Dodgers Landing on Bay of Puigs

LondonSox

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I didn't see a thread on this kid and he just finished his first 100 major abs with a 4/5 day raising his average to .436

I know we are still in SSS but impressions seem more, this doesn't seem bloop hit driven performance.

The walk rate 4%, is a little on the low side but power speed average

His line is 436/467/713 for 1180 ops or 212ops+

Shall we talk about this? SSS of course, he's not going to hit 400, but what is he going to do.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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It's mind blowing that despite having Kemp ($20M/year through 2019), Ethier ($16.5M/year through 2017 with an option for 2018), and Puig ($6M/year through 2018) on the payroll, the Dodgers still were perfectly willing to take on Crawford and his $21M/year through 2017.
 

LondonSox

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Well that's what it takes to acquire a pitcher who may be at the end of his career and an 800 ops 1b (2012 with the sox looks more like a new level than an outlier after an almost identical 2013 to date)

Seriously though, the combination of ethier and Crawford on those contracts are a horror show without even a dh to fit them all in.
If (IF) they are all healthy at once they are going to have to think about eating a lot of money to dump one
 

Snodgrass'Muff

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Puig was rated as number 47 on BA's top 100 at the start of the season.  His scouting scores were Bat: 50 Power: 70 Speed: 60 Defense: 55  Arm: 60
 
The power is for real.  Obviously he's hitting above his head, but he really could be their second best hitter after Kemp.  Obviously Hanley has a better track record and is off to a great start since getting back, and if he's back to being the guy he was in Florida for all those years that made us wonder how things may have turned out if the Beckett trade never happened then he's number 2, but slotting in behind a resurgent Ramirez isn't too bad, either.
 
If the Dodgers weren't loaded with bad contracts, I'd think they were in a position to build a real power house.  Maybe they can keep printing money and not get slowed down by dead weight like Crawford and Beckett, or even Gonzalez if he keeps declining, but it's tough to see a way out and the Dodgers won't be calling the Dodgers to pick up the bill on those guys again.
 

BoredViewer

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We'll see how the league adjusts.  Sliders low and away have been the bane of many a RH power hitter... but it's also encouraging that he seems to have no qualms about driving the ball with power to RF.  Most exciting player I've seen in quite a while - I try to catch as many of his ABs as possible.  Love the almost reckless way he plays the game, too!
 

mt8thsw9th

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Red(s)HawksFan said:
It's mind blowing that despite having Kemp ($20M/year through 2019), Ethier ($16.5M/year through 2017 with an option for 2018), and Puig ($6M/year through 2018) on the payroll, the Dodgers still were perfectly willing to take on Crawford and his $21M/year through 2017.
 
Years down the line, we'll look back on this story like we do on that old tale about the Yankees' and Red Sox' brain trust nearly trading Dimaggio for Williams after discussing it over beers one night. Only this tale will involve Ned Colletti downing a Boggsian amount of beer while Ben Cherington took swigs of water out of an Absolut bottle, holding back the occasional spit-take. 
 

Cumberland Blues

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He's a ton of fun to watch...I'm losing sleep staying up to watch his first couple AB's every night, and usually get sucked into the whole game. 
 
The tools are all legit - and the power is just freakin' ridiculous.  When he gets ahold of one - it certainly stays hit.  He's absolutely reckless on the bases - which is a blast since he doesn't play for my team - tho I imagine soon OF's are going to start throwing behind him on those aggressive turns. 
 
The slider away is definitely the big trouble spot looming.  He seems able to layoff the tough fastballs just inside, but unless they miss by a foot or more - he has a real hard time laying off breaking pitches away.
 

Orel Miraculous

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Cumberland Blues said:
He's a ton of fun to watch...I'm losing sleep staying up to watch his first couple AB's every night, and usually get sucked into the whole game. 
 
The tools are all legit - and the power is just freakin' ridiculous.  When he gets ahold of one - it certainly stays hit.  He's absolutely reckless on the bases - which is a blast since he doesn't play for my team - tho I imagine soon OF's are going to start throwing behind him on those aggressive turns. 
 
