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Gilberto Suarez entered a guilty plea on Tuesday for his role in the illegal smuggling of Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig. Suarez pleaded guilty to an alien smuggling conspiracy charge.   

The Associated Press reported the news (h/t CBSSports.com’s Matt Snyder), and court documents showed that Suarez accepted a $2.5 million fee for his role as a financier in delivering Puig to the U.S. from Cuba in 2012.

Jesse Katz, who penned the remarkable story of Puig’s stateside arrival in April 2014 for Los Angeles Magazine, weighed in on Tuesday’s development involving Suarez:

Suarez, 40, must relinquish possession of his house, a condo, multiple guns and a Mercedes-Benz automobile. Those big purchases stem from money Suarez received as a percentage of Puig’s seven-year, $42 million Dodgers contract.

Puig has found tremendous success in his first two seasons with the Dodgers. He’s coming off his first All-Star selection in 2014 after hitting .296/.382/.480 with 16 home runs, 69 RBI and 11 stolen bases.

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Trade talks and free-agent signings are at a fever pitch during this MLB offseason, and the hype for MLB 15 The Show is gaining serious steam as well. On Saturday, the debut sizzle trailer for the game was released at the PlayStation Experience in Las Vegas. 

The event was put together to celebrate 20 years of the PlayStation brand. That celebration wouldn’t have been complete without serious representation from Sony’s monster baseball hit series MLB The Show. Here’s the latest trailer featuring cover athlete Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers:

As you may have seen from the tail end of the trailer, the release date is set for March 31, 2015.

For hardcore virtual baseball fans, that day probably seems like an eternity away, but most still have MLB 14 The Show to tide them over until then. Last season’s debut on the PS4 went pretty smoothly. It generated a Metacritic score of 83, and I rated it an 8.8 overall.

The fact that saves will carry over from MLB 14 The Show to MLB 15 only makes longtime and new fans more committed to the series. What’s new and in store for fans this time around?

Based on information that was revealed via Amazon.com, here are the new features up to this point:

• Licensed Equipment: For the first time ever, partnerships from various brands will bring accurate bats, gloves, cleats and batting gloves to the game.
• Year-to-Year Saves: Users who purchased MLB 14 The Show will be able to continue their Franchise and Road to the Show progress in MLB 15 The Show.
• Universal Rewards: Simply playing the game earns Stubs that can be spent on licensed equipment, Road to The Show improvements and virtual baseball cards.
• Legends: We’re introducing 30 Iconic MLB Alumni into our virtual player card pool, 1 representative for each team. These players span every historic baseball era of the last 70 years.
• Major Graphical Improvements: Visually, the introduction of real-time seasonal sun and shadows, revamped night lighting and enhanced player personality help make MLB 15 The Show the most authentic baseball experience yet (PS4 Only).

The licensed equipment can be seen in the trailer and will be a selling point for gamers who are sticklers for details in presentation.

The use of legends is also compelling. Obviously, the reveal of the legends included or the unlockables in the game is going to be a major deal. Theoretically, it would be cool to have access to players like Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds. 

The exact legends haven’t been revealed yet, but one can only hope for a star-studded cast of guys.

One wish I’m still holding on to is the hope that the game includes a Create a Ballpark feature. At the PlayStation Experience, I spoke to community manager Ramone Russell about this concept. He was noncommittal about it making it into this year’s game, but it is something that appears to be on the developer’s radar. 

We’ll keep our fingers crossed for Create a Ballpark, and hopefully this year’s game will be everything last year’s release was and more.

Follow Brian Mazique aka FranchisePlay, the Sports Video Game Journalist

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The big-money stars just might be coming on at the right time.

For nearly the entire season, the Los Angeles Dodgers could not get health or consistent, steady production from the bulk of their highly priced core, especially the men whose primary job is hitting.

But as the final week of the regular season begins and the postseason starts to yawn and stretch as it wakes, the Dodgers appear to be hitting full sprinting speed despite a 13-inning loss Monday night that kept their magic number to win the National League West at three.

From Aug. 31 through the start of Monday’s game, the Dodgers had one of the most devastating offenses in the majors with a .308/.369/.478 slash line and an .847 OPS. As a team this month, the Dodgers are second in the majors with 120 runs scored (three behind the leading Los Angeles Angels), leading with 27 home runs, second with 341 total bases and second with an .820 OPS.

That is monstrous production, and it’s the stars leading the way:

• Since the All-Star break, Matt Kemp, one of the game’s best all-around players in 2011 and part of 2012 before a shoulder injury sapped him, has hit .304/.363/.580 with a .943 OPS, 15 homers and 49 RBIs. In September, he has hit a major league-leading seven home runs and went into the week with a 1.044 OPS.

