I’ll admit that about 3/4 of the way through the season I was a little upset with my Andre Ethier pick. I’d taken him for $1 in a 14-team mixed league, and undrafted guys like Eric Hinske were threatening to lap Andre in terms of value. Worse, Juan Pierre was getting starts, scoring runs, and stealing bases.

Then Manny came to town, and good things started to happen. Matt Kemp moved down in the order; Ethier stuck at number two. And as the Dodgers heated up, so did Andre.

Ethier, who turned 26 in April, is part of that upper-middle class of MLB players who, outside of their home cities, never get much press. How often do you hear about Michael Young, or Melvin Mora? With solid talent, but 20-HR power, they’re usually part of “sleepers” columns or human interest stories.

Ethier is different. A couple years ago, when the Dodgers were looking for pitching, Matt Kemp was the guy whom everyone wanted. And Kemp’s good–there’s no question about that. But Ethier was coming off a .308/11/55 rookie season, and his minor league credentials were stellar: career .317/27/160 hitter with a .389 OBP. In ‘05, Ethier went .319/18/80 for AA-Midland in the Texas League. ‘04: .313/7/53 in 99 games for Modesto in A+ ball. But no one really talked about him. After all, he was just a second round pick (62nd overall in 2003; traded in ‘05 for Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez).

The book on Ethier was that he couldn’t hit left-handed pitching. And the book was right: this year he’s sitting at .239/3/12 against lefties. Which is why Andre’ll always be so valuable at his discounted price. In terms of projections, Ethier’s a .290/20/90 player for the next 5-7 years, with a career 25/100 season thrown in somewhere in the next 3 seasons. If the Dodgers keep Manny, Ethier’ll score 100 runs/season. It’s that simple. And he’ll steal 5-10 bases. His .365 OBP is okay, but you have to consider that he’s raised it .030 points in the last 10 games. So maybe he’s really a .400 guy. I don’t think that’s such a radical idea. His swing is geared up the middle; he’s a doubles guy who hits for average. Not many 2-hitters slug .522.

I like Ethier at $10-17. At 6′2″, 212, he plays very solid defense at either corner; he’s a lefty in a right-handed lineup; he’s a couple-few years away from his peak. Let me remind you that this is a guy whose average draft position (219) left him as a free agent in most mixed leagues. I’ll also mention that is IsoP spiked .055 points this year despite a .024 drop in his ground ball: fly ball ratio. So he’s getting more extra-base hits, but he’s hitting the ball in the air less often. In other words, he’s making better contact. That’s a good sign. Buy him.