Kemp impressed Mattingly so much with his natural play in right field Monday night that Mattingly said he is considering trying Puig in center field. great logic so let's move/inconvenience the one productive outfielder we have by catering to one who sucks fucken idiot, the last thing you should do is put a productive player in a (potentially) uncomfortable position what's next, dee to catcher? asshat :mattingly:
and, fwiw, impressing a hayseed dullard like mattingly probably isn't the most difficult task i'd imagine electricity and running water probably boggle his simple mind
if it works don't fuck w it. one of the reasons i really don't get guys calling for moving dee. i get the first part of the thought process but really you just have to immediately go to why risk it? and drop that thought.
I'm actually for this somewhat. We obviously don't have a true CFer, but I think it's safe to say Puig is the best OFer defensively. Dre has done an adequate job in CF, but he hasn't been great. Kemp has been awful in LF already. If he somehow plays a decent RF, I'd assume Dre should play a solid LF, then I think Puig in CF might give us the best defensive OF possible. I have actually wondered why we hadn't tried Puig out in center earlier. I'm not trying to downplay the difficulty of moving from RF to CF, but I think Puig is athletic enough to play a better CF then Kemp, Dre or SVS.
I think they'll ultimately have to go with this plan (at the very least try it out) since I really don't think Joc is coming up this year with the OF situation we have that probably won't be solved by the trade deadline. I mean, if Puig can play like a mad man and still not be dead in RF, then maybe he can play the same in Center? Either way, we need better D at center. Really, we need better defense everywhere.
puig at CF makes the offense that much better if he can hang at CF it makes puig that much more important a player now with LF open you can play whomever of the 3 utility OF we have on the team kemp back at RF and in the lineup full time should finally hopefully end his excuses maybe that 2B from cuba can move to LF and finish out the lineup strong.
i hear what you're saying but puig is already comfortable and (more importantly) productive in right imo if they're going to move him in it should be in the offseason, not now give him some time to learn/get used to playing in center plus, what do we do when joc's ready? move puig back to right? i'd rather keep puig in right, call up joc, and let svs be the starter in left it'd be one thing if putting kemp in right made him revert him back to the 40/40 player he once was but we're talking about moving our best outfielder to accommodate a .260 hitter with average pop fuck kemp, fuck dre, and fuck carl i wish they'd all retire
Just call up Joc. I'm tired of hearing the BS overcrowded OF narrative when CC, Ethier, and Kemp are playing like they belong in the AAA.
Analysts make it sound like those guys are stars and we don't know who should play, when in reality they are scrubs and we don't know who shouldn't play.
It's true, Puig does have the athleticism to play CF in the long run. But he will kill everybody. Not only the corner Ofs, but Hanley and Dee, too. There is always the guy's mental status to consider...he's certifiable. The noble savage; refreshing in some ways, devasating in others.
So who cares about all the puigs feelings. Put him in CF till Joc can earn the full time job. By then Matt Kemp will have shown if he is fit for RF defensively and get traded or be the best offensive option in the LF utility corps.
This discussion in itself is retarded. Just like Donnie Dum Dum. This team will not win a championship with Donnie Dum Dum in charge.
Once again, since Kemp has been moved out of CF and getting regular playing time, he has put up better than average numbers(.293/.362/427/.789). So if we can make it work with him in RF and Puig in CF, I'll be happy to see that. Joc's arm has been one of his biggest defensive issues in MiLB(K rate being the other), so if that is the case, then LF would not be the worst thing in the world for him. Granted this is small sample size, but when watching Kemp over the last couple of days, I have seen better routes and reads off the bat in RF. Some people just do better on one side of the diamond than the other (see Alex Guerrero) and maybe RF is the best long term option for Kemp. Puig is a gifted athlete, we all know this, he has done a solid job making adjustments and learning on the fly while getting hardly any time in the minors. His elite speed and arm should make up for any deficiencies he may have early on with his reads(at least compared to Ethier, Kemp or SVS out there). As for killing someone in CF, yeah it could happen, but it could also happen in RF. He plays RF like a CF'er anyway as most of the time CF has deferred to him, which is not normal. Try Puig in CF, if he can stick there then we are talking about an elite 5 tool prospect at the most important position in the OF, I will take that.
