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In Cuban sensation Yasiel Puig’s first 21 games, he hit .420/.453/.716 for an OPS of 1.170. While that window is admittedly an example of choosing arbitrary endpoints, it’s as good as any small sample at getting a point across. We all know that Puig had an insane first month; in his first 30 games, his OPS was 1.155. For the season-to-date, his OPS is still above 1.000—1.024, to be exact.

The 21-game mark was not an accidental choice, however. On June 25, Puig played his 21st game, and I published a second-half projection article in which I called his walk rate “famously low.” At that point, it was 3.7 percent.

Coincidentally also on June 25, Eno Sarris published an article on FanGraphs called “Selling High on Yasiel Puig” in which he expressed some concern about Puig’s absurdly low walk rate.

Sarris was not the only analyst to raise these issues; Zach Stoloff did so on NESN.com, Ray Flowers on BaseballGuys.com and Tristan Cockcroft on ESPN mentioned that “he has averaged just 3.24 pitches per plate appearances” up until the point that article was written (on July 3).

And everyone was correct in raising that concern.

Of the top 50 qualified hitters in baseball (according to FanGraphs’ wOBA), the only hitter with a walk rate below that 3.7 mark is Adam Jones’ 3.1. Only two other batters are even with one full percentage point: Jean Segura (4.2 percent) and Torii Hunter (4.1 percent).

On the other hand, of the 50 worst qualified hitters, five have a walk rate below or equal to 3.7 percent: Alexei Ramirez (3.2), Alcides Escobar (3.3), Jeff Keppinger (3.7), Starlin Castro (3.7) and Salvador Perez (3.7), and another four are at or below Segura’s 4.2: JP Arencibia (3.8), Matt Dominguez (3.8), Erick Aybar (3.8) and Zack Cozart (4.2).

Granted, there is a slight confirmation bias in these numbers—wOBA heavily values on-base percentage, and walk rate is a main component of OBP (along with batting average). But OBP is a part of offensive production, so the point holds: It’s exceedingly difficult to succeed offensively with such a low walk rate.

Things have changed

Although it’s unlikely he heard the criticism, Puig’s walk rate has increased. Since June 26, his walk rate is 8.6 percent, and that has pushed his season rate up to 6.6 percent.

The number of players who succeed at that mark is far larger. Notables such as Adrian Beltre, Carlos Beltran, Allen Craig and Yadier Molina have walk rates below 6.6.

At this point, we don’t really know what Puig’s true walk rate is; he just doesn’t have a long enough career for us to accurately determine it. But the improvements and changes he’s made have been real.

Puig has made tangible adjustments

Below is a table detailing his swing percentage at respective pitches in each month he’s been in the big leagues. As you can see, he has swung at fewer pitches as he has gotten more comfortable in the big leagues.

By itself, swing percentage doesn’t tell us much. Passivity is not the same as patience, and if Puig had been taking strikes just for the sake of taking pitches, then that would not be a good sign.

But, as the following two graphics show, Puig’s decline in swing percentage corresponds to a decline in pitches he’s seeing in the strike zone.

Puig will likely never be known as a patient hitter. Batters who demonstrate his kind of free-swinging mentality don’t change overnight into Joey Votto. But, he doesn’t need to put up a 15% walk rate to be productive. Just these slight increases are enough to take his swing rate from dangerous to acceptable.

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Los Angeles Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig left Saturday’s game against the Chicago Cubs in the eight inning with an apparent injury to his left wrist or thumb.

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Yasiel Puig continues to take the baseball world by storm—this time with an acrobatic, bobbling foul catch against the wall at Wrigley Field.  

Puig was pulled from the same game in the eighth inning after making another diving catch. Puig told trainers he was fine, but he was later diagnosed with a left thumb contusion. 

Add these catches to Puig’s list of jaw-dropping highlights since joining the Dodgers, including this cannon throw from right field to third and this walk-off home run.

Hat tip to The Big Lead on the find and Mike Petriello for the GIFs.

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Over the course of a demanding 162-game regular-season schedule, hot streaks come and go in Major League Baseball, both for players and teams alike.

