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Thursday 26 October 2017

Yasiel Puig, unbound

Source: http://ift.tt/tj4dWT --- Wednesday, October 25, 2017
The Wild Horse of the Dodgers has been feeling himself all playoffs long. It’s been good for Los Angeles, and great for Baseball. Since he debuted in 2013, Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig has filled every role someone demanding a narrative could want. From phenom to malcontent, clubhouse cancer to a veteran presence during his time down in Triple-A, Puig’s ebullience has infected everyone who plays with him, watches him, and commentates on him. (Not always in a good way, but that’s not his fault.) He’s also been a uniquely fun player to watch. Puig has finally made it to the biggest stage in Baseball, once again at the center of the storm for the Dodgers. He’s in no way a perfect player, but he’s everything I want to see in the World Series. Puig is not a truly spectacular Baseball player on the level of, say, Mike Trout , or even Manny Machado. His numbers speak to that. He’s very good — he posted a 117 wRC+ this year with a career high 28 homers, career high 11.7 percent walk rate and his lowest ever strikeout rate at 17.1 percent — but he’s probably the fourth or fifth best position player on the Dodgers at this point (which does speak to their incredible potency throughout the lineup). They’d be a shadow of what they are without him, though, merely a collection of talented ciphers that crush baseballs and leave little impression. They don’t even have the interesting Seager . I don’t want to reduce Puig to some sort of on-fiel ...



from Baseball http://ift.tt/2h8sA1z

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