June 26th, 2013 at 7:32 am 
by Ron Cervenka I have to admit that I was quite surprised when I heard it.
“Do you believe Yasiel Puig’s arrogance?” said a fan in the Left Field Pavilion about the guy who is quite possibly “…the best baseball player to come along in 30 or 40 years…” (a direct quote from Giants manager Bruce Bochy).
“He’s not arrogant, he’s confident,” I tried explaining to the fan about Puig. “I think you might be confusing Puig’s confidence, aggressiveness and inexperience with arrogance, because he is definitely not arrogant.”
“When you try stupid stuff like that, it’s arrogance,” the fan argued.
He was referring to a play that occurred in Monday night’s series opener against the hated Giants in which a one-out chopper was hit to Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford with Puig on second base. After Crawford looked Puig back to the bag and fired to first base for the second out of the inning, Puig aggressively broke for third base. The return throw from Giants first baseman Brandon Belt to third baseman Pablo Sandoval was right on the money and Puig quite possibly would have been out had Sandoval not dropped the ball – but he did and Puig was safe.
Aggressive? Absolutely. Arrogant? I just don’t see it.
With Puig’s tremendous speed, I would have been surprised if Puig hadn’t tried for third base on the play.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)
Realizing that there was nothing that I could say to this guy to get him to think otherwise, I simply let it go. There was no way for him to know that I had personally interviewed Yasiel Puig on several occasions and found the 22-year-old Cuban defector to be anything but arrogant. Quite the contrary, in fact; Puig is probably one of the most humble young ballplayers I have ever met. He is also one of the most confident, most aggressive and, of course, inexperienced – having been in the Big leagues for less than a month.
And what does Dodger manager Don Mattingly think about Puig’s aggressive base running and, more specifically, about this play in particular – which was clearly against ‘Baseball 101’ about never making the first or third out at third base? I asked Mattingly this question in the Dodger dugout prior to Tuesday night’s game.
“With (Puig) there’s a fine line of trying to harness him and taking his aggressiveness away,” said Mattingly. “We love the way he plays. There are certain things that (you don’t) really want to live with, but are going to happen and every one of those is a (learning experience).”
Mattingly was quick to add the obvious.
“Anytime he makes it we’re all good with it,” drawing laughs from the gathered media. “Seriously, with him it continues and (we don’t want to) take too much away from him. We don’t want to say ‘You can’t do this and you can’t do that.’ I’d rather him try to do everything and just keep learning the game.”
Mattingly added that first base coach Davey Lopes is going to keep working with Puig on his base running.
“(Davey) is going to talk to him about those base running situations and we’ll talk to him about the cut-off man and when you take this chance and that chance. Those are all just experience things that he’s going to get better and better at. He’s a smart kid, he’ll pick it up but there’s going to be some bumps in the road,’ added Mattingly.
Arrogance? Not hardly. But even if it were – don’t stop!
Posted in 
@Think_BlueLA @YasielPuig Very nice Ron. I Agree Puig is just young and full of gusto. Not arrogant.
I don’t see that as arrogance. It is strictly aggressiveness and extreme self confidence. The spin off value is that teams now have to always be concerned about Puig in a similar situation on the bases.
Arrogance to me is an exaggerated expression of self importance, thinking or maybe even believing one is better than others and letting others know it.
Many athletes are extremely aggressive on their field of battle but are very humble off the field. Don Mattingly has it right. Help Yasiel learn all the game decisions so he can make more experienced decisions which have a better chance of success. But, for heavens sakes, don’t kill his enthusiasm for the game. Enthusiasm is infectious.
To be a great player you must have iron-plated confidence and believe in yourself in every situation whether things are going good or bad. Sometimes that is mistakenly taken as arrogance or “not paying your dues.” Out of jealousy or other reasons fans, other players, and the media are going to take a few swipes at him (sometimes literally). We already saw that with Ian Kennedy. Many of these players take years to work their way through the minors getting paid a fraction of what Puig makes and never have anything close to the type of talent and tools that he possesses. That is going to create some resentment among other players but it comes with the territory. If he were flipping his bat or showing up pitchers that is one thing. But to say he should tone down his game is just wrong.
His base running is nerve wracking to the average fan who is not use to seeing it. The opposing teams will, if they haven’t already, begin to watch out for him and will throw him out often and I’m sure that will make him more cautious. But he has become exciting to watch.
You want arrogance, try Bonds or McCarver, and they were also great players. But arrogance manifested by the way you deal with people, not the way you play the game.