Just ask the Los Angeles Dodgers, winners of 12 consecutive road games and owners of a 29-7 record over their last 36 games. That’s the team’s best 36-game stretch since 1953, and the 12 straight road wins are the most in team history since 1924.

They’ve accomplished those impressive numbers without Matt Kemp, who has stepped to the plate only 41 times during that streak. Understandably, rookie Yasiel Puig has been unable to keep up his historic start. His batting average dropped nearly 70 points, and he’s collected only eight RBI since July 1.

So that begs the question: Can the Dodgers keep this hot streak going without major contributions from two of their biggest offensive weapons?

The answer is a resounding yes.

The Dodgers’ hot streak doesn’t go back only 36 games—it goes back toward the end of May when manager Don Mattingly lost his cool and nearly lost his job. Donnie Baseball was irate after the Dodgers lost to the Milwaukee Brewers 5-2 on May 21, ripping into management and players in a passionate postgame tirade to reporters.

With the Dodgers sitting eight games below .500 (18-26) and seven games out of first place in the National League West, it sure looked like Mattingly‘s time in Dodger blue was almost up.

But cooler heads prevailed, and the team has rallied around its leader, finally buying into what the former American League MVP was selling. Since Mattingly‘s rant, no team in the National League has been better than Los Angeles: 

Dodgers fans will notice, of course, that none of the other teams in the National League West has played .500 baseball since the end of May.

Of the team’s remaining 54 games, 26 come against divisional foes. Only 20 come against teams that we’d consider to be contenders at this point in the season: Arizona (seven), Boston (three), Cincinnati (three), Tampa Bay (three) and St. Louis (four).

Despite holding a 10-11 record against those five teams (the Dodgers have yet to play Boston or Tampa Bay), that bodes well for the team’s chances of continued success.

While Kemp is likely out of action until September, according to the latest report from the Los Angeles Times‘ Ben Bolch, and Puig is no longer producing runs with regularity, this is not a roster that is devoid of quality bats.

Hanley Ramirez is finally healthy and swinging the bat like the perennial MVP candidate he once was, posting a .358/.412/.633 slash line since the beginning of July. Adrian Gonzalez, meanwhile, shook off a terrible June and returned to his usual All-Star form, with a .309/.353/.473 slash line over the same period of time.

Aside from Carl Crawford, every one of the team’s regular starters has hit above .250 with an OPS over .700 for more than a month. That’s quality production right there, but the Dodgers aren’t only about offense.

With L.A.’s rotation led by the best pitcher on the planet in Clayton Kershaw and supported by one of the more underrated bullpens in the game, no other team’s pitching staff can beat their 2.52 ERA over the past month.

The Dodgers are getting quality innings from everyone. Even the oft-maligned Brandon League has pitched to a 2.89 ERA and 1.07 WHIP over his last eight appearances.

With the team’s recent addition of Brian Wilson, who is not only healthy, but very familiar with the batters who occupy the lineups of the team’s division rivals, the Dodgers bullpen is only going to get stronger once “The Beard” is ready to make his 2013 debut.

That’s a scary proposition for the rest of the National League.

I’m not saying that the Dodgers aren’t going to hit a rough patch between now and the end of the season, but they’ve been riding this current wave of success for more than two months. With a favorable schedule in front of them, betting against Los Angeles at this point in the season is a losing proposition.

Los Angeles is currently 59-49 and is 3.5 games clear of the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks in the division. The Dodgers are for real, folks, and they aren’t going away anytime soon.

Unless otherwise noted, all statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and are current through games of Aug. 1.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants have a hate-hate relationship. And it just got worse on Tuesday.

According to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports, free agent relief pitcher Brian Wilson agreed to a minor-league contract with the Dodgers.

The move immediately makes him a villain in San Francisco, where he pitched for seven seasons.

So, who are the winners and losers in the Wilson deal?

