I’m not here to be a Yasiel Puig hot take machine. The baseball season is 4 games old. And all four of those games have been against the Padres. I want to have some context.

Expectations were not super high for Yasiel this season. I got him in the final round of my fantasy baseball draft and there was talk of platooning him with lefties in the Dodgers outfield.

But he’s been good in the first four games to the tune of three home runs, including two today off Jared Weaver. He’s talked more about elevating the baseball, and it’s paying off. At least so far. 

Yasiel Puig has been excellent in the early-season for the 3-1 Dodgers. By Owen Main

With Andre Ethier out, the Dodgers could really use a Puig hot streak. Dodger fans have never really seen Puig go on an extended run of playing excellent. Puig has never hit more than the 19 homers (in 109 games) he hit in his first season. Injuries, mentality, and ability to get along with teammates have all be factors. 

But maybe Puig can have some kind of break-out year. His age (26) suggests he might just be entering his prime. His approach on lifting the ball suggests he might be starting to really listening to what the organization is telling him. And his results, so far, have been good. 

However you feel about Yasiel, you can’t argue with the dominant start. If this is a guy at the middle/bottom of the Dodgers’ order providing something like 30 homers this year, then Dave Roberts’ lineup starts to look and feel quite a bit more dangerous. Let’s see how the long months of summer shake out. 

Are you optimistic about Puig yet?

MMMMmmmm. Puig home runs. Against the Giants.

It’s baseball season, you guys!

Yes, it’s still spring. But with Mike Krukow’s comments from earlier in the year and the level that the Dodgers are counting on their young Cuban outfielder, isn’t it nice to see Puig take one out against the Orange and Black? The bat-flip (or lack thereof) was still in spring training form. Maybe by next week, it’ll be a little saucier.

It’s like baby, baby baby ohhhhhhh.

Justin freaking Bieber.

When Tulo made out in the first inning, I knew it was something I’d make fun of him about for a while.

When the Bieber-inspired shortstop cranked a 430-foot home run in his next at-bat, he definitely shut me up. Tulo hit another homer the next night and though I wasn’t there, I’m sure Bieber was.

Lots of players take their warm-up music very seriously. The frame of mind a song can create is something that’s hard to reproduce. But maybe for players like Tulo, it doesn’t matter. Maybe he is so dialed-in that you could play Bieber, Michael Jackson, or Povarotti and it wouldn’t make a difference.

Now if we could only find the right music for the boys in blue….

And there is nothing I can do about it.

No matter how hard I try, perspective is just outside of my grasp.

In times like these, I have to do what so many people do all the time and what is so hard for me. I’ve got to let go.

It was also hard for Andre Ethier to let go. Reports of Ethier’s frustration with the minutia of bad at-bats that would turn into bad games has been well-documented. Before last year, the Dodgers right fielder struggled to reach his full potential. Most “experts” said it was because he couldn’t get his head around the things he had no control over. Like hitting a ball hard and right at someone.

In 2010, Ethier seemed like he had finally found his mental “sweet-spot”. His start to the season had him contending in all three triple-crown categories well into May. He carried a sub-par Dodgers team for a month and a half. Then he got hurt.

A player can’t control injuries.

And Ethier wasn’t the same again in 2010. He didn’t blame the injury, but it had to affect him both mentally and physically. His swing changed. His mentality changed. It had to.

Fast-forward to Thursday, this year’s opening day. Ethier’s boys in blue will face the Giants in the first game of the longest season in professional sports. An article in the LA Times this week talked about Ethier being unsure about where he stands with the ballclub. Lucky for Dodgers fans, he’s getting better at letting things slide off his back and not worrying about things he can’t control. – OM