He's arrogant, but he's good. Or maybe it's 'he's good, but he's arrogant.' Bryce Harper was sent down during spring training when he was first coming up because he was emotionally unfit to handle life in The Show. Yasiel Puig hasn't been shown the door in similar fashion, but that's probably because the Dodgers desperately need him to crawl back into the playoff picture.
Anyone who is going to sit there and argue Puig is not a good player is off their rocker. Puig is an unbelievable player who hit just under .500 in his first 100 major league at-bats. He throws guys out from the warning track. He's good.
By now I'm sure everyone has seen the video of him running into Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero at home plate from a game in early July. Is it a huge deal? No. But its a concrete example of how instead of playing a hard-nosed style, he just plays like a punk. He blatantly ignores the third base coach Larry Bowa, and tries to score when he had no shot. He doesn't slide and he doesn't try to bowl over Montero, instead he just leans in and tries to give him a forearm shiver. Poor move.
Montero, and a few other members of the D-backs organization have expressed their displeasure with the Dodgers standout. Luis Gonzalez, a D-backs legend after he helped them win the World Series in 2001, approached Puig after a game and spoke to him in Spanish about his background and the game, but Puig did not once acknowledge Gonzalez's presence. What does Puig say to all the haters?
“That’s my game,” Puig said Thursday. “I’m going to play my baseball the way I play. We don’t like the way [Gerardo] Parra plays or the way Montero plays, but we don’t go to the press or anybody and talk about how we don’t like it, because we’re more reserved.”
Wait...so you don't go to the media, per the quote from said media? Okay, got it.
However, there is one thing I agree that Puig said after those comments.
“I learned to play that way as a kid,” he said. “I always like to play aggressive and always try to put on a show for the fans. They come to spend their time and lose sleep watching us play. It is one, to me, of the more emotional things in baseball.”
Can't hate that mentality. But if it leads you to think that you're bigger than the game, you're doing something wrong. Oh, and leave it Jay-Z to sit back and inflate the 22-year-old's ego by attempting to lure him to his joke of an agency Roc Nation Sports.