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Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp had a stellar 2011 season.  He hit .324 with 39 home runs, 126 RBI and 40 stolen bases.  Along with winning the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards, Kemp was runner-up in the National League Most Valuable Player voting to Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers, despite having more home runs, RBI and stolen bases. 

Yesterday, Major League Baseball announced the suspension of Ryan Braun for the remainder of the 2013 season for violation of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.  According to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, Kemp expressed his feelings on the situation.

Kemp’s disappointment is likely due to the fact that he was a strong supporter of Braun in 2012 when he tested positively for a banned substance.  He could have jumped on the opportunity to accuse Braun of cheating, but he supported and believed him.  At the time, Braun claimed he was an innocent victim of a flawed testing process and eventually saw his suspension overturned. 

Now that Braun has lost the integrity that he tried so hard to defend, Kemp feels slighted, and rightfully so. “I think it kind of takes away from guys who get in the gym, bust their butt and try to play this game clean,” Kemp said. 

Several outraged fans have taken to social networks to call for the 2011 NL MVP award to be given to Matt Kemp.  “My twitter is going nuts,” Kemp said.  “I never got so many tweets in my life.”  Though he may not want the award, he may be in favor of the league removing it from Braun. 

Regardless of whether any such action can or should actually be taken, it reminds us of what an incredible year 2011 was for the Dodgers’ star outfielder. 

This season, the Dodgers have surged into first place without Kemp’s services for much of the year.  Hamstring, shoulder and a recent ankle injury have derailed much of Kemp’s 2013 season, but if the Dodgers can see him return to his 2011 form, he can certainly help the playoff push.

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Yasiel Puig can do no wrong.

At least that’s what some folks in the media and Los Angeles Dodgers fans thought when he broke into MLB.

But now one has to wonder if the Puig honeymoon is over, and if he’ll start to be seen as someone who may not be the next greatest thing.

There’s no doubt Puig came into the big leagues on a tear. After all, he was batting .474 with five home runs and 11 RBI after 15 games.

In fact, his play through the first month earned him a spot on the final player All-Star fan vote.

Multiple writers across all media, including here at Bleacher Report, thought Puig deserved to win the final vote despite his lack of experience.

However, the fans thought otherwise and voted in the Atlanta Braves Freddie Freeman.

When all of that died down, Puig got back to the business of baseball, and he has had many issues over the last month.

The Stats

For all the talk of Puig‘s stats to begin his career, fans are forgetting to look at what he’s done lately. After all, this is a “what have you done for me lately” society.

Since July 3, Puig is batting .220 with no home runs, three RBI and 21 strikeouts.

That’s not exactly the second coming is it?

I know the proverbial “haters gonna hate” line is going to come from many, but you have to look at the stats to see he’s not getting it done at the plate.

Sure, he’s been great in right field making a ton of great defensive plays, but so did Jeff Francoeur early in his career. Bottom line, Puig has to do more than just play defense.

Some People Just Don’t Like Him

There’s no question some people just don’t like Puig. Whether it’s because he was overhyped when he first got to Los Angeles or the fact that he plays for the Dodgers, we don’t know.

Some players don’t like him because of his perceived arrogance.

According to a report by ESPN Los Angeles, Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Miguel Montero and pitcher Ian Kennedy consider his style of play arrogant, and they consider his actions on the field stupid.

This is how Puig responded:

“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.”

The last part of the quote isn’t what people are focusing on. Instead, they’re looking at his first sentence, “That’s my game.”

Those words aren’t exactly a way to gain respect around the league.

Other On-Field Matters

Two on-field matters have set many in baseball afire.

The first was during the brawl between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.

As you can see in multiple incidents in the video, Puig is seen going crazy throwing punches. Ironically, MLB didn’t suspend him for his actions.

The second on-field incident was when he ignored former Arizona star Luis Gonzalez when Gonzalez approached him during batting practice.

According to Dan Bickley of USA Today, this is how it went down:

During batting practice before Monday’s game at Chase Field, Puig was approached by Luis Gonzalez. The former Diamondbacks star introduced himself, and began relating how his family also had roots in Cuba, just like Puig.

