It’s easy to get distracted by the antics, by the way he destroys the great game of baseball a little bit every time he steps on the field. But Yasiel Puig is sort of laying waste to the National League this season.
Sort of? Scratch that. He’s comprehensively making NL pitchers look like scared Little Leaguers, putting up a slash line of .344/.442/.623 with 11 home runs. His season is already worth more than 3 Wins Above Replacement and, scariest of all, he looks like a guy still learning and improving.
The growth and development of Puig’s approach at the plate is nothing short of scary. When he first exploded onto the scene in 2013, it felt like Puig swung at everything. He managed to hit everything too, using the opposite field to great effect during his first run of success.
Not that he’s finished going the other way now. Last night he stayed back on a Homer Bailey breaking ball and pounded it out of the park to right-center field.
GIF via Chad Moriyama and Dodgers Digest
But no big leaguer, not even one as strong and talented as Yasiel Puig, can survive swinging at so many pitches out of the zone. So the Dodgers right fielder adjusted. He stopped swinging so much at pitches off the plate. He stopped swinging so much...period.
His walk rate in 2014 is up to 12%, more than 50% higher than the league average. He’s already drawn 26 walks this season (in fewer than 200 plate appearances) compared to 36 walks in 2013 (in nearly 400 PA).
For a player with the physical capabilities of Puig, restricting the type of pitch he offers at pays incredible dividends, as his powers are used for good (driving hittable pitches) rather than evil (using his strength to make the most of pitcher’s pitches, an uphill battle even for him.) The results are staggering.
His overall numbers trail only Troy Tulowitzki among all hitters in baseball, but in May he is unconscious. Puig owns a .406/.509/.760 slash line in May, with 8 home runs.
As often happens when things are going well, the talk of Puig’s off-field antics has grown quiet. The hand-wringing about his base running (still bad!) and his inability to play the game the right way has all but stopped. Slug .750 for a month and that will happen, but Puig is also making the right plays and helping his team win.
Monday night, after Hyun-jin Ryu’s perfect game bid was gone and the Dodgers just needed to win the game over the Reds, Puig made a simple yet important play to help preserve the victory.
With runners on the corners and the Reds threatening, Chris Heisey skied a fly ball to deep right field, sending Puig scrambling back towards the warning track. He hauled in the ball on the run and then turned, firing it back to the infield to keep Ryan Ludwick at first base.
Is that a play Puig makes last season? His reputation suggests otherwise.
For some, Puig will never be good enough. No matter how refined his approach at the plate becomes, no matter the degree to which his athleticism allows him to dominate the game, the “other stuff” will be the discussion point. Those people are two things: wrong and idiots. Also: probably racist.
The Dodgers right fielder is one of the best players in baseball. He always seemed capable of it and now he’s showing just how much damage his tools and abilities can do. Watch out, baseball world. Yasiel Puig is still just 23 years old and learning on the fly. The sky remains the limit.
