Puig being shopped?

Really? Maybe I missed it, but I thought his defense was fine.

 

they showed the alleged plays
one was a double to the wall that he took a bad route on
the other was the one where hanley made that nice catch
the host (that screaming mad dog guy) sided with puig, saying that the first play would have been a double regardless and that the second was closer to crawford and hanley
like i said, i turned it on in the middle so...

 

Puig's Game 4 benching for more than just plate struggles?
by Ken Rosenthal | FOX Sports MLB



When the Dodgers benched Yasiel Puig in Game 4 of the Division Series vs. the Cardinals on Tuesday, manager Don Mattingly said that veteran outfielder Andre Ethier gave the team “the best chance to win today.”

Mattingly had ample reason to sit Puig, who had struck out in eight of his nine previous at-bats. But as so often is the case with Puig, there may have been more to the story.

Puig, 23, angered some teammates and coaches throughout the series with his occasional lack of focus and effort in center field, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

Whether the team’s frustration with Puig contributed to his benching, if at all, is not clear; Mattingly declined comment. Puig at times drew praise this season for showing a greater attention to detail. But his sporadic lapses remain a source of tension within the club, sources said.

One play in Game 3, in particular, “generated a lot of commotion on the bench,” according to one source. Oddly enough, the sequence produced one of the Dodgers’ better defensive plays of the series, with shortstop Hanley Ramirez running into left-center field to catch a pop-up by Matt Adams for the final out of the third inning.

Joe Buck, on the FOX broadcast, noted that Ramirez was “looking for help” and “ran a mile into left-center field.” Left fielder Carl Crawford actually might have been in better position to make a play than Puig, who was shaded slightly toward right. But Puig, who said before Game 4 that he had been dealing with a nagging right-ankle issue, loped after the ball, jogging.

I did not see what happened on the Dodgers’ bench; I was positioned on the Cardinals’ side, and our cameras were not focused on the Dodgers’ dugout at the time. But the irritation by some Dodgers people with Puig was the continuation of a pattern that began shortly after the start of his major-league career in 2013.

Puig can be polarizing, a player who draws “haters” among opponents and rival fans with his flashy style of play. A number of Dodgers veterans, including first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and third baseman Juan Uribe, have tried to counsel him. Still, Puig sometimes displays a sense of entitlement, sources say, showing up late, refusing to listen.

Supporters of Puig view criticism of him as nitpicking; he is still young, still adapting to a new culture after defecting from Cuba in April 2012. The Dodgers certainly are not about to trade him, not after he finished fourth in the National League with an .863 OPS during the regular season and reinforced his standing as one of the team’s most marketable assets.

The Nationals’ Bryce Harper, another brilliant young talent, also generates occasional resentment within his own clubhouse, but more because of the attention he receives than the way he plays the game. Puig, like Harper, might simply be experiencing growing pains. But some with the Dodgers wonder whether he ever will fully realize his potential.

In the meantime, incidents occur.

Right fielder Matt Kemp engaged in a verbal altercation with Puig on Sept. 15, pursuing him the length of the dugout in Colorado before Mattingly stepped between them.

The incident, captured on camera by the Rockies’ television network, may have stemmed from Puig’s inability to take third base on a single just before Kemp batted. Asked about it afterward, Mattingly said, “Oh, just talking in the dugout, same old things. We’re like the (Oakland) A’s, the ’72 A’s.”

Another play in Game 2 of the Division Series also irritated some Dodgers personnel, sources said. It occurred after Puig had struck out in a big spot with one out and runners on first and third in the fifth.

The Cardinals’ Matt Carpenter led off the top half with a drive into the left-center field gap. Puig got a late break, took a somewhat indirect route and could not reach a ball that may have been catchable if he had reacted properly. He recovered with a stunning, whirling throw, but Carpenter reached second with a clean double.

Restrictions imposed by Major League Baseball prevent us from posting the video of the play. But it was vintage Puig, exasperating and electrifying, all in the same sequence.

“The ‘wow’ for me is Yasiel Puig,” said analyst Harold Reynolds, who was calling the game on MLB Network. “Did you see him throw this ball off-balance? Full speed, sprinting toward the wall in left and he throws it …I mean, this is ridiculous.”

The question among some Dodgers is whether Puig’s offensive struggles against the Cardinals contributed to his defensive lapses. His failure to run hard after Adams’ pop-up in Game 3 also occurred after he had struck out the previous inning.

Puig finished the series 3 for 12 with eight strikeouts and a .357 on-base percentage. He repeatedly was beaten by fastballs away, leaving him vulnerable to a hard thrower such as right-hander Shelby Miller, who started Game 4 for the Cardinals.