“He’s been great,” manager Don Mattingly told Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times. “It seems like a lot of our guys have been stepping up. He’s certainly one of those guys.”

• Since Sept. 5 and going into Monday, Hanley Ramirez has been red hot. He hit .451/.509/.588 with a 1.097 OPS, seven doubles and 11 RBIs in 15 games. He was also hitting .511 on balls he put into play.

• Adrian Gonzalez has joined the romp since the break. He went into Monday hitting .326/.378/.561 with a .939 OPS, 11 home runs and 52 RBIs in his previous 59 games.

• Yasiel Puig, the most polarizing player in the sport, had been going through a prolonged slump since Aug. 4. In 31 games from that date, Puig hit .186/.289/.212 without a home run and five RBIs. But from Sept. 13 to the start of Monday’s contest, Puig was 17-for-40 (.425) with a 1.152 OPS and two home runs in nine games.

• Finally, since Aug. 10 and entering the week, Carl Crawford was hitting .411/.449/.579 with a 1.029 OPS, seven doubles, three homers, 20 RBIs and eight stolen bases in 34 games. He also homered Monday.

Dodgers offense exploding at the right time. pic.twitter.com/yJqudqX8P6

— Angel Gonzalez (@angel_G96) September 20, 2014

Those five players have contracts worth a combined $568 million, although the Dodgers haven’t paid all of that money since Gonzalez, Crawford and Ramirez were acquired through trades after those deals had been finalized. Also, the bargain that is Dee Gordon has been back on track lately, hitting .312/.318/.385 in his previous 22 games before Monday.

“Hanley’s swinging better, Yasiel’s swinging better, Dee’s getting his hits, Adrian’s been the same all year,” Mattingly told J.P. Hoornstra of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin on Sunday. “Our guys know what’s at stake.” 

Right now, that’s a second consecutive NL West title. After this week: the franchise’s first World Series title in 26 years. That is why this team was built the way it was once the Guggenheim Baseball Management group took over ownership from the despised Frank McCourt in 2012.

This was the blueprint. This was what things were supposed to look like, how they were supposed to work. The Dodgers broke payroll records this year to field a team that trotted out expensive superstars at nearly every position. They spent so there would be no real breaks in the lineup for opposing pitchers, and they spent for pitching so that they could still walk away with victories even when the offense wasn’t running at optimal levels.

On that pitching front, Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu—they make a combined $398 million—have done their jobs. Dan Haren, on the other hand, has been a liability for a good portion of the season, but even the 34-year old veteran has learned to pitch with his declining tools. Over his last nine starts, including Monday, Haren has allowed 14 earned runs in 54 1/3 innings for a 2.32 ERA, making him another guy getting his act together at the right time. His start Monday kicked in a vesting option for 2015 that would pay him $10 million, the same as his salary from this season.

This Dodger club has no excuses. It’s relatively healthy—Ryu’s status for the postseason is still up in the air—and could gain home-field advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs if things fall right.

And for maybe the first time since Guggenheim got its receipt for the team, everything seems to be moving as planned. All that’s left is another month of production, and this could be the team that breaks the championship dry spell for one of the game’s storied franchises.

Anthony Witrado covers Major League Baseball for Bleacher Report. He spent the previous three seasons as the national baseball columnist at Sporting News, and four years before that as the Brewers beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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With playoff positioning and the top spot in the NL West still up for grabs, Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Yasiel Puig kept the San Francisco Giants from scoring the go-ahead run in the top of the 11th inning during Monday night’s game.

He maintained the 2-2 tie by gunning down Brandon Belt at the plate after a Brandon Crawford single with a perfect throw from center field, thrilling the fans along the way.

Ultimately, Puig’s heroics weren’t enough, as the Giants won 5-2. 

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Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig were caught on camera bickering at each other during Monday night’s game, a clear sign that skipper Don Mattingly is losing the clubhouse and the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers are primed for a September implosion.

Am I doing this hot-sports-takes thing right? 

For reference, here’s a look at the incident in question:

The Dodgers ultimately fell to the Rockies 11-3, and the sports world has gotten into quite a frenzy about that mini argument.

To be fair, it’s not difficult to see why it has received such attention. Puig is one of the most scrutinized players in the league. If he gets upset at his dog for going No. 2 inside the house or if he decides to put Sriracha on his eggs, you’re probably going to hear about it. Kemp, a one-time MVP candidate who hasn’t produced up to standards in the past two seasons, is another target of criticism. 

Take two closely dissected stars like that from a major city, put them in a shouting match, and you have the recipe for a national story. 

But that’s all it is—an interesting 41-second video to watch or maybe a talking point with co-workers or friends. However, it’s not a sign of things to come. It’s not an indication of how the clubhouse is being run or how Kemp and Puig feel about each other. And it’s certainly not an issue that anyone should be making a big deal out of. 