The slider away is definitely the big trouble spot looming.  He seems able to layoff the tough fastballs just inside, but unless they miss by a foot or more - he has a real hard time laying off breaking pitches away.
 
That's pure beisbol romantico, manufactured in Havana since 1868.  They are trained to always go for the heroic over the pragmatic. It's one of the reasons I love watching international baseball.
 

VORP Speed

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The correct play on words for the title of this thread would have been anything containing a reference to "the bay of puigs"
 

JMDurron

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VORP Speed said:
The correct play on words for the title of this thread would have been anything containing a reference to "the bay of puigs"
 
Let's store this one away for a future Giants-Dodgers or even A's-Dodgers series. 
 

Valek123

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ThePrideofShiner

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Interesting read from Yahoo! Sports about Puig's time spent aboard a Coast Guard cutter after getting picked up during one of his defection attempts:
 
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/coast-guard-crew-reflects-on-time-with-yasiel-puig-during-attempt-to-defect-to-u-s--141306377.html
 
As Hoschak dropped off the migrant boat along with the two Americans at the nearest safe haven in Haiti, word began to filter around the Vigilant that Puig was a ballplayer. Two months earlier, Yoenis Cespedes had signed for $36 million with the Oakland A's after defecting from Cuba. And the baseball fans on the cutter heard about the recent defection of outfielder Jorge Soler, who would secure a $30 million deal with the Cubs. Puig was just a name. He looked the part, but so do plenty of others who can't hit a fastball once it reaches 90 mph. 

"We all heard he was a baseball player," Burr said, "but none of us knew who he even was or where he had played."
 

LondonSox

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MakMan44 said:
The more Pap opens his mouth the less I like him.
My wife is from Philly and a big phillies fan, I laughed at her pleasure in signing him, she didn't take long to figure out why but he has TOTALLY warn out his welcome there at this point
 

nattysez

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His HR tonight was interesting, as his AB was similar to the AB he had a couple of nights ago when he hit a game-winning single.  He will swing at outside sliders consistently.  A few nights ago, they threw him one, he swung wildly at it, and when they threw him another one he somehow pulled it, which was pretty incredible given that the pitch was several inches outside.  Tonight, in the AB where he homered, he missed an outside slider by a good six inches.  But the pitcher had no command, so when they tried to throw him an outside slider, it was over the outside of the plate - homer.
 

BoredViewer

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His double last night was off the top of the wall... so was his single a night or two before.  As of this morning, he could go 0 for his next 50... and still be hitting .300.
 
DiMaggio had 50 hits in his first 27 games... though he was only hitting .382 .400 .656 1.056... Puig is @ .443 .473 .745 1.218.  I reference DiMaggio because I've heard the Dodgers announcers talking about him having the most hits after X games to start his career.  Puig actually has a good chance to move ahead of that pace as DiMaggio only had 4 hits over his next 9 games...  Ichiro had 69 hits through 40 games - that has to be a record - though only 41 through 27 games.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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Valek123 said:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/allstar13/story/_/id/9445536/jonathan-papelbon-says-yasiel-puig-all-star-team-joke
 
Papelbon says No Puig for you NL All Star team, believes the All star game is a life achievement award not an exciting new player on fire award.  I think the all star could be too quick given 1/4 of the season played but given the even it a snooze fest god forbid a player on fire is rewarded with an appearance.  The event is a complete joke anyhow...
 
Didn't hear Pap complaining when he made the all star team in his first full year, after appearing in a grand total of 54 games (when he was selected, 57 before the game itself).  Oh wait, that's twice as many as Puig has played.  Silly me.
 

Dionysus

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I love Dave Cameron. From his chat today:



Comment From Jason
Have you gone on record yet regarding Puig's potential status as an All-Star?

Dave Cameron: I'd put him on the team, and I'd make Jonathan Papelbon carry his bags.
 

