By Josh Tucker
By now, you know Yasiel Puig is a big kid – he loves toys, teddy bears, and minions. Puig really likes minions.
Anyway, the Dodgers landed in Colorado last night, and the first thing on Puig’s itinerary was to find and play with snow. So this morning, he took an adventure to the mountains — and without further ado, here is video of Puig building a snow castle:
It turns out, Yasiel Puig was building a giant “L.A.” because he loves you. Watch:
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By Jon Weisman
It’s no surprise, to say the least, but Yasiel Puig has been named National League Player of the Month for May.
Puig won the NL triple crown for the month, leading the league in batting average (.398) and RBI (25) while tying Giancarlo Stanton of Miami in home runs. He reached base in all 28 games (with hits in 26) and also led the league in hits (43), total bases (79), extra-base hits (19), on-base percentage (.492), slugging (.731) and wRC+ (240). His 17 walks and 10 doubles were each tied for sixth in the NL for the month. He was also a stalwart on defense, highlighted by his full-sprint, diving catch in New York on May 22.
The award comes the day Puig began earning his first career NLPOM honor, in June 2013.
By Jon Weisman
On the anniversary of his arrival in the Major Leagues, Yasiel Puig has risen from fifth place to first in the latest update of National League All-Star balloting — thanks to more than 500,000 votes in less than a week.
Sunday’s Jon SooHoo photo highlights can be found at LA Photog Blog.
By Jon Weisman
“I talked about this with Rickey Henderson. Rickey Henderson could do so many things, it’s almost a curse sometimes, because we always ask for more. Yasiel hits .350 — now we want him to be a perfect basestealer. He does that — now we want him to do this. With all that talent, you think there’s still more there, and at times, we ask a lot.”
— Don Mattingly, on Yasiel Puig
Yasiel Puig (Jon SooHoo/Los Angeles Dodgers)
By Jon Weisman
“I think Puig is definitely in this family of nearly mythical characters.”
— John Thorn
Ted Williams, c. 1940 (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
The next time someone suggests Yasiel Puig is unlike anyone who has come before, or that he’s dangerously cavalier about baseball’s unwritten rules, think of Ted Williams.
Ted Williams, commander of respect, massively serious student of hitting … so much so that in his early years in the Major Leagues, he would take practice swings in the outfield when the other team was at bat.
“He was thought to be nearly demented,” Major League Baseball official historian John Thorn says. “He was absolutely in his own head. … Because we hold Williams in such reverence today, those who don’t have a grasp of the full history of the man will not recognize that he was made fun of when he was brought in.”
Adds FoxSports.com senior baseball editor Rob Neyer: “When Williams came up, he didn’t seem to know what the rules were. He would speak to veterans as if they were underlings or inferior to him. He would practice his swing in the outfield between pitches. These were things you weren’t supposed to do. … The culture sort of beats those things out of you, which is kind of a shame for fans.”
Williams is far from the only one. As unique as Puig has been in his first 365 days in the Major Leagues, a stroll through baseball history brings a line of baseball giants who, before they became legends, were heartily mocked or criticized.
Once upon a time, Old School was itself New School, and head-scratching, larger-than-life figures existed as much then as now, if not more so.
MLB Network graphic
By Jon Weisman
In addition to his power, throwing arm and everything else, Yasiel Puig’s growing plate discipline (and the growth, to be clear, began in 2013) has been something else.
In fact, Puig is not only anything but a big hack at the plate, he’s fast becoming the opposite.
At age 23, Puig is on pace to draw 78 walks this year. Only one Dodger has drawn that many walks in a season at age 23 or under: Pee Wee Reese with 82 in 1942. The Los Angeles record is held by Ron Fairly, 75 in 1962.
Puig is walking in 12.0 percent of his plate appearances in 2014. That walk percentage is 12th in the National League this year, and among players 28 and under, it’s third in the Majors behind only Giancarlo Stanton (13.9 percent) and Mike Trout (12.5 percent).
