Ethier's Paw

[SCUDSBROTHER]

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angele...ory?id=5199362

"I'm going to keep doing it the same way," Ethier said. "As soon as I feel like I can swing pain-free, I'll go back to swinging the way I always have and go from there."

Torre and Colletti agreed that altering Ethier's swing would be the wrong approach.

"I never really thought of it like that," Colletti said. "This has popped up once. How many times has he swung a bat in his life?"


O.K., now much as I like Ethier, I don't think anyone can just go right back to that same way of doing that with his pinkie finger. Yea, he's always done it that way, but he's never done it while knowing:

1) How much it can hurt if he messes it up again.

2) How much time he could have to miss if it happens again.

3) That's it's probably more easy to break the 2nd time than it was the 1st time.

So, no, Coletti, Ethier has never once swung the bat under these circumstances. How many times has he sprained/bruised it? Evidently quite a few times. Will those now be breaks? I think the guy is mentally tough as nails, but he has a relatively low pain level tolerance. On the swings he takes outside of games, they better find a way to limit the damage he can do to it. There's a lot of shock-absorbing materials out there. Better get creative.