![]() Puig still does interviews in Spanish, with former major league pitcher and Cuban native Eddie Oropesa acting as his interpreter as well as overseeing Puig’s assimilation into American life. I don’t know when, but when he gets up here he looks like a player who’s going to have a lot of success.” He just looks like a major league player. Puig “is a talented player,” Crawford said. That year, 2008, the former Long Beach State Dirtbag had 27 home runs and 85 RBI in 122 games with the Rays, winning AL Rookie of the Year honors and ending his year in the World Series against the Phillies. That was the last time I saw a spring like that.” We sent him down to Triple-A and then he was back up like, within a week, and the rest was history. He hit five or six home runs, just hit the ball everywhere. “The last time I saw a guy have a spring like that was probably Evan Longoria (in Tampa Bay) his rookie year. “I can’t remember … oh, I take that back,” he said. We’re going to work on his sliding a little bit.įellow outfielder Carl Crawford - whose status conceivably could be affected by Puig’s development - was asked if he recalled anyone having this kind of spring. His routes, his jumps, his actions on the bases and baserunning, getting better reads and jumps when stealing bases. There are some things we’re going to try to address I won’t say we’re overly (concerned), but it’s just things he needs to clean up. “I think really rounding out his overall skills, defensively and offensively. Puig’s assignment in Double-A, according to Dodgers’ VP of player development DeJon Watson: (That infield hit helped move along a rally that allowed the Dodgers to wipe out a 3-0 deficit, but Rancho Cucamonga won the seven-inning game in the bottom of the inning, 4-3, when first baseman Angelo Songco, who had played for the Quakes last year, singled home the winning run.) And though he didn’t light up Quakes pitching the way he abused Cactus League hurlers all spring, his sprint down the line to beat out an infield hit in the seventh was a tantalizing reminder of his mix of skills. After all, the guy was only in the California League for a month or so last season.īut the Cuban outfielder, whom the Dodgers sent down to Class AA Chattanooga earlier in the week, did have a chance to catch up with some ballpark personnel and some friends he’d made while playing for the Quakes last August. Yasiel Puig’s return to The Epicenter Thursday night wasn’t a nostