Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Broken pinkie sends Ethier to the DL

The hottest hitter in all of baseball has finally met his match - his right pinkie.

Andre Ethier has been placed on the 15-day DL with a broken pinkie. The injury was originally sustained while swinging a bat in practice on Saturday. There's really not much of a story behind it other than he swung, it broke, and that's it.

With the Dodgers winning now, I'm sure this was more of a precautionary measure than anything. Had this occurred a couple of weeks ago when they were struggling, maybe he'd gut it out. In the long run, it's the smart thing to do to be careful.

In case you didn't know, he was leading the National League in the Triple Crown categories. He's hitting .393 with 11 homers and 38 RBIs. In the month of May, he's hitting an insane .490.

In his place will be Xavier Paul, who is someone that should make Dodger fans smile. Paul didn't put up gaudy numbers in nine games, hitting .276 with one RBI. But, he plays very hard and is someone you can easily get behind.

Should Paul play well again, I have to wonder if that will spell the end of the Garret Anderson experiment. Anderson is hitting a paltry .136 (8-for-59), and it's obvious the pinch-hitting thing just isn't working out. Maybe the Dodgers will pull the plug if they like what they see from Paul again.

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