Ethier in 2012

The story on MLB Trade Rumors came via Buster Olney, don’t have access to the stuff behind the wall so couldn’t read the story.

Although injured this year Ethier still hit 30 doubles and has been averaging over 20 HR’s for the past four years until this year. He is not Matt Kemp, but keeping him for a few years with Kemp as Sands develops gives the lineup some serious thump and OBP…People criticized Ethier for his comments at the beginning of the year regarding his status going forward, but in many ways he was right-will know more after October 12, but if we lose Ethier he will not be replaced as easy as many think.

Ethier is a good player defensively we can consider him average. He probably might be above average in LF. Lets be realistic her he has had one season where eclipsed 25 hr and you can blame it on injury and youth but his strikeout rate has continued to grow. His numbers against Lefties along with power numbers since 2008 have made me question if he could ever become at least a star forget a superstar. I hope he does get traded because like Martin I dont believe he is worth the money he wants. And at this point I feel he would get better value through prospects than it would if he were to sign a big contract

Ethier wants to be what he terms a “legacy player”, spending his whole career with the Dodgers. I don’t believe this is anything other than posturing by his agent to get a multi-year deal. Additional food for thought is that I’ve heard Ethier would like to get his 10 and be done.

With Andre’s attitude, and James Loney’s sudden resurgence, I think it’s finally time to say goodbye to Mr. Clutch. Looking at this past year Dre’s and Loney’s number’s have been fairly even, but James will be looking for somewhere like 6.5-7M while Dre will be paid nearly double that with 13-15M through arbitration with no garuntee that he will be back in 2009 form. Also with Dre’s recent decline in power, his legs will be suspect coming back from surgery, and his clubhouse demeanour leaves much to be desired. Loney on the other had has two good knee, is two years younger, and has shown a good and humble work ethic needed for the dodgers to turn things around in the next year. At this point I say you trade Either for a third or second baseman (either a near MLB prospect, or rookie, Brent Morel looks interesting, and the Sox would certainly be looking for a good contact hitting outfielder), move Loney to the outfield, and used the money saved to go after a big name firstbaseman. If things don’t workout, you can trade loney, and the dodger’s have a good amount of prospect talent to plug up left field between Scott van Slyke Afredo Silvero, and Angelo Songco

But not this offseason. Wait till the deadline.