Tag Archives: Yasiel Puig

Daily Distractions: Important roster decisions coming. Who will the Dodgers cut?

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Jerry Hairston Jr.Mark EllisThe Dodgers are in the market for a pair of infielders.

Mark Ellis and Jerry Hairston Jr., currently on the disabled list with a strained right quadriceps and left groin, respectively, are expected to join the team at some point during this weekend’s road trip to Atlanta. Both are rehabbing tonight with the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts.

But to take each off the disabled list means that another player must come off the active roster, and the choices are not obvious. After all, who expected Elian Herrera to get the first call-up when Hairston went on the disabled list two weeks ago?

That said, barring any (more) injuries, these are the four players whose time with the Dodgers may be at least temporarily up:

– Luis Cruz. A gifted third baseman/shortstop, Cruz hasn’t hit enough this year to justify being on a major-league roster. In 69 at-bats, he has six singles for a .087 batting average and slugging percentage. Cruz is out of options, so the Dodgers would probably have to designate him for assignment. The prospect of closing the book on last year’s feel good story (and a player whose jerseys are still displayed prominently in the window of the Dodgers’ team store) has become a story in and of itself.

– Ramon Hernandez. At 38, Hernandez’s bat speed isn’t what it used to be. He’s batting even below the Cruz Line, at .045, and the Dodgers have two catchers ahead of him on the depth chart. The Dodgers have two first basemen ahead of him on the depth chart, too, in Adrian Gonzalez and Scott Van Slyke. Like Cruz, Hernandez would probably be designated for assignment since he’s been out of options since 2002.

– Van Slyke. Sending Van Slyke out doesn’t make as much sense, given the Dodgers’ need for power and a backup first baseman/corner outfielder, but they’ve cut him loose before. In nine plate appearances, SVS has a single, a home run, two strikeouts and a walk.

– Dee Gordon. Like Van Slyke, there are reasons to keep Gordon but history isn’t on his side. The Dodgers never wanted Gordon playing an everyday shortstop role in the majors until he was ready, and Gordon’s .220 batting average and negative UZR (which is actually up from last season) aren’t strong signs of readiness. The Dodgers could easily platoon Cruz, Nick Punto, Juan Uribe and Hairston on the left side of the infield until Hanley Ramirez returns from the disabled list.

Some bullet points to tide you through the weekend:

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Daily Distractions: Is Josh Beckett headed to the disabled list?

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Josh Beckett

Josh Beckett is 0-5, and the Dodgers are 1-7 in games that he starts. Maybe it’s a good time for the DL. (Associated Press photo)


Josh Beckett really didn’t want to talk about his injuries after yesterday’s game.

We know that he tweaked his groin covering first base on an Adam LaRoche ground ball in the third inning. We know that he’s dealing with other injuries. We don’t know what part of his body they’re affecting, how serious they are, or when he started feeling them — we just know that Beckett isn’t right.

But we knew that already.

“I’m in one of those ruts where if they hit the ball soft it’s a hit, if they hit the ball hard, it’s a hit,” Beckett said after the Dodgers’ 6-2 loss to the Washington Nationals.

Will he need to go on the disabled list?

“I’m healthy enough to pitch,” he said.

That might not stop the Dodgers from putting Beckett on the DL as a “precaution.” Sometimes that’s baseball code for, “even though you can pitch, we’d rather you not,” and being 0-5 with a 5.19 earned-run average constitutes just cause.

More injury-related bullet points:
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Daily Distractions: Analyzing Matt Kemp’s power outage.

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Matt Kemp

Matt Kemp has evolved from a poor hitter to a singles hitter this season, and he may or may not be done evolving. (Associated Press)

Matt Kemp collected his 1,000th career hit yesterday afternoon. Good thing the Dodgers recognized the accomplishment on the video board, otherwise he might not have known until after the game.

Kemp collected the milestone hit on a single, which seems appropriate. Kemp has been stuck on one home run — against New York Mets phenom Matt Harvey, no less — for almost a month. If he hits one home run a month, Kemp will finish the season with six.

