Andre Ethier
Andre Ethier is my current, favorite, non-Yankee, active player, that I really know little about…
I’ve never seen a game in which he has played.
I’ve never heard him speak.
I don’t recall ever reading a feature on him – sans maybe a blurb mention in Baseball America or something.
The only time I’ve seen him, for the most part, is on highlight clips on ESPN, MLBN, etc.
I know that he was drafted by the A’s and then traded to the Dodgers – for for Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez – when he was still a minor league player. And, that’s pretty much it.
But, I do know that I like the guy as a player. He reminds me of Paul O’Neill, from what I can see…and the Dodgers getting him for Milton Bradley is sorta/kinda like the Yankees getting O’Neill for Roberto Kelly.
Maybe it’s just me? I’ve always have a soft spot for players like Terry Puhl, Gary Thomasson, Johnny Grubb, Paul O’Neill…and Andre Ethier.
How about you? Who is your current, favorite, non-Yankee, active player, that you really know little about?
I like Ethier but I LOVE his teammate Matt Kemp. As a fantasy baseball player, I made sure to have him on my team in 2007, 2008 and this year. I have blind faith in his abilities.
I dunno much about his attitude/temperament and I’ve never heard him speak. I just know that he’s an outstanding athlete, plays a great CF, hits for average, hits for power, and steals bases. He’s the nearly-perfect player.
The best thing about him? He does all of these things while playing for the biggest idiot manager I’ve ever seen. Torre batted him in the bottom third of the lineup for most of the year. What other manager would bat his best player 7th or 8th for half the year? And this is AFTER Torre felt that Kemp wasn’t even good enough to start last year and platooned him with Juan Pierre and Andruw Jones. Way to go, Torre.
Ethier is actually the guy for me too. My dad has been a lifetime Dodger and I saw Andre hit two bombs in Atlanta last month. Great player.
It’s funny…my favorite non-Yankee has been Nick Swisher since 2006. Now I don’t really have a favorite player outside the Yankee uniform.
@ MJ:
Right there with you MJ. Love me some Matt Kemp. I remember some recent rumors involving Cano for Kemp trades, and while I was sad over the thought of losing Cano, I was VERY excited about the prospect of getting Kemp to the Yankees. Somehow I don’t think LA will be trading him anytime soon.
@ bfriley76:
How can you NOT love Matt Kemp?! He does it all.
I remember seeing the same rumors and feeling the same was as you: sad to lose Cano but thrilled to get a CF of Kemp’s caliber.
Gotta admit, I’m a huge Prince Fielder fan. I wanted them to trade for him before we got Tex. Everything I read about him screams team leader. Not to mention, that home run celebration was sick.
Corey wrote:
I figured he was on the block because they extended Ryan Braun but not Prince. He’s been incredible this year and the Brewers probably missed their chance to lock him up for below-market money.
Corey wrote:
It sure was. Never seen something as funny or original in baseball before.
One random question on Fielder though: he claims he’s a vegan. I don’t understand how he can be a vegan and look like he hasn’t lost a single ounce of weight? I’ve got no issue with Fielder being a porker but it’s just weird to me that getting on a vegan diet wouldn’t have resulted in even the slightest amount of weight loss.
Didn’t Matt Kemp make a druken ass out of himself at ESPYs this year?
Yes he did, lol.
@ MJ: Re: Prince. It’s the neck tattoo. Always makes someone look heavier….j/k
Maybe it’s beer? Can Vegan’s drink beer?
Steve Lombardi wrote:
does anyone have a clip?
MJ wrote:
lol ya I’ve wondered the same thing…I guess even if your eating zucchini, if it’s fried zucchini it’ll still make ya fat huh?
Steve Lombardi wrote:
yes
But on the topic of beer..beer will give you a gut, sure. But there’s no amount of beer that he could drink that would make him that big, not possible.
Corey wrote:
Exactly right…I know from experience LOL
Drinking beer leads you to cheeseburgers and pizza but if you’re a vegan, no amount of beer should ever bloat you up like Prince. There’s something he’s not telling us and I think it’s that he secretly hasn’t given up Milwaukee’s famous bratwursts…
Steve Lombardi wrote:
Really? I’m surprised because I didn’t hear anything about that and usually in this day and age, anyone does anything and you hear about it a million times.
Corey wrote:
I’d be willing to take that challenge if Was Watching would sponsor me.
As much as a Yankee killer as he is, I really respect the gunslinger Doc Halladay. Yeah, he’s well knopwn BUT doesn’t get the hype from BESPN AKA Boston ESPN that others! He goes about his business in a very admirable way and has an intense work ethic. Umm, in the NL, i really think Jason werth is a really undervalued appreciated player. He was never that great before he got to Philly BUT man has he become a spark plug on that team.
People busting on that small house Fielder, yeah, Vegans drink beer, they also can eat potatoes, pasta and corn,too! You can fat on that stuff very easily, just ask the late Dr Atkins….. Remember when Robert DeNiro gained 70 pounds for Raging Bull? He gained it by eating copiuos amounts of pasta! Beer contains maltose which is one of the worst sugars to metabolize by the body,hence the beer gut/fat syndrome for those who drink beer. I grew up with a lot of Germans, trust me when you eat pretzels, Apple Strudel, Pumpernickel, Black Forest Cake, Knodel(German gnocchi), all the time washed down with beer you don’t need Wursts to get fat!
@ butchie22:
butch, I can tell you for a fact he’s doing something else. Much of my diet is beer, potatos, and pasta. And I’m no slouch. Plus I eat a ton of red meat, which is many times worse. Now that being said, I’d have to make it my priority to get to Fielder’s size. Even then, it’d be difficult.
Corey wrote:
Doesn’t part of it have to be genetics too? I mean, it’s not like his dad was Willie McGee…he was Cecil Fielder.
bfriley76 wrote:
I dunno how much I buy that excuse too be honest with you…
I watched a few Dodger games last year when they were surging and Ethier became an immediate favorite, so I looked him up and found out that at that time he had a blog going, about — wait for it — restaurants and food! Not sports, but reviews of places to eat around LA and places they played in… somehow the fact that he blogged restaurant reviews gave me a favorable feeling about him as a person, besides being a great player to watch.
Ya know what’s funny? For all the baseball I watch, I’ve barely heard of the guy. I figured he was probably an above average major leaguer, but perhaps only slightly. So I’m on baseball reference casually, and I decided to check him out. Pretty impressive. I gotta say, once the season started and I devoted my time to trying to watch every single pitch of yankees baseball, I stopped watching the high light shows and stopped paying attention to the NL mostly as I didn’t want to burn myself out on baseball…attempting to put that time towards other things. Lesson learned. lol.
MJ wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/yet3t6e
coming a little late to this topic, but my favorite non-yankees have to be Nick Markakis followed by Carlos Quentin. I love Markakis’ arm, defense, patience, steady doubles power and just his demeanor. He always seems to hit well against us too.
As for Quentin, I had him on my fantasy team last year when he would’ve won the MVP if not for that dumb injury. One reason I like him so much is cause Arizona basically wrote him off for Eric Byrnes and boy did he prove them wrong. Its too bad this season hasn’t been that great/
Dont really follow the NL enough to have anybody pop out, but Hunter Pence is pretty good too.