Andre Ethier Signs Extension for Money

          

          Matt Kemp usually fills up the headlines when it comes to Los Angeles Dodgers outfielders, mainly because he’s good at baseball. He also dated Rihanna and is currently dating Eva Longoria, which is probably makes him cooler than me. But there’s another Dodger outfielder that can hold his own offensively, and his name is Andre Ethier. He has a career wOBA of .361. He’s a good hitter, and the Dodgers rewarded him with a 5 year 8 million dollar contract. This is a superb move by the Dodgers, because 8 million dollars in baseball money is…. Oops there was a spot on my computer, its actually an 85 million dollar contract…. Welp. This probably was a move to help the thriving Andre Ethier bobblehead community.

            Just when you thought Ned Colleti couldn’t get any funnier, mainly because of his fabulous mustache (Also I highly recommend you google search 'Ned Colletti' and look at the second image) , he just keeps delivering. In case you're new to Ned, he's a frequent visitor to 'Crazy Moves' town, and I'm not talking about his dancing ability, which is probably lacking also. Incidentally, he usually has coffee in Crazy Moves town with Brian Sabean. In effort to justify some of his moves, sometimes I think his mustache has a mind of its own, which uses mind control tactics to toy with Ned brain and makes him buy it nice conditioner. Then it makes him sign Juan Pierre to a 5 year 44 million dollar contract and it chuckles with some of Ned's chin hair.
          

            Andre Ethier is a good hitter, not a great one. He can’t hit lefties, posting a .215/.279/.329 line against left handed pitchers in the last 3 years. And while he can hit righties well, his defense is a liability as he posted a negative UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating, which measures total range) in 3 of the past 4 years. His WAR hasn’t been above 2.9 since 2008, which puts him right in the class of Josh Willingham and David DeJesus, 2 guys that don’t even know 85 million dollars exist in the world. That's all fine and good, explains Ned, except Andre Ethier is a superhero.

             That probably makes his UZR a lot better.

 He’ll be making 17 million dollars per year, which is more than Andrew McCutchen and Jose Bautista will make after signing their extensions for around the same amount of years. Both of those players add exponentially more value than Ethier, especially considering Ethier will be 35 by the end of the contract. Assuming Ethier is not Benjamin Button, which might be what confused Ned Colletti, he will have declined tremendously by that time. He’s already in his declining years, after peaking in 2008 with a 3.5 WAR. Considering Ethier has never provided tremendous value, he certainly won’t in the years during the contract, unless he meets Alexis Bledel who leads him to the fountain of youth, which is also probably what Ned is predicting. 

As I pray the aforementioned scenario happens to me instead of Ethier, mainly because it means Alexis Bledel is aware of my existence, it should be noted that the contract is not a complete disaster. Ethier is still a good hitter that should produce at relatively the same skill level for the next 1 or 2 years. The Dodgers and their new ownership are trying to win right now, and the upcoming free agency pool in 2013 is very shallow. Ethier will be a good hitter in the short term and should help the Dodgers in the short term.

           However, if the Dodgers don't win a World Series in the next 2 years, than the contract will hand tie Dodger ownership because thats 17 million dollars for a player that is declining towards an league average regular. Though the Dodgers have a chance to contend in the next few years, they're risking an even greater chance to contend in the years 2015-2017, because Ethier's contract will hold them down. It would have been much more advantageous for the Franchise to trade Ethier to an unsuspecting GM, and acquire prospects or other higher upside players. The Dodgers risk contending the years after 2014 or 2015, for the chance to contend in the next 1 or 2 years.

            But the Dodgers want to win now, and this definitely that will help that. Now their fate rest on Ned Colletti's mustache.

             Andre Ethier.