June 22nd, 2013 at 4:21 am 
by Ron Cervenka I had to laugh, what else could I do.
Bloggers and beat writers were in a panic over Dodger sensation Yasiel Puig only going 1 for 4 on Thursday night with three strikeouts (the one was a solo home run). OMG! – opposing pitchers have figured him out, found his weakness. The Dodgers need to option him back to the minors! Going 1 for 4 in your 16th major league games is totally unacceptable and inexcusable! The kid is washed up!
Don’t you think it’s a bit premature to panic over Puig’s three strikeout night?
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)
Obviously I am joking – the kid had five multi-hit games in the six games prior to Thursday night’s game for crying out loud.
Now this certainly is not to say that opposing pitchers won’t eventually make adjustments in how they pitch to Puig; good pitchers always adjust to good hitters and good hitters always adjust to pitchers who have adjusted to them – it’s been that way for more than 130 years. This is what separates good hitters and pitchers from the rest.
We all know that Puig will go through rough periods and slumps throughout his career, but it’s pretty safe to say going 1 for 4 on Thursday night is not one of them – especially after he went an incredible (if not impossible) 2 for 4 / 2 for 5 / 3 for 4 / 1 for 5 / 2 for 4 / 2 for 4 in the six games prior to Thursday night’s game (and then went 2 for 4 again on Friday night).
It’s also pretty safe to say that Mark McGwire and Don Mattingly are well aware of what’s going on and the adjustments that pitchers are trying to make with him, but I believe that it is a bit premature to say that Puig is susceptible to those low and away off-speed breaking balls that he saw a lot of on Thursday and Friday nights. If it is indeed a chink in Puig’s armor, you can bet that McGwire, Mattingly and Puig himself will be all over it and will make adjustments, and when he does, the pitchers will come up with something else. It is a time proven never-ending cycle.
May the best man win.
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Well, he went 2 for 4 last night with no strike outs and they tried to pitch him the same way – off-speed pitches away. This time around he didn’t bite on many of the ones outside of the strike zone. I think he already adjusted to them!
You’re coming off as real smug here Ron. Bloggers and posters (and that includes me), noticed some weaknesses in Puig’s game and brought them up. Nobody said that he was done. Nobody said that he needed to be sent down. Simply put, it was noted that he’s going to see some off-speed junk and he’d need to adjust and we all hoped that he would be able to handle it.
Who said he was washed up?
“Obviously I’m joking…”
Yes, I was being smug at the silliness of the writers who saw Puig’s three strikeouts as a crisis, particularly the LA Times article that suggested that Puig’s weakness had been found and his string of multi-hit games was a thing of the past. I was also referencing the immediate Twitter frenzy it caused that included several noted bloggers.
bigbluebird’s comments above mirror my thoughts on the topic exactly.
If anyone was upset or took offense to this article I apologize – that was not my intention.
I was happy to see him lay off most of those low and away off speed breaking balls that Jason Marquis was tossing up there on Thursday night. It just seemed strange that Puig couldn’t stop swinging at them. I agree though he will have many nights that will be a lot better than that and he’ll help this team immensely.
The line I am more concerned about was Matt Kemp’s at Albuquerque. 0 for 5 with 4 K’s. I wonder if he is still flailing away at pitches 6″ outside. He needs to shorten his swing, show more discipline and go back through the box with line drives.
If Puig does have a weakness, Major League pitchers will find it. So far, he appears to be working at adjusting. His K/BB of 5.33 is not good, but his OPS+ of 236 sure is.