BoredViewer

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Maybe the Dodgers would take Victorino for him straight up?
 
Every other big market team missed the boat on this guy, too... but damn, I thought the Sox had some extensive Cuban connections.  Cespedes, Chapman, Puig...  we have Iglesias - nice season and all... but we've really missed the chance to leverage our payroll.
 
The Dice-K Effect.
 

LondonSox

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RingoOSU said:
Innings Puig played: 231
Innings Pap played: 80
Yeah because an inning in the outfield is just like an inning pitched, same amount of stress on the body and impact on the game...

I mean you HAVE to at least compare the abs not the innings.

Also, when you quote buster olney (shudder) you might try actually quoting him correctly, which is that the 80innings is pap's high season mark, not his current.
Plus didn't pap make the all star game as a rookie???
 

Al Zarilla

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LondonSox said:
Yeah because an inning in the outfield is just like an inning pitched, same amount of stress on the body and impact on the game...

I mean you HAVE to at least compare the abs not the innings.

Also, when you quote buster olney (shudder) you might try actually quoting him correctly, which is that the 80innings is pap's high season mark, not his current.
Plus didn't pap make the all star game as a rookie???
 
Second year.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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BoredViewer said:
Maybe the Dodgers would take Victorino for him straight up?
 
Every other big market team missed the boat on this guy, too... but damn, I thought the Sox had some extensive Cuban connections.  Cespedes, Chapman, Puig...  we have Iglesias - nice season and all... but we've really missed the chance to leverage our payroll.
 
The Dice-K Effect.
 
Puig became available last summer when the Sox were in the heart of a payroll crunch. Don't know how much leverage they had to use.  Less the DiceK effect and more the Crawford effect.
 

BoredViewer

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Orel Miraculous said:
That's pure beisbol romantico, manufactured in Havana since 1868.  They are trained to always go for the heroic over the pragmatic. It's one of the reasons I love watching international baseball.
 
I haven't heard this expression before, but that's perfect.  He plays baseball sort of like the Brazilians play soccer.
 
He should've been out on the grounder to 1st (where he scored from 2nd) - but you press people to make plays... often they don't.  On the other hand - that liner to left that 99/100 MLB players would've settled for a single - was a thing of beauty... he burst of the box and just out-raced Cargo's throw to 2nd.
 

VORP Speed

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When Vin says "Yasiel Puig" you can hear the same excitement dripping from his voice as when those magical words "Fernando Valenzuela" used to roll off his tongue in the spring of '81.
 

knucklecup

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He came out of tonight's game after crashing into the wall on a nice play in the field. The Dodgers take:

@Dodgers We will wait for Don Mattingly's post game presser for the status of the wall.
 

URI

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VORP Speed said:
When Vin says "Yasiel Puig" you can hear the same excitement dripping from his voice as when those magical words "Fernando Valenzuela" used to roll off his tongue in the spring of '81.
 
It was the same as back when a young Jim Gilliam galloped onto the field in the day.
 

DJnVa

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Orel Miraculous said:
So, about that overaggressive baserunning of his, it kinda pays off when he freaking scores from second on a grounder to the first freaking baseman.
 
 
Well...yeah, it was a grounder to the first baseman...that was kicked away, then thrown to the pitcher covering first, who threw home and had the catcher caught throw would have had Puig out by 5 feet.
 
I'm not a Puig hater at all, but that was a bad play.
 

brandonchristensen

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</p>
Djiraan Iraassi said:
For those interested, his last name should be pronounced like "pooch", not "poo-EEG".
<p>

Really? I butchered his name to a Dodger fan friend and he was wrong too? Bwahaha
 

Lowrielicious

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Bob Montgomery's Helmet Hat said:
So....Crawford is due to come off of the DL tomorrow.  What the hell are the Dodgers going to do?  They aren't going to sit Puig or Kemp.
Split time with Ethier perhaps?
 