Except Puig wouldn’t even look up or acknowledge his visitor. And for the record, Gonzalez was speaking Spanish, so nothing was lost in translation.

Thankfully, Los Angeles hitting coach Mark McGwire admonished Puig after seeing his actions.

But is it something that should have even needed to be addressed? Shouldn’t Puig have had a little more respect?

Honeymoon Over

Fans and players defended Puig for his actions when he was producing.

Now it will be interesting to see how they react now that he’s not doing so well at the plate.

He was great the first month, but now he must prove he was worth the hype over the rest of the season.

If he doesn’t, then he goes down as another overhyped prospect by the fans and the media.

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While baseball award predictions are usually thwarted by hot Septembers, cold Septembers and injuries, one cannot deny the fun of it.

The 2013 NL Cy Young race is a particularly interesting debate, since they are a few very good hurlers taking the mound every fifth day, but no clear-cut favorite.

There are so many good NL pitchers this season that I knew I would insult a couple candidates by narrowing the field down down to five contestants.

Jordan Zimmerman, Jason Grilli, and Cliff Lee were my final cuts.

So, without further adieu, the 2013 NL Cy Young race, according to Phil…

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Yasiel Puig needed less than two innings to make headlines again after the All-Star break.

The Los Angeles Dodgers traveled to Washington to take on the Nationals, and Puig showed off that howitzer of an arm once again.

Puig gunned down Nationals superstar and 20-year-old phenom Bryce Harper for a double play in the bottom of the second inning…or did he?

Yes and no.

Yes, the throw beat Harper and he was out. No, he wasn’t called out.

The third base umpire botched the call, as replay clearly shows that Puig’s throw beat Harper and he was tagged out before sliding into third.

Even with Harper being called safe and eventually scoring, the big news here is that Puig made another unbelievable throw in right field. He threw a bullet that was right on the money and made tagging Harper out easier than any third baseman could hope for.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Puig make an exceptional throw. Heck, in his MLB debut, he threw from just in front of the warning track in right to first base for a double play that ended the game.

Puig also threw out Andrelton Simmons, who tried to make it from first to third on a single to right, with one of the best throws of the year.

Puig added another highlight to his resume on Friday in his first game after being snubbed from the All-Star Game (a game in which the NL only managed three hits).

It was impressive to see one young phenom gunning down another, especially with this coming just hours after Jason Reid of The Washington Post compared Puig to Harper in a favorable light.

It was unlucky for Puig that the ump made the incorrect call, but there’s no denying he made a heck of a throw to nail Harper—even if it didn’t count.

Follow @JoshSchoch

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Perhaps Yasiel Puig losing out in his chase for the National League’s final All-Star spot was serendipitous after all.

The Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder, who has been the talk of Major League Baseball since being called up in June, lost out in the final fan vote to Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman this week—a result that shocked just about everyone.

Freeman is a well-respected young player with some Sean Casey-like potential, but his numbers aren’t overwhelmingly impressive enough to garner a mainstream pull. He’s batting .312 with nine home runs and 61 RBI, but he is a minus overall defensively, has a BABIP of .375 and doesn’t exude the type of charisma you’d expect from a fan favorite.

Puig is the most intriguing rookie since…well, Bryce Harper and Mike Trout last year. But his first month in the bigs was still pretty damn good. The Dodgers outfielder hit .436 with seven home runs and 16 RBI, good enough for him to be named the National League Rookie of the Month and Player of the Month—a first for a youngster going through his first 30 days in MLB.

Extending that even further, Puig‘s 55 hits in his first 34 games were the third-most in baseball history since 1920, trailing some guy named Joe DiMaggio and Roy Weatherly, per ESPN Stats & Info:

Puigmania has reached such an apex that MLB’s YouTube feed has two player-related threads on its channel. One is for Mariano Rivera, the greatest closer of all time who’s retiring at the end of this season. The other? That goes to Puig.

Not Miguel Cabrera. Not Mike Trout. Not Chris Davis.

Puig. 