If I could have written more about Kemp in yesterday’s notebook, I might have touched on a number of topics that ESPN’s Buster Olney discussed in his podcast the other day, namely:

• Kemp is getting eaten alive by pitches down and away. His strikeout rate in that area is among the top five percent in the league.
• Kemp has less power. He’s lost 25 feet off his average fly ball.
• It’s not luck. His batting average on balls in play is .363, slightly above his .352 career average.
• Kemp seems to be avoiding putting stress on his left shoulder, just as he did last September when the shoulder was legitimately hurt.

Kemp started the year unable to hit the ball for power or average, so we could be looking at a snapshot moment in his road back from last year’s shoulder surgery. Maybe not. If we’re looking at the new Matt Kemp, how long before the Dodgers move him up (say, to 2nd) or down in the lineup?

Some more Monday bullet points:

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How much will Elian Herrera play for the Dodgers?

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Elian HerreraElian Herrera will be available to the Dodgers off the bench today and manager Don Mattingly hinted that Herrera would spell Dodgers left fielder Carl Crawford or right fielder Andre Ethier in the starting lineup tomorrow.

Ethier hasn’t been given a day off by the manager (not the schedule) since April 7, Crawford since getting back to back days off on April 30 and May 1. That’s weighed on Mattingly lately, though he acknowledged that the injuries to Jerry Hairston Jr. and Mark Ellis last week left him little choice until both players ultimately went on the 15-day disabled list.

“We’ve had a lot of guys hurt and it’s like we just keep throwing everybody else out there,” Mattingly said. “We want to have that option on the left-hander, to give Carl or Dre a day off.”

The Dodgers will see a left-hander, Wade Miley, tomorrow in the series finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

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Jerry Hairston Jr.’s groin injury could open a spot for an outfielder in Los Angeles, but who?

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First it was the pitchers. Now the Dodger position players’ health is unraveling like a spool of thread with Mark Ellis‘ quadricep, Hanley Ramirez‘s hamstring and Jerry Hairston Jr.’s groin all giving out within a 10-day span.

Hairston could join Ellis and Ramirez on the disabled list soon if he isn’t able to play the outfield. Among the Dodgers’ reserves, only Skip Schumaker is a natural outfielder (infielders Luis Cruz and Justin Sellers have made cameos there during spring training). Manager Don Mattingly had a clear criterion for Hairston to avoid the disabled list.

“Either he can play the outfield or he can’t go at all,” Mattingly said. “Jerry’s going to need to be able to play the outfield for us to not have to make a move.”
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Dodgers prospect Yasiel Puig was driving 97 mph in a 50-mph zone Sunday.

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Passing along a couple more details about the arrest of Dodgers prospect Yasiel Puig:

According to the official report filed by the Chattanooga Police Department, Puig was driving his BMW x35i sports utility vehicle 97 mph in a 50-mph zone when he was arrested early Sunday morning. He told the arresting officer that he was the designated driver for an unnamed passenger, who translated Puig’s statement from Spanish.

As some have pointed out, Puig’s speed wasn’t even the fastest driven by a baseball player this season:

The report states that Puig’s car moved “from the left lane over the center white dash lines and then back into the left lane. The BMW came close to a vehicle that was occupying the right lane and obeying the traffic laws. It took blue lights and multiple siren blasts to get the driver to stop. … The driver was clearly driving with wanton disregard for the safety of other citizen drivers as well as himself and his passenger.”

Dodgers prospect Yasiel Puig arrested in Tennessee.

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Yasiel Puig

Authorities in Chattanooga, Tennessee arrested Dodgers prospect Yasiel Puig on charges of reckless driving, speeding and driving without proof of insurance Sunday, according to the Hamilton (Tenn.) County Sheriff.

The 22-year-old outfielder is currently on the roster of the Chattanooga Lookouts, the Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate, and is on the disabled list with a sprained left thumb.

Puig signed a seven-year, $42 million contract with the Dodgers last June after defecting from Cuba, and left a significant impression in spring training. His .517 batting average led all players in spring, and his 1.328 OPS was second, tagging Puig as a can’t-miss prospect.

