Viva Puig!

Discussion in 'Sports Board' started by JO'Co, Jun 7, 2013.

  1. HUSKERMAN-HUSKERFAN

    HUSKERMAN-HUSKERFAN Well-Known Member

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    Eehhhhhh....he kinda sounds like the next Fydrich or Valenzuela.....bacon only sizzles so long....

    :p
     
  2. JO'Co

    JO'Co Well-Known Member

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    :D
    If this was just another case of "Fernandomania" I wouldn't waste your time. The home gamers asked me to alert them to happenings here in LA, so that they could pick better fantasy teams. Fernando had a great start, as did Hideo Nomo and other very good players who were popular among the various, large ethnic communities here. This is different. I have nothing to compare this kid with, except Babe Ruth himself. He's bigger/faster/better than almost anyone that you can name. At just under 6'3" 245lbs he's the same size as Ruth and he's probably smarter. Like Ruth, he's not just a hot rookie. He's his own category. The word I'm looking for is "incomparable."

    His only weakness is his inexperience. He has no idea how to run the bases: how to lead off; how to slide; or when to take an extra base. Last year at this time he was hiding in Mexico. He hadn't played baseball in two years, because he was banned by Castro for attempting to defect...twice. Last night, he almost got killed when he ran full speed, head first, into the rightfield wall chasing a ball that went over the fence for a HR. He just hasn't played enough to judge those situations correctly, but he's learning. To summarize, if he doesn't hurt himself, he may very well be exactly what he thinks he is: the greatest player of all-time...
     
  3. IrishCorey

    IrishCorey Well-Known Member

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  4. George Krebs

    George Krebs Well-Known Member

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    The greatest player of all time? He has been playing for a month! I will admit that he is off to a torrid start and is easily the story of the young season.... so far. But, as Billy the Kid said, "there is many a slip twixt the cup and the lip".

    Check back in 4000 hits, 2000 RBIs and 700 HRs. In the meantime, enjoy!
     
  5. JO'Co

    JO'Co Well-Known Member

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    :D re: Puig

    In tonight's game at Colorado, Yasiel Puig had a single, double, and a HR. It was the second game in-a-row where he had a chance to hit for the cycle on his final at-bat. He finished June batting .438 for the month. Two days into July he's batting .600 in the new month...

    With the rise of Puig and the return of Hanley Ramirez, the Dodger lineup is formidable all the way down to the pitchers, who're a good hitting group themselves. The team was 9 1/2 games out when Puig joined them. As of tonight, they're 2 1/2 games behind the D-backs and this road trip finishes in Arizona. All of their batting averages are heading north, because pitchers have to pitch to somebody. Carl Crawford is playing with our local Rancho Cucamonga Quakes and could rejoin the big team soon. The Puig factor is enormous. Matt Kemp is currently batting sixth in this lineup...

    Home gamers alert:

    Chris Withrow has rejoined the team and he throws in the high nineties...

    Jose Dominquez is a kid fire-baller from the Dominican Republic that you should know about. He's only 22 years-old and he's been clocked at 103mph all the way down to 99mph. In his debut, the Dodger Stadium gun clocked him at 101mph. This is Nolan Ryan, Bob Feller class heat that looks pretty effective to me, with two caveats:
    1. Dominquez already has TWO suspensions for using PEDs. Three strikes and you're out......the kid swears he's clean...
    2. He's listed at 6'0" tall, but looks 5' 10 1/2" to me. The same, old, stupid Dodger scouts who told the team to trade Pedro Martinez, because he was the same size, are saying that this guy is too small too...
     
  6. Terry O'Keefe

    Terry O'Keefe Well-Known Member Administrator

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    Johnathon Papelbon thinks Puig shouldn't be getting consideration for the NL All Star Team. :shock:
    Papelbon on Puig[/quote]
     
  7. Sid

    Sid Well-Known Member

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    I agree with Papelbon, although I would not express my opinion as strongly as he did. I love what Puig is doing, but IMO it's a completely knee-jerk reaction to think he merits all-star consideration. We live in the age of talking heads and an endless search for news cycle topics. That's what this is.

    Maybe next year.
     
  8. Terry O'Keefe

    Terry O'Keefe Well-Known Member Administrator

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    Yeah the kid has had a great start no doubt, and Papelbon should have just aknowledged that and kept his mouth shut on whether or not he should be considered. Heck many an unworthy player has been voted on to the all-star game over the years by fans stuffing the ballot box or rules that require 1 all-star from every team
     
  9. George Krebs

    George Krebs Well-Known Member

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    I agree with Sid and Papelbon. He is off to a storybook start but to choose him as a write-in after one month is insulting to anyone who has actually excelled for a full season or more.