And just want to throw this in for fun, Jay-Z has made Puig and Athletics outfielder Yoenis Cespedes the next two targets for his Roc Nation Sports outfit, per Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan. That’s not bad for a man’s first month on the job. Not bad at all. 

Considering Puig‘s prodigious hype, the overarching reaction was one of surprise fans chose Freeman over Puig for the 2013 MLB All-Star Game. It’s always possible that these results were nefariously brought forth by some enterprising Atlanta fans—this is the Internet after all, where people tend to go out of their way to ruin things—but we can’t do anything but take it at face value.

As a fan of the game, it was easy to think MLB had missed yet another opportunity to reach young fans.

Now? That loss might be critical to Puig keeping his magical run humming along.

The 22-year-old has had to leave each of the Dodgers’ last two games early, citing pain in his recently injured left hip, per ESPN. Puig is listed as day-to-day, but he has been noticeably hampered by the ailment since crashing into the wall against the Rockies last week. Manager Don Mattingly has said Puig will be reevaluated before Sunday’s contest.

“He just thought he could go and we talked with our medical people before the game,” Mattingly said, via ESPN. “Obviously, it just wasn’t good enough for the game.”

While folks are obviously concerned about his short-term and long-term health, the hip injury has proven one thing above all else: Yasiel Puig is a human being, after all. 

Since running into the wall on July 3, Puig has gone from DiMaggio to about replacement-level. He hasn’t hit a home run, has knocked in just one run and is batting just .256. And that’s even less telling than what it should be, considering Puig‘s BABIP for that time frame is .385.

Most have used that crashing into the wall to develop a cause-effect hypothesis about Puig‘s dipping numbers. Narratives being what they are, the theory goes that Puig‘s downtick in production must be as a result of his hip injury. 

Of course, we all should have seen this coming to begin with, hip injury or not.

Puig doesn’t walk. He swings at some questionable pitches and has a still-developing maturity at the dish. The reason his numbers have dipped is the same reason many thought they would in the first place: they’re unsustainable. Puig still has a BABIP of .476, which is just as ridiculously off-the-charts as it sounds. All of this is what the logical side of the brain tells me.

The reality is that it’s probably a mixture of the injury and natural regression. 

Puig was due for a downfall. You can’t just hit over .400 with Mark McGwire circa 1998 power forever in your first big-league season. And the hip injury had to expedite that process as well.

You can see the injury affecting his rotation with his swing, which has played a major factor in his power numbers going down. The saying goes that power is generated from your legs first, but it’s really how well a player can compact the relationship between his hips and arms.

But, again, it’s laughable the level to which folks are overreacting to these struggles. The coverage makes you think he did the baseball equivalent of butt fumbling or something. The reality is that Puig has had nine games where he’s had below-average performances. He’s still hitting for a passable average in today’s National League, just not quite the power numbers you would expect from someone built like a baseball Terry Crews.

And that’s fine. These things happen. A nine-game sample size of disappointing play is bound to happen to every slugger, even if his first month made the Marilyn Monroes of 2013 swoon.

Sitting out the 2013 All-Star Game will allow Puig some critical time to heal, and I posit he should probably sit out the team’s last two pre-break games as a precaution. If, and this is a big if, this injury is as minor as reported, then Puig will be able to come back no problem next Friday bordering on 100 percent. 

A healthy Puig will (obviously) mean a ton for Los Angeles, a team trying to parlay a Yankees-like payroll past the .500 barrier at this point. The NL West’s general mediocrity has allowed the Dodgers to not fall out of contention, but they’ve been roughly a 4,214 times better baseball team since Puig was called up in June. Risking him over two piddly games against Colorado would be an exercise in inanity. 

Puig missing the 2013 All-Star Game is a disappointment; few can dispute that. He’s one of the game’s more entertaining stars just a month into his career, a guy who’s unafraid to appeal to younger demographics and would have been an intriguing addition to the Home Run Derby team had David Wright chosen to go that direction. 

MLB is worse off for him missing the festivities. But the Dodgers should be sending thank you cards to everyone who voted Freeman. 

All Sabermetrics in this article are provided by Fangraphs unless otherwise noted.

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