Ethier went 0 for 2 with two walks in that game, while Puig appeared only as a pinch runner. The Cardinals won 3-2, eliminating the Dodgers for the second straight year. Both times, they effectively held down Puig, who batted a combined .235 with 18 strikeouts and two walks in 37 plate appearances in the two series.

He is a young player, still maturing, still frustrating teammates and coaches along the way.

 

liar

 

lol at something baez

 

yeah, and kersh was the best pitcher
but neither got it done against the cardinals
not attacking you '96
just frustrated and mystified that we're not still playing

 

dealing puig might be in his eyes the best way to keep his job
if he can bring in a boatload of young talent who can contribute soon and joc/svs shine then he ends up looking like he hit a home run
which may be what he wants to save his job, kinda like the dodgers trying to win the game in one swing.

A Gon, a guy nobody has anything really bad to say about him other that he is steady and dependable... which are good things.
He may be a good trading chip to a team missing a piece like that to put them over the top.
If we can sell him now we can net some really good prospects and also add a good bullpen guy or a better catcher.
Then resign Hanley and move him to 1B full time. No more defensive woes. Or move him to 3b, and put Uribe/SVS/Ethier/cuban rookie, etc... at 1B
Sure getting the power and hitting from SS is a great help, but not if his defense weakens the middle drastically on an already weak defensive team up the middle.
Hanley full of cash without having to play hard defense may just thrive and extend his prime years by a couple.

 

folks want to try and ruin Puig the way they tried to ruin Kemp

 

There’s a report that the Dodgers are shopping Yasiel Puig... It makes no sense
by Craig Calcaterra | NBC Sports Hardball Talk -- Oct 10, 2014

We tend to avoid highlighting dubious rumors around these parts, but since this is the first dubious rumor of the (for most teams) offseason, let’s use it to get our offseason debunking skills back into game shape, shall we?

So I saw this last night, from a sports anchor at WBBM radio in Chicago, George Ofman:

With the caveat that, sure, I suppose weirder things have happened, this makes no damn sense. Partially because Puig, his NLDS Game 4 benching aside, is still the Dodgers best every day player and the most versatile member of an outfield that needs to be made-over to some degree, making him far less expendable than, say, Andre Ethier or Carl Crawford. Partially because he’s a pretty marketable face which Dodgers’ ownership has increasingly used to promote the team.

But it makes less sense from a bigger picture perspective. As was reported yesterday, GM Ned Colletti is on the hot seat, with people speculating that he may be fired. It’s preposterous to think that a GM who may be on the outs in two weeks would be allowed to make a move so significant. That a team who is considering not allowing this man to decide who gets non-roster invites for spring training would be allowed to trade away one of the biggest stars in the game. Especially when the dust hasn’t even settled from the Dodgers’ playoff exit yet.

The only way this would make sense to me is if something big happened between the Dodgers and Puig recently. Something so big that it led to his benching for Game 4 and has made Dodgers ownership decide that they need to part with Puig as soon as possible. But if something like that happened, we’d have heard about it by now, don’t you think?

I don’t know George Ofman. He may be a crack reporter. But it’s rare that local radio guys are the first ones in on major transaction news like this. Maybe once in a while this sort of thing will be borne out, but when it comes to transactional stuff of this magnitude, remember that there are really only two pools of folks who tend to get this kind of news: (a) the national hot stove reporters like Heyman, Rosenthal and Olney; and (b) the beat reporters who cover baseball teams on the regs such as Dylan Hernandez for the Dodgers, Andy McCullough for the Royals, Nick Piecoro for the Dbacks, etc. etc. After that you’re most likely to hear the news from teams themselves and way, way, way down that list come local radio and TV guys.

 

So by benching Puig and shopping him, we are basically making him the scapegoat? For once, I wish our dipshit manager and GM could own up to fucking up. The 7 Ks were awful, but he also went 2-4 with 3 runs scored in game 1 and was our only means of offense in game 3 thanks to his triple. Last I checked, Puig didn't acquire two shitty starters and a mediocre utility infielder when the team desperately was seeking middle relief help and another starter. Mattingly couldn't even explain why Ethier got the start in game 4....just kept mumbling that it's about the matchup even when asked about the defensive drop off it'd cause. Look in the mirror

 

Puig can be Raul Mondesi or Bo Jackson, thats the high and low.
Yes that means some problems sometimes... but thats the risks you gotta take.
He falls in the middle he is Matt Kemp.
Shoot after how Kemp played late in the year maybe his stock has jumped up for trade talks.
Didnt his agent just get a gm job somewhere?
Make the call Ned to start the quest to save your job.