Whether it’s first-grade T-ball, the Show or any other team sport, teammates will undoubtedly get upset with each other. It’s part of knowing each other’s potential and wanting to get the most out of those closest to you. Better to push them—and yes, that includes yelling angrily at them sometimes—than coddle them when you’re losing. 

As ESPN’s Buster Olney and Fox Sports’ Jimmy Spencer argued, this is just natural in this kind of setting: 

Kemp was similarly nonchalant about the incident after the game, via the Orange County Register‘s Bill Plunkett:

“Oh, just talking in the dugout, same old things,” Mattingly added, via ESPNLosAngeles.com’s Mark Saxon. “We’re like the [Oakland] A’s, the ’72 A’s.”

Those 1972 Oakland Athletics were famous for fights between teammates, but no one seemed to mind when they won the World Series in ’72. And ’73. And ’74. 

Who knows if the Dodgers will follow in those footsteps, but at 86-64, four games clear of the San Francisco Giants in the NL West and just 0.5 behind Washington for the NL’s best record, they are certainly set up for a dangerous run in October. 

No matter who’s yelling at who inside the dugout. 

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We’ve seen Yasiel Puig work the bat flip after home runs, doubles and even long fly balls that are caught. But this is a new one. 

In the third inning of the Dodgers-Braves game, Mike Minor induced a first-pitch lazy fly ball from Puig, and the star outfielder wasn’t happy with himself. So he flipped his bat and took off toward first base. 

But Puig likely underestimated his strength, as it flew all the way toward Matt Kemp, who had to move to avoid being hit by the flying bat. 

Yasiel Puig. Only he can make pop-ups exciting. 

[MLB GIFs]

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Freddy vs. Jason. Rocky versus Drago. Bryce Harper versus a wall. 

We know an iconic matchup when we see one, and Yasiel Puig versus Albert Pujols could blossom into one of the more entertaining clashes of ego we’ll see in baseball this year.

Puig and Pujols endeavored in a bit of tit-for-tat trolling during the first game of the Dodgers-Angels Freeway Series on Monday night. The shenanigans started in the bottom of the first, when Puig caught the Angels first baseman on the heel with a cleat. 

The contact appeared incidental, and Pujols filed it away for future reference.

The true trolling began in sixth inning after Puig caught a routine fly and sent Angels shortstop Erick Aybar skittering back to first. 

The two men exchanged good-natured finger wags and moved on. 

Next came Pujols’ turn for revenge. Being the nimble stallion he is, the Angels’ 34-year-old first baseman tagged up on a routine fly ball to center in the eighth inning and caught Puig admiring his glove work.

Pujols beat the throw, and both sides seized the opportunity to pile the grief on Puig. Pujols particularly enjoyed imitating Puig’s picnic catch, while Juan Uribe hopped on the young outfielder’s case in the dugout.

Later in the game, Puig made another routine catch and waved Pujols on to third, daring him to make a run for it.

The first baseman declined, and the Angels went on to blank the Dodgers, 5-0.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly told reporters after the game that his star outfielder had been taken to school.

“[Puig] just got a lesson, and hopefully he learns it,” Mattingly told The Associated Press (h/t The Washington Post). “Albert basically embarrassed him right there.”

Pujols approached questions about his tagging up less directly.

“That’s how you play the game,” Pujols said. “[Puig] can have fun, too. I’m having fun. He can do whatever he wants.”

See, guys? Sometimes baseball players can mess with each other without anyone catching a fastball to the teeth. Progress!

As for the Puig-Pujols showdown, the Freeway Series affords them three more opportunities in the next three days to settle the score. 

Pop your popcorn, folks.

Follow me on Twitter for more sports and pop culture news.

Follow @Dr_Carson_

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Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig is known for making some crazy highlight plays. And while this one didn’t make much of a difference in the final score, it was still pretty impressive.

In the bottom of the sixth inning of Friday night’s game against the Chicago Cubs, Hanley Ramirez hit a ground ball to third. On the resulting double-play attempt, Puig kept running past third base and charged toward home plate. After sliding past Welington Castillo, Puig faked him out to touch home and score a run.

Unfortunately for the Dodgers, the run only cut their deficit to six in an 8-2 loss.

[MLB.com, h/t Next Impulse Sports]

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Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig once again illustrated why he’s one of the most exciting players in baseball Friday night, leading the offensive charge by tying a club record with three triples in an 8-1 win over the division-rival San Francisco Giants.

The team also tied a franchise record set in 1921 with five triples. You have to go back even further (1901) to the last time a Dodger had three triples in a game. Jimmy Sheckard notched three when the team was still in Brooklyn.

The Associated Press (via ESPN) reported the 23-year-old Cuban sensation spent a half-hour in the training room as part of his recovery from legging out that trio of three-baggers. Afterward, he provided a simple explanation for the night.