In O-Swing%, or the percentage of pitches outside the strike zone at which a batter swings, Puig is at 26.9 percent for the season. That’s 24th among all qualified NL players, 10th among NL players 28 and under and the best among Dodger regulars.
Puig completes his first year in the Major Leagues on Monday.
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By Jon Weisman
Adrian Gonzalez is in first place among first basemen and Dee Gordon is in second place among second baseman in the initial 2014 National League All-Star vote update.
Jon SooHoo’s Friday shoot can be found at the LA Photog Blog.
By Jon Weisman
In addition to his key diving catch in the seventh inning Friday, Carl Crawford singled and homered, raising his OPS since May 3 to 1.097.
He is 22 for 53 with a double and four home runs in his past 16 games (13 starts). Crawford has tied Hanley Ramirez and Adrian Gonzalez with four home runs this month, trailing only Yasiel Puig’s seven, and he is second behind Puig in May OPS (.971).
Crawford is still walking at a low rate – 3.6 percent of his plate appearances – though this isn’t that big a change. His career walk rate is 5.3 percent and his career-high is 7.6 percent in 2009. Puig, by comparison, walked 8.3 percent of the time last year and has done so 11.7 percent this year.
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By Jon Weisman
In the bottom of the second inning, Yasiel Puig made a catch he had no business making. And he comes oh-so-close to a double play in the process.
Puig’s not even in the picture at first.
And as the ball is coming down, it still doesn’t seem possible he’ll get there …
By Jon Weisman
There was some scoffing when Chone Figgins signed on to reboot his Major League career with the Dodgers, but so far, so good.
Figgins has developed a fairly specific role with the Dodgers: Come off the bench to lead off an inning and, without any seeming threat of power, get on base.
In his 27 plate appearances so far this season, 16 of them have been as the first batter of an inning, and he has a .500 on-base percentage (and .455 slugging percentage) in those situations. He also has a .474 OBP as a pinch-hitter.
Tonight, in the Dodgers’ 48th game, Figgins makes only his third start of the year, though his rate should increase now that Juan Uribe is on the disabled list and Justin Turner will be needed over there. Dee Gordon still hasn’t been a convincing hitter against left-handed pitchers, registering a .200 on-base percentage (8 for 40 with no walks) and .250 slugging percentage this year. It would be going too far to say he can’t improve those numbers, but against Mets lefty Jonathon Niese (2.54 ERA, .446 right-handed opponents’ OPS), it’s a sensible enough time to let Gordon come off the bench.
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By Jon Weisman
Yasiel Puig has been named co-National League Player of the Week, sharing the honor with A.J. Pollock of Arizona.
Puig slugged .870 as he went 8 for 23 with three doubles and three homers, not to mention four walks and being hit by a pitch, in the most recent seven days of play.
The 23-year-old previously won this award by himself after his first week in the majors, for the week ending June 9, when he went 13 for 28 with two doubles and four homers. He had 10 RBI each time.
“Right now, he brings an energy we were missing,” backup catcher Ramon Hernandez told MLB.com at the time.
By Jon Weisman
As the Dodgers try to get off the canvas from their 18-7 loss Saturday to Arizona, some notes:
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The devilish underhanded fastball from Martiza Puig shows how her son Yasiel must have trained to become such a great hitter.
— Jon Weisman
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By Jon Weisman
Yasiel Puig …
By Jon Weisman
Having the sun out at the ballpark is so nice, it looks like Dodger Stadium has done it twice.
An early set of pregame notes today …
What happens when three old friends in crisis fall into an unexpected love triangle? In The Catch, Maya, Henry and Daniel embark upon an emotional journey that forces them to confront unresolved pain, present-day traumas and powerful desires, leading them to question the very meaning of love and fulfillment. The Catch tells a tale of ordinary people seeking the extraordinary – or, if that’s asking too much, some damn peace of mind.
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