oscar Robles and Willy Aybar had.
Sure, you remember Matt Holliday from Game 2 of the 2009 National League Division Series, but do you remember this?
In his regular-season career, Ethier is 10 for 33 with three walks and three homers against the Cardinals ace, for a 1.028 OPS. It is hoped Ethier will be in the starting lineup for the Dodgers in the 2013 National League Championship Series — if he can play at all, you can count on him appearing in Monday’s Game 3 against Wainwright.
More highlights from Game 2 of the 2009 NLDS.