    If he is as good as JO'Co seems to think he is, he will start in the next 15-20 All Star games and then proceed to Cooperstown.
     
  10. JO'Co

    JO'Co Well-Known Member

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    :D
    re: All-Star Game

    I really don't care one way or the other, although I did write-in Puig 25 times myself. My other reactions are:
    1. Who in thee hell is Johnathon Papelbon? Must be some American League malcontent that I don't follow.
    2. Puig has been with his team only three fewer weeks than Mike Trout, who was on last year's American League All-Star team.
    3. The kid has been carrying the team since his first day.
    4. If he's only half as productive the rest of the way and the Dodgers win the pennant, he may very well wind up as the National League MVP. The last Dodger MVP who didn't make the All-Star team was Kirk Gibson...
     
  11. IrishCorey

    IrishCorey Well-Known Member

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  12. Sid

    Sid Well-Known Member

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    Jim makes a good point in his #2 and #4. We'll see. Only 25 times? Over the course of a 9-inning game, you could have cast twice as many votes. Of course, you wouldn't have seen much of the game. :lol:

    Corey, we'll have to keep an eye on that situation next time the Dodgers play the Phils.
     
  13. Terry O'Keefe

    Terry O'Keefe Well-Known Member Administrator

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    Sid do you remember the ballot box stuffing that the Reds fans did one year. It was a long time ago.
     
  14. Sid

    Sid Well-Known Member

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    I don't remember that. Now I know why the vote was taken away from the fans. I actually favored the coaches and players making the picks, but in recent years the right players have been voted into the game, so I guess the system is working as intended.
     
  15. George Krebs

    George Krebs Well-Known Member

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    I remember it. A local daily variety show in Cincinnati, the Ruth Lyons 50/50 Club, was a major catalyst behind it.
     
  16. JO'Co

    JO'Co Well-Known Member

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    re: Cincinnati ballot stuffing
    I remember that too...

    re: Johnathon Papelbon
    He's the talk of the town on our radio shows here. In fact, they were just talking about him on the post-game show a few minutes ago. The general feeling here is that Johnathon Papelbon is a cross between a rhinoceros pecker and a striped arsed baboon. Or maybe that was his mother...
    In any case, they also mentioned that when the All-Star game was played at Yankee Stadium, Papelbon publicly proclaimed that HE should be the American League All-Star closer and NOT Mariano Rivera...

    Let's have a scientific experiment. On one side of the scales of justice, we'll put Mariano Rivera and Yasiel Puig. On the other side we'll put Johnathon Papelbon. The question is: how much more dogsh!t will you have to add to Papelbon's side to balance the scales?

    re: Puig tonight
    Every night the kid does something that can't be done. In his first at-bat tonight, he crushed a line drive on two hops to Carlos Gonzalez in left and then beat the throw to 2nd base for a double. For anyone else, that's a straight single. Then he performed the impossible: he scored from 2nd base on an infield ground out to the first baseman...

    re: injury
    As I warned, Puig's reckless style would get him hurt sooner or later. He left tonight's game with a bruised hip after making a miraculous catch high along the rightfield wall. He's listed as day to day. Carl Crawford returns tomorrow...

    re: Mark "The Bird" Fidrych

    Fidrych pitched for the American League All-Star team after only 11 games as a player...
    Puig has now played 28 games, with 109 at-bats, 48 hits, 8 HRs, and a batting average of a cool .440... He was also the National League Player of the Month for June.

    See this month's Sports Illustrated for a good article on Puig. Nobody really knows who this guy is or where he really comes from. Even the Cubans have no idea. Like Joe Hardy or Roy Hobbs, his origins are obscure to the point of being suspicious. There isn't any information. He has appeared out of thin air. The current rumor here, is that he's an insurance salesman from Pasadena who sold his soul to the devil...
     
  17. George Krebs

    George Krebs Well-Known Member

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    The guy is off the charts, for sure. You are going to make a fan out of me yet by invoking Roy Hobbs. 8)
     
  18. Terry O'Keefe

    Terry O'Keefe Well-Known Member Administrator

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    JO'Co should've patented that phrase! :)

    [​IMG]
     
  19. gipper

    gipper Well-Known Member

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    He was 9-1 with a 1.85 ERA.
    according to Wikipedia.
     
  20. Bobdawolverweasel

    Bobdawolverweasel Well-Known Member

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    Fidrych finished that season with a 19-9 record. He completed 24 of 29 and had 2.34 earned run average, the best in the majors.

    My guess is that there will be several teams in the majors whose pitching staffs willl be hard pressed to complete 24 games in a decade.