Former ASU baseball player Andre Ethier made another step in his quick progression through Oakland Athletics' farm system when he stepped out onto the field at Tucson Electric Park Friday.
"That was a great feeling especially playing against the Diamondbacks, my favorite team," Ethier said. "It's really thrilling, but surreal at the same time because last year I was playing at ASU, and I was watching these guys at Bank One Ball Park. A year later I'm playing on the same field with those guys."
Last June, Ethier was selected in the second round of the Major League Baseball amateur draft with the 67th pick to Oakland, the highest of the 12 Sun Devils that were drafted.
In being selected by the Athletics, Ethier was chosen by a team that valued college players, especially ones with good plate discipline like Ethier, who had .476 on base percentage during his career at ASU.
Ethier started his professional career in Vancouver for rookie league play last summer. After hitting .390 with a .444 on base percentage in only 10 games, Ethier was moved to low-single A Kane County, where he did not fare as well. But after an impressive stint in the Arizona Instructional League this fall, Ethier has made a big impression on the Athletics' organization.
Oakland director of player development Keith Lieppman said one of the things that impressed him about Ethier is his work ethic.
"He just has a desire to really work and make it better," Lieppman said.
It is that work ethic that put an extra 20 pounds onto Ethier's once-rangy frame, something the Oakland organization had asked him to do in the off-season in order to make his body sturdier for the six-month grind that is a professional baseball season.
"I can see results already," Ethier said. "The ball is coming off my bat with more authority."
With the season set to begin in just a week, Ethier is rated the No. 9 prospect in Oakland's farm system by Baseball America.
Although Ethier has enjoyed success so far in his short stint with the Athletics -- he is one of only two players from Oakland's draft class last year to play in a spring training game -- it has not always been easy for the local product out of St. Mary's High School.
Like many freshmen who come to ASU, Ethier left after his first semester to take an everyday spot in the lineup at Chandler/Gilbert Community College, something head coach Pat Murphy wanted him to do.
"It's a humbling experience to get sent away from a major program like that and get sent down to the bottom tier of college baseball," Ethier said. "It really made me get my head on right and focus on the path that I was heading."
After a season with Chandler/Gilbert, Ethier came back to ASU and cracked the starting lineup immediately.
Last season, Ethier was off to a solid season for the Sun Devils, hitting .326 with just over half the season in the books. It was a good start, but not exactly the same amount of production one would expect from Baseball America's 44th ranked college prospect, considering the team average was .355 at the time.
Ethier said that he had felt some of the added pressure of the upcoming draft, and it affected his focus in the beginning of the season.
What followed was a hot streak in the thick of Pac-10 and NCAA Tournament competition that helped vault ASU to within one game of the College World Series. While the team's production went down against tough Pac-10 competition, Ethier went on a tear, hitting .423 over the last 33 games, including a 23-game hit streak to end the season.
"[In the second half] I just focused on going out there and play to my capability," Ethier said.
As for getting the chance to move through the system at a pace as quick as any of the players in last year's draft class, Ethier said he is taking it in stride.
"You try not to let it be a chip on our shoulder," Ethier said. "I can see that these guys believe in me, but you can't look at it too much."
Reach the reporter at matthew.schubert@asu.edu.
