Yasiel Puig Day 2014

I saw a Dodger blog declare yesterday Yasiel Puig Day… like it was a holiday. Tonight, it basically is. Puig has two home runs and five RBIs. Here are a few hyperbolic tweets from Jon Weisman and our friend Eric Stephen at TrueBlueLA:

"If you've joined us late – I'm sorry." – Vin #puig #dodgers

— Jon Weisman (@jonweisman) June 5, 2013

RT @markasaxon: The only reasonable comp for Yasiel Puig at this point is Zeus, I think

— Eric Stephen (@truebluela) June 5, 2013

If we're keeping score, my favorite fake Puig Twitter account is @ManBearPuig.

— Eric Stephen (@truebluela) June 5, 2013

I’ve definitely started following @ManBearPuig, and you should too. I’m super serial. Still, I don’t think you can quite capture the dynamic thing Puig does to an offense. It has potential to be, dare I say, Manny-like.

But I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. So I used my crystal ball to find a story from the future. It’s not as good as you think and not as bad as it could be. It is what I think a reasonably optimistic reality will be. I wrote it before this game. Probably a smart thing. If I’d waited until after I’d be making Trout comparisons… .

There is no doubt, Yasiel Puig is electrifying. But what will the story be in 364 days? By Owen Main

June 3, 2014

LOS ANGELES — Yasiel Puig is starting to heat-up again. This time, the Dodgers hope it’s for good.

One year since his 2-hit major league debut and “The Catch,” Puig is hoping to channel his talent into consistently-productive play at the major league level.

“He’s been on a great streak lately,” said first-year Dodgers manager Mike Scioscia. “It isn’t as hot as he’s ever been, but he’s produced over a month-long period, and that was a hard thing for him to do last year.”

Puig’s 2013 campaign made a Magic Mountain ride seem like an Aamtrak trip up the coast. After starting red-hot in the month of June, the 23 year-old slumped so badly in July that he was sent back to AA Chattanooga for most of the rest of the season. When rosters expanded, he was brought back up and played a much steadier brand of baseball, finishing the season with a .290 average, 9 home runs, 35 RBIs, 20 strikeouts and 7 walks in 45 games. His talent is so raw that many have made comparisons to Vladimir Guerrero, who never did stop swinging at bad pitches.

“Last season was hard, at times,” said Puig through and interpreter. “I made some adjustments this year.”

Those adjustments, plus a promotion to the big club out of spring training, have netted Puig a .318 average through the first two months of the season. The Dodgers went all-in with Puig as their starting right-fielder, trading Andre Ethier in the offseason.

The team is also off to a much better start this year and that helps, according to Scioscia.

“Any time the team is playing well, some of the little mistakes become things we can work on behind the scenes,” said Scioscia. “When the team isn’t winning, little things become even more magnified. We are playing well right now, so it takes some of the pressure off a young guy like Puig.”

The Dodgers currently stand at 31-27, one game back of the Diamondbacks. At this time last year, Puig was a spark plug for a cellar-dwelling team that got hot about a month too late. This year’s team is trying avoid the hole they put themselves in a season ago and make the playoffs for the first time under the Guggenheim ownership group’s tenure.

Adrian Gonzalez summed up how the team must be feeling this year in contrast with the 2013 campaign.

“We feel good about where we are right now,” he said.