By: Zack Poff
After one week everyone said it wouldn't last.
Two weeks went by and people started to wonder if they were believing what they were seeing.
25 days have passed and he still hasn't taken his foot off the gas pedal.
If anything, Yasiel Puig has gone way past the speed limit recklessly, for the second time this year, except this time he's doing it in a good way: on the diamond.
The 22-year old Cuban sensation was everything the Dodgers organization needed. Los Angeles was dishing out money left and right trying to build a winning franchise, surpassing the New York Yankees with the highest payroll in baseball. The Dodgers 215+ million dollar payroll is the highest in Major League Baseball history and it is the first time since 1998 the Yankees weren't the top spenders in the game.
However, having the No. 1 payroll doesn't guarantee anything. Baseball is a very unique sport and it takes a lot more than dollar bills to have success. It's not about having the best player in the world like basketball or having the best quarterback to lead your team to destiny. Baseball is truly the hardest sport to predict and hockey is the only other sport among the major four that you could make an argument. Baseball and hockey haven't had a repeat champion in this millennium.
Before Puig was called up on June 3rd, the Dodgers were sitting in last place in the NL West, eight and a half games out of first place. The Miami Marlins and the Milwaukee Brewers were the only teams in the National League with a worse record than Los Angeles. Matt Kemp and Carl Crawford were on the disabled list and the Dodgers were desperate for a spark.
They reached in their "Puiggy" bank and hit the jackpot. Puig has reached base safely in all but two of the 25 games he has played in and has 13 multi-hit games. Puig has been just as entertaining to watch in the outfield as he has been in the batters box. The guy has a cannon and goes after every ball like it is the 27th out. He plays with a relentless passion for the game, something the Dodgers were lacking during the first 54 games of the season. He is built like Patrick Willis, runs like Chris Johnson and has a Brett Favre cannon for an arm.
He did something no other baseball player has done in the live-ball era (since 1920): 32 hits and seven HR's through his first 20 career games.
Through his first 25 games he is batting .424 with seven long-balls and 16 RBI's. He has a 1.115 OPS and most importantly the Dodgers are 13-11 in the 24 games he has started this year.
However, the most important aspect Puig has attributed to the Dodgers doesn't show up on the stat sheet: excitement. Los Angeles has been a totally different ball club since they called him up from the minors. They weren't playing like a team, there was no excitement in the clubhouse or the stands, and they were simply not playing good baseball.
A lot has changed since the month of June begun. The Dodgers went 10-17 in May, the worst they have done in May since they moved to Los Angeles in 1958.
Enter Yasiel Puig. He made playing baseball fun again for a team that was desperate for momentum. The Dodgers were pressing way too much and forgot how to play the game like it's supposed to be played: go out and have fun. Don Mattingly was on the outside looking in with a ton of pressure managing the highest payroll the game has ever seen. I really don't think his job was on the line but Puig took a lot of pressure off the shoulders of the third year skipper.
Bruce Bochy, manager of the San Francisco Giants, said it would be extremely difficult to select Puig to the All-Star team because he hasn't played in enough games. Puig answered going 6-12 with a HR and 2 RBI in a three-game sweep against the Giants earlier this week to try and change Bochy's opinion.
Furthermore, there is a lot on the line winning the All-Star game with the winner awarded home-field advantage in the World Series. Yasiel Puig would definitely help out the National League roster tremendously. It is hard to argue there are 34 other players who are more deserving than Puig. He has been one of the best players in June and you could make the argument he has had the best individual month among anyone this season.
The phrase "five-tool player" gets overused way too much in the game of baseball. That is not the case with Yasiel Puig. Vin Scully said it best, "I have never seen anyone do what he has done in a such a short period of time." He continued to say, "I've never seen a a player who is a five-tool player show all five tools in his first three career games." Scully has only been around the game of baseball since 1950.
Whether or not the Dodgers rookie phenom continues his rapid pace it is amazing to just sit back and watch what he has done to start his young career.
Exactly a year ago today the Dodgers inked Puig to a seven-year deal worth $42 million. 365 days later he has a good chance to win "National League Player of the Month." You can believe in the Puig hype or continue to say it won't last but you have to tip your cap to the remarkable start the Cuban phenom has had.
Immaturity was a big question mark with Puig but that has been far from the truth. No one said he could continue his hot start but his 39 hits are most in the Majors in the month of June. We live in a society where it's about the now and Yasiel Puig has taken over the game of baseball and is trending more than North West. Even the 85-year old Vin Scully took over twitter for the Dodgers and was tweeting about Yasiel Puig. If Scully gets on twitter because of Puig this young Cuban phenom has truly become a major hit not just in baseball, but nationwide.
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