"Puig Mania"

Several days ago I sat down to watch Sunday night baseball for the first time in a long time just to catch a glimpse of Young Cuban phenom Yasiel Puig who has been tearing it up for the LA Dodgers as of late. I've heard tremendous things about this guy reading all of the baseball scouts raving about his tools as a ballplayer.

As he stepped into the box against San Francisco Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner I watched every little detail of this guy as a hitter. He worked the count to 1-1 and he had displayed solid plate discipline laying off a borderline second pitch. Watching what occurred on the 3^rd pitch was beautiful and impressive to watch a young player do. On a pitch low and away he churned those hips and swung at the ball. He stayed inside of it and hit it to the opposite field over the right field fence at Dodger Stadium for the7^th home run of his very short career. Many young players you see in the Majors have a problem with any pitches low and away and he just made it look eazy on that opposite field home run, he looked like the 2^nd coming of Yoenis Cespedes with that swing.

Although Puig is off to a hot start keep in mind that 20 games is still a very small sample size and that the MLB will make adjustments to him the question is how will he adjust back once the necessary adjustments are made, that’s when we find out how good he is. Looking at Puig statistically one thing bothers me which is his walk to strike out ratio which is 3 to 17. That shows me that he still has much room to grow in terms of plate discipline as do pretty much all hitters his age do.

With all of that said if he stays hitting at a high level and continues to increase his numbers I think he deserves some consideration for the All-Star game. You look at his current stats of 34 Hits, 14 runs scored, 7 homeruns, 14 RBI's while hitting 442. in 20 games that is just for lack of a better word “NASTY”. He is hitting on a torid pace and making a huge impact for the LA Dodgers. To put his numbers into perspective check out how he stacks up with Bryce Harper and Mike Trout in their 1^st 20 games of their rookie seasons in the tweet below.

Yasiel Puig has more HR (7 vs 5) & RBI (14 vs 13) in his 1st 20 games than Mike Trout & Bryce Harper in their 1st 20 career games combined.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) June 25, 2013

Puig is making history right now and is just plain entertaining to watch. He will eventually struggle as do all players do in baseball at some point but for now just enjoy “Puig Mania”.

Hanley-wood

Wednesday marked the end of an era in Miami. Hanley Ramirez was traded to the L.A Dodgers prior to the Marlins contest vs. Atlanta Braves. His legacy in Miami was an up and down one he was a MVP canadite at times and other times he was detrimental to the teams success kicking balls into the outfield not playing hard at times. He got managers fired and he never fulfilled that 7 year 70 million dollar contract as the marlins franchise player. He arrived into the Dodger clubhouse around 4:00 Midwestern time he was greeted by teammates who were as equally happy too see him as he was to wear Dodger blue. The 3 time All-star was all smiles and said “I’m happy too be here”. That statement means a lot because I as a Marlin fan can tell you that a happy Hanley is a Productive one. Being in L.A could help reenergize the former batting champ back to form hitting in the same line up with Matt Kemp and Andre Eithier not having to be the face of a franchise. Hanley certainly looked like a changed man when I watched him play Monday night vs. the Cardinals. I noticed a few things that I hadn’t seen all year from him. He was a a lot more aggressive earlier in the count. He also had a more compact swing and that front shoulder wasn’t flying out so it allowed him to put more quality swings on the baseball. In his 1st ever at bat with his new ball club Hanley got those arms extended and drove the ball to center field which went off the Busch stadium wall and resulted in his 3rd triple of the season. Later on in the 6th inning he stayed back kept his hands nice short and compact and he smacked a ground ball single into center field to score Mark Ellis collect his 1st Dodger rbi. The Cardinals would eventually come back and ultimately win the game in the 12th inning 3-2. Despite the loss if im a fan of this ball club im excited to have Hanley in the middle of my order. I feel like L.A is a perfect fit for him and his personality, he loves attention and getting the limelight. When the ball club returns back home he will get to play on one of baseballs biggest stages Dodger Stadium in a city full of gilts and glamour. Hanley’s a gilts and glamour kind of guy so I think he will fit right in. If he keeps his head on straight he could be a huge asset to the team. If the Dodgers ever win a championship and he is a big part of it who knows instead of “Hollywood” we might see “Hanley-wood"