Djiraan Iraassi

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brandonchristensen said:
Really? I butchered his name to a Dodger fan friend and he was wrong too? Bwahaha
 
It's an understandable error though, since it's a Spanish name (in the sense that it comes from Spain) but it's not a Spanish name (from the Spanish language), so it doesn't follow Spanish pronunciation rules.
 
Same thing happens with Albert "poo-JOLS" (not "poo-HOLS").
 
PS: Just looked at Pujols' Wikipedia page. I'm not surprised :D
 

Bosoxen

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Djiraan Iraassi said:
It's an understandable error though, since it's a Spanish name (in the sense that it comes from Spain) but it's not a Spanish name (from the Spanish language), so it doesn't follow Spanish pronunciation rules.
 
Same thing happens with Albert "poo-JOLS" (not "poo-HOLS").
 
PS: Just looked at Pujols' Wikipedia page. I'm not surprised :D
 
Except that "poo-JOLS" is the proper pronunciation. The "poo-HOLS" pronunciation is the, um, Americanized version. That Puig is allegedly improperly pronounced is irrelevant, since it's actually (surprisingly) properly pronounced*.
 
*Do you have a link? I can't find anything that states his name is pronounced the way you claimed.
 

RingoOSU

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LondonSox said:
Yeah because an inning in the outfield is just like an inning pitched, same amount of stress on the body and impact on the game...

I mean you HAVE to at least compare the abs not the innings.

Also, when you quote buster olney (shudder) you might try actually quoting him correctly, which is that the 80innings is pap's high season mark, not his current.
Plus didn't pap make the all star game as a rookie???
Why the fuck would I quote Olney? the 80 IP is how many paps had in his career when he was picked. And why should I use logic to counteract a papelbon argument?
 

Djiraan Iraassi

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Bosoxen said:
Except that "poo-JOLS" is the proper pronunciation. The "poo-HOLS" pronunciation is the, um, Americanized version. That Puig is allegedly improperly pronounced is irrelevant, since it's actually (surprisingly) properly pronounced*.
 
*Do you have a link? I can't find anything that states his name is pronounced the way you claimed.
 
 
Edit: Sorry, it wasn't my intention to derail the discussion. Moved to PM.
 

VORP Speed

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In the pronounced as "PWEEG" camp:

Vin Scully
The stadium announcer at Dodgers Stadium
The Mexicans in the stands at Dodger Stadium
The Cubans in the stands at Dodger Stadium
The Dodger announcers who call the away games
The Spanish language Dodger broadcaster guy
Yasiel Puig

In the pronounced as "POOCH" camp:

?
 

Al Zarilla

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VORP Speed said:
In the pronounced as "PWEEG" camp:

Vin Scully
The stadium announcer at Dodgers Stadium
The Mexicans in the stands at Dodger Stadium
The Cubans in the stands at Dodger Stadium
The Dodger announcers who call the away games
The Spanish language Dodger broadcaster guy
Yasiel Puig

In the pronounced as "POOCH" camp:

?
Maybe Pooch is a nickname?
 
Dodgers in for 3 at AT&T. Let's see what Kuiper, Krukow and Miller have. They're pretty good at "discovery" re opposing players. 
 

Infield Infidel

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Bob Montgomery's Helmet Hat said:
Crawford started on the bench, Kemp got hurt, and Crawford took his place.  Pretty fragile guys(other than Puig, obviously), so this might just work itself out.
 
How's Kemp's arm? Or put Puig in Right, he has a cannon. Because a Kemp/Ethier platoon makes the most sense
 
OPS vs L/R
Ethier  .572/782
Kemp .773/615
Carl  .891/808
 
Kemp and Ethier both have OBP under .300 on their bad side
 
Crawford looks like the one who should stay in, as long as he's injury free. 
 

SoxFanInCali

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With Crawford out, they were playing Ethier in left, Kemp in center, Puig in right.  Ethier has played all 3 positions, so I imagine when everyone is healthy, he'll be rotated around to give guys a game off or get an extra LH bat in the lineup.