[Phillies_Joe]

LOL......you tell 'em RJ

[rjcj2017]

LOL......you tell 'em RJ

Sorry man, it's just ridiculous.

He was literally the talk of baseball from the beginning of June on, not to mention what I ... already mentioned.

("Allow myself to introduce ... myself" — Austin Powers)

Basically, Jose didn't pitch in one important game all year, and pitched all of them in a mausoleum of a ballpark.

Meaning, there was never any pressure on him.

The stats are the stats, and he had great ones, but look what Puig did in about 100 games ... most MLBers would take those numbers for the full 162.

OK, I will concede he acted like an a-- hat on occasion, and I honestly believe the voters stayed away from him for that reason.

Still doesn't discount what he and the Dodgers achieved on the field once he got there.

I mean, you can't coach this kind of enthusiasm:





Sorry, couldn't resist taking it out of the garage for a spin, LOL

[ryanmo5]

Well speaking as someone who watched him play several times last year it's my belief that he is an average defender, has good power, can swing too freely (aka can be struck out easily) and is very selfish and immature. Almost everyone is on his bandwagon and that's fine but I'm not buying it one bit personally. Just my personal opinion of him.

[jacobystealshome]

his babips and his free swing suggest he was extremely lucky last year, and that his numbers will decline, probably a great deal

also: pitchers will now have a book on him...the sophomore slump exists for a reason.


as far as defense: he's rangy, but his arm is surprisingly average, and he doesnt get good reads off the bat (he can learn positioning along the way). at best he is an average defense right now. it will never be superior

he's also not a smart base runner. takes too many chances, doesnt get great jumps

[rybowski97]

i dont see being a free swinger as a negative with him, he almost reminds me of vladimir guerrero. as long as he makes some changes in his attitude and matures a bit this offseason i think he will be a mvp candidate for years to come----lol sounds alot like that harper guy in washington!

[ricelynnevans75]

What's Puigs future hold next season? Sophomore slump? Huge year? Something in between?

I'm going to go with something in between. Gut feeling that he'll be running into a lot of pitchers who know him now and he'll have to learn to do some adjustments.

[jacobystealshome]

i dont see being a free swinger as a negative with him, he almost reminds me of vladimir guerrero. as long as he makes some changes in his attitude and matures a bit this offseason i think he will be a mvp candidate for years to come----lol sounds alot like that harper guy in washington!

whoa whoa whoa....lets not invoke the name of the best bad ball hitter in the past 4 decades. come on now....

when we talk "free swingers", there a scale from "vlady" to oh, lets just go with "dan uggla"

im not saying puig is Uggla in the free swing spectrum, but he aint no vladdy. he isnt close

(remember, we are talking about free swinging, not how good a player)

Puig, in terms of free swinging, is probably - right now - a shade towards vladdy more than uggla, but definitely in the middle

---

actually, looking at the numbers again:

puig would have been the 22nd worst player in baseball for k%
his babips would have been the second highest in the league

(i know some folks dont understand babips: a primer:

measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits. a consistently high or low BABIP is hard to maintain, therefore, BABIP can be used to spot fluky seasons. While typically around 30% of all balls in play fall for hits, there are three main variables that can affect BABIP rates for individual players:

Defense, luck, and changes in talent level.

If a batter has a very high or very low BABIP, it means that whatever the reason for the spike (whether it’s defense, luck, or slight skill changes), that player will regress back toward their career BABIP rate.

i take what i said above back: he's a shade close to uggla in terms of free swinging, and his batting average could take a HUGE hit next year. If he hits 300, it would be shocking. considering his walk %, it wqould be shocking to see him have a OBP of over 345 (compared to 391 last year)

[petillo64]

whoa whoa whoa....lets not invoke the name of the best bad ball hitter in the past 4 decades. come on now....

when we talk "free swingers", there a scale from "vlady" to oh, lets just go with "dan uggla"

im not saying puig is Uggla in the free swing spectrum, but he aint no vladdy. he isnt close

(remember, we are talking about free swinging, not how good a player)

Puig, in terms of free swinging, is probably - right now - a shade towards vladdy more than uggla, but definitely in the middle

---

actually, looking at the numbers again:

puig would have been the 22nd worst player in baseball for k%
his babips would have been the second highest in the league

(i know some folks dont understand babips: a primer:

measures how many of a batter’s balls in play go for hits. a consistently high or low BABIP is hard to maintain, therefore, BABIP can be used to spot fluky seasons. While typically around 30% of all balls in play fall for hits, there are three main variables that can affect BABIP rates for individual players:

Defense, luck, and changes in talent level.

If a batter has a very high or very low BABIP, it means that whatever the reason for the spike (whether it’s defense, luck, or slight skill changes), that player will regress back toward their career BABIP rate.

i take what i said above back: he's a shade close to uggla in terms of free swinging, and his batting average could take a HUGE hit next year. If he hits 300, it would be shocking. considering his walk %, it wqould be shocking to see him have a OBP of over 345 (compared to 391 last year)

Good breakdown. His BABIP was insanely high, while the best Cuban in baseball's was very low last season (.275 compared to .340 in '12)... Last year, even though Cespedes did look like a dummy in half his at-bats, he hit a good amount of scorchers (or even very sharp ground balls) directly at defenders...

The thing about Puig's BABIP is that we don't really have much to compare it to since he was rookie in order to determine HOW MUCH of a fluke it was. No way that the .380 BABIP is sustainable, so his numbers will definitely drop. I don't think that flirting with .300 would be unreasonable, even though .280 is more likely.

[jacobystealshome]

if im predicting....

given that pitchers will develop a book on him, and hi babips was so high, so numbers go down

if he plays the whole season:
im thinking .285, with a 340 OBP. 25 homers, 20 sb, 106 runs, 81 rbi's (though that will depend a great deal on his teammates. give that +/- of 10)

that isnt a bad season by any measure. it is very good, in fact. but the expectations are astronomical from collectors

[rybowski97]

if im predicting....

given that pitchers will develop a book on him, and hi babips was so high, so numbers go down

if he plays the whole season:
im thinking .285, with a 340 OBP. 25 homers, 20 sb, 106 runs, 81 rbi's (though that will depend a great deal on his teammates. give that +/- of 10)

that isnt a bad season by any measure. it is very good, in fact. but the expectations are astronomical from collectors

ill agree with numbers being in that range...i dont see him hitting 40 hrs but is capable of 25-35. i get what your saying about vlady, but this guys approach just reminds of him. of course he is close to vlady yet!