“We’re aware of the situation and we take it very seriously,” a Dodgers spokesperson said. “We’ll be handling discipline internally.”

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Daily Distractions: Fun with small sample sizes; Yasiel Puig; picture gallery.

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Carl Crawford Matt Kemp

Carl Crawford (left) and Matt Kemp (right), respectively, the best and one of the worst hitters in the National League. (Associated Press photo)


Carl Crawford is the best hitter in the National League.

Care to disagree?

He leads the Senior Circuit in batting average (.464), on-base percentage (.531), is tied for fourth in OPS (1.246), tied for eighth in runs (8) and seventh in stolen bases (2).

Less than 10 games into the season, we can cherry-pick a few more eye-raising stats.

Three Dodgers – Mark Ellis (4.83), A.J. Ellis (4.67) and Andre Ethier (4.32) – are among the top eight in pitches per plate appearance. The Mark McGwire effect? Maybe. Adrian Gonzalez is seeing the seventh-fewest pitches per plate appearances in the NL, 3.30, tied with some kid named Bryce Harper. Yet somehow Gonzalez has more walks (4) than strikeouts (3) this season.

As for Ethier, who turned 31 yesterday, he’s batting .429 against left-handed pitchers and .182 against righties. His lefty-righty splits were .222 and .325 last year.

On the flip side, Matt Kemp‘s batting average is .167.

Clearly, the guy doesn’t belong in the big leagues.

Here are some bullet points for a Thursday morning:

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Daily Distractions: Real facts about A.J. Ellis, Ryu Hyun-Jin.

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A.J. Ellis

A.J. Ellis gets a call from home plate umpire Dan Iassogna in a Sept. 11, 2012 game against the Arizona Diamondbacks. (Associated Press)

One of the most frequent questions I get asked by friends, readers and fans is, “who are the best players to interview?” I always rattle off a list, and that list always includes A.J. Ellis. A few others, too, but Buster Olney had an A.J. Ellis anecdote on his blog today that’s worth relaying:

Over the last few weeks, I had conversations with three catchers who are known to have good working relationships with umpires — Alex Avila of the Tigers, Tampa Bay’s Jose Molina, and the Dodgers’ A.J. Ellis. Avila is known to have a good eye at the plate, and he mentioned to me that umpires will ask him from time to time whether they missed pitches — when Avila is catching, or batting. And Avila’s policy is to always, always provide 100 percent honesty. So if he takes a walk on a borderline pitch and the plate umpire asks him about it later, Avila — who has an understated, genial demeanor — will tell him exactly what he thinks, even if he believes the ball four call should’ve been a strike.

Molina and Ellis agreed completely, mentioning that they have similar conversations. The bottom line, the catchers explained, is that the umpires want to be the best at what they do and they will ask, from time to time, for immediate feedback. But with Ellis, Avila and Molina, those conversations take place quietly, in the course of a day’s work, without anybody else knowing about it, and with body language and tone that convey complete respect.

There are other Ellis anecdotes out there (real ones, not Chuck Norris ones). Olney’s illustrates what those of us who cover him day-to-day have come to understand: A.J. Ellis is a rare breed.

With no game last night to reflect upon, these bullet points are about to get delightfully random:

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Daily Distractions: Accentuating the positive, and tracking down some former Dodgers.

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In my game story last night, I highlighted what ailed the Dodgers in their 5-3 loss to the Giants. (Photo gallery)

To be fair, here’s what the Dodgers did well in their first series of the season:

- Limited the Giants to a .208 batting average;
- Walked only two batters in the three games, while striking out 19;
- Didn’t allow a stolen base, while catching the Giants’ lone attempted thief;
- Turned a league-high seven double plays;
- In lieu of traditional offensive means, they got in the way of three San Francisco pitches.

OK, maybe the last one’s a stretch.

The positives paint a clear picture: the Dodgers pitchers were doing their jobs for the most part and, when they weren’t, the defense was helping out (Skip Schumaker‘s error last night serving as the obvious exception).

Here are some bullet points for an off-day for the Dodgers, except for Chad Billingsley, who will make his debut tonight in Rancho Cucamonga:

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