Puig! Puig! Puig!

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The young man says he’s going to get back to his 2013 form this season.

“I want to improve on last year, which was my worst season in all aspects,” Puig said. “I’ve never hit so poorly, not even when I was a little kid. Coming off such a bad season, I have to work on my body, my hitting, on hitting the cutoff man, all that’s required to do well in American baseball.”

[snip]

“I want us all to be together, and for me to join in, so we don’t lose in the playoffs again,” Puig said. “I’m tired of making the playoffs and not going further and reaching the World Series.”

I hope he succeeds in doing that. If he can stay healthy and be a team player he’s a tremendous athlete.

115 thoughts on “Puig! Puig! Puig!”

  2. This morning I told my wife that the first televised Dodger game was today. She responded by asking me whether our social life was over the year. I informed her that nearly spring games are day games.

  6. Dodger baseball today! I need to get in rooting shape: “Darn those Sox!”

  8. Welcome to March. Spring training games starting this week and regular season several weeks away. Hope you are all having a super – urr better change that to great – Tuesday!
    Winter is almost over! I hope.

    • Well, it’s 68° in Oakland, with a projected high of 70° tomorrow, but we’re due for several days of desperately needed rain from Thursday on.

        • When I drove my Argentine nephews down to Santa Cruz the same day, the waves were too big for most surfers, and there were warnings about sneaker waves for anybody walking on the beach.

      • Glad to hear about the rain in your area. Hope it’s the beginning of the end of the drought.

        • We are close to normal rainfall for the season, but a single year means very little.

    • Snow predicted for Thursday-Friday here in DC (the last of the Alberta Clippers I hope).

      • In late March of 1993, I went to an exhibition game at RFK between the Orioles and the Cardinals (species migrating north). The left field screen recalled the LA Coliseu when the Dodgers played there.

        It snowed the night before, but they still got the game in. Later that spring, I went to a game at Baltimore’s old Memorial Stadium, which was really a dump.

        • RFK was intimate, at least for hand egg. Large foul territory for baseball actually made it a pitcher’s park, despite the left field screen. I have fond memories of Memorial Stadium but, yeah, a bit of a dump.

          • I don’t regret having gone to Memorial Stadium, but I don’t regret that it’s gone either (though I’ve never been to Camden Yards).

          • Dismal. The O’s weren’t really on my radar screen as a lad. But when they got Frank Robinson and then defeated (creamed) my beloved Dodgers I started following them more closely. Moving to DC in 1978, they became my adopted AL team. Earl was quite a manager and a character.

          • From that, I prefer to remember Lefebvre’s homer and the (semi-) redemptive catch by Willie Davis.

  18. In case you ever wondered how a player in any sport could bite himself in his own rear…

    “And lest you think freak injuries are a relatively new phenomenon, such accidents reportedly date back to the game’s early days. 1920s pitcher Clarence “Climax” Blethen used to tuck his false teeth in his back pocket during games, thinking his toothless face would intimidate batters. As history has it, Blethen once forgot that he’d stowed his dentures and, when sliding into second base, bit himself in the butt.”

    From a couple years back:

    http://theweek.com/articles/467573/weirdest-injuries-baseball-history

  22. Puig out today due to wisdom teeth extraction. Emergencies happen, but isn’t this usually kind of an elective thing? If not an emergency, why wait until ST and have that impacted (sorry) when it could have been done offseason?

    Have seen a couple news items on this but necessity of now wasn’t mentioned.

  23. Guessing that with new ruling Utley wins his appeal. Making the neighborhood play subject to review essentially means that it is defunct, no? It was designed to avoid injuries. Wonder how that will work out.

  24. Sawx problems, as acknowledged by owner, per MLBTR: “The club has spent the second most on payroll since 2002 which helped to mask a multitude of mistakes. In particular, Henry noted an overemphasis on using past performance to project future ability. That could be why the Sox were more bullish about Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval than other clubs.”

    • Shades of standard stock market fine print: “Past performance does not guarantee future results.”

      All free agents should come with that disclaimer.

    • At this point, he is hoping that last year’s past performance doesn’t project to future ability as well.

    • Best of luck to him, but I still think the Dodgers should never have signed him in the first place.

        • He was a Ned special – overpaid ex-Gnat, though Urbie was likable and did redeem himself in part.

          • For a lot of fans–especially the more casual ones–his decisive HR v ATL in the playoffs a couple years back was almost worth his entire contract.

            However, they didn’t write his checks.

          • He had a few moments, but he was never more than a niche player. Simpático, though, and he rarely complained.

          • At SS in SF alongside Panza at 3rd the left side of the infield looked like the Ballet Trockadero. A mediocre hitter for much of his career he managed to play a lot because, you know, he put up 20 dingers a year as an SS.

          • Wasn’t he too young to play for the Schutzstaffel? Along with other possible disqualifications?

  28. The new manager on Julio Urias: “In talking to people that were here in years prior, he’s got a different look in his eye,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. I am guessing that the “people” he is talking to is AJ, who is pulling his leg (Julio had eye surgery since the last Spring Training).

  29. Ryu reportedly with only “normal” soreness the day after his bullpen session. Call me when he has “general” soreness a la Mike Marshall.

  30. Any mention of Puig takes me back to something seen somewhere last season–the definition of a Yasiel Puig cycle: a HR, a swinging K with RISP, a TOOTBLAN, an an outfield assist.

    • Puig certainly has a well earned reputation for TOOTBLAN, but these seemed to have dropped off drastically in 2015, even allowing for his limited playing time. According to the TOOTBLAN site he accounted for 13 in 2013 and 17 in 2014.. For some reason the site only goes up to late July in 2015, at which point he had 3. Baseball Reference has a stat called OOB (out on base as a runner trying to advance). Here Puig has 3 as compared to Fowler with 13 and Carpenter with 11. Joc has the most as a Dodger with 8. Seems like a lot for a 8th place hitter who probably should be trying to turnover the line up (only 1 was at home plate).

  32. Is Puig saying he wants to work with his own hitting coach and not the one the Dodgers hired? Has anyone heard what Puig’s weight is or the difference in his weight this February compared to last February?

    • Also a reminder was given that Ryu will be well shy of pitching 200 innings so he might might make a great first half pitcher with McCarthy finishing up for him.