“I’m tired,” he said. “I was just trying to hit the ball where nobody was.”

Puig finished the night with four hits in five at-bats, along with two RBI and another two scored, as the Dodgers pulled within a half-game of the Giants in the NL West race at 57-47.

The effort moved his batting average to .315 with an on-base percentage of .402. Both of those numbers are right in line with his breakout rookie season (.319, .391), which quickly made him into one of MLB‘s most hyped players.

It was also a great sign for the Dodgers. Puig missed three straight games prior to Wednesday due to a hand injury. Luckily for Los Angeles, it sure wasn’t an issue at the plate during Friday’s rout of the Giants.

ESPN Stats & Info noted the overall hitting performance from Puig was something not done in more than two decades:

Indiana Pacers forward Paul George was watching and suggested the Giants start giving Puig one base instead of three:

The NL West has become a two-horse race between the Dodgers and Giants, as the third-place San Diego Padres are 10.5 games back.

That makes each of these head-to-head matchups between now and season’s end so important. The teams will meet up eight more times in the regular season, including Saturday and Sunday in San Francisco.

Starter Tim Lincecum took the loss after giving up six earned runs in 4.1 innings of work. Zack Greinke got the win for Los Angeles after pitching seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts.

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If Yasiel Puig is having a sophomore slump, it might be the best sophomore slump of all time.

There’s been a lot of handwringing lately about the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ second-year outfielder. He’s hit just one home run since June 1 and had a disastrous showing in the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game.

The swagger, suddenly, has turned to uncertainty.

So, naturally, the question on every Dodgers fan’s lips became, what’s wrong with Puig?

Not much, apparently.

Returning to the lineup Friday night after missing time with a hand injury, Puig went 4-for-5 with a record-setting three triples, leading the Dodgers to an 8-1 win over the division-leading San Francisco Giants.

With the victory, the Dodgers moved within 0.5 games of the Giants in the National League West. And with his performance at the plate, Puig went a long way toward silencing the doubters.

“When he’s waiting on the ball and shooting the ball to right-center, he’s at his best,” said Dodgers skipper Don Mattingly, per the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin‘s JP Hoornstra (via the Los Angeles Daily News). “Obviously, he stung the ball really well tonight. Looked patient at the plate, looked calm, looked quiet.”

It’s a funny thing. For all the focus heaped on Puig’s power outage, his numbers have always looked solid. Even before Friday night’s explosion, the 23-year-old Cuban owned a more-than-respectable .308/.398/.519 slash line.

As his countryman, Yoenis Cespedes of the Oakland A’s, noted last year, power isn’t central to Puig’s game, per the Los Angeles Times‘ Bill Shaikin. “Not to be disrespectful to him at all, but I know him from Cuba,” Cespedes told Shaikin. “He’s not really a home run hitter.”

Still, all the skills—the defense-testing speed, the superlative arm—that make Puig one of the most exciting five-tool players in the game have remained on display.

More than anything, Puig is a victim of his own success. With his bat-flipping antics and raw, unbridled potential, he’s attracted as much attention (both positive and negative) as any young player in recent memory.

The expectations are sky-high—which means it takes a moon shot to clear them.

Puig didn’t hit any moon shots Friday night at AT&T Park, but he did smack a trio of three-baggers. That’s the most triples in a single game in Los Angeles Dodgers history and equals the franchise record set by Jimmy Sheckard in 1901, per CBSSports.com’s Mike Axisa.

So, yeah. Pretty historic.

Also, pretty cathartic. Puig exerted his dominance, sure, but more importantly so did Los Angeles. Facing their hated rivals—the team that stands between them and a second straight division title—the Dodgers went nuts, banging out 15 hits.

They knocked around Tim Lincecum, on a career-reviving roll following his June 26 no-hitter against the San Diego Padres.

And they got a stellar start from Zack Greinke, who tossed seven shutout frames with 10 strikeouts (including a rare four-strikeout inning, just the fifth in Los Angeles Dodgers history, per MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick).

Maybe best of all, they wrote another chapter in the storied history of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry, which looks like it’ll be in full force this summer. That, as MLB.com’s Richard Justice points out, is a good thing for all of us:

Baseball is better when the Dodgers and Giants are both good. They’ve been going at one another for around 120 years, and the games today have as much emotion and intensity as they did back in the days of Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays. They remain two of the sport’s cornerstone franchises, both playing to packed houses, both occupying large places in the hearts and minds of their local citizens.

The undisputed star of the night, though, was Puig, who re-established himself as a game-changing offensive force and the unquestioned anchor of L.A.’s offense.

If this is what a sophomore slump looks like, the Dodgers better hope for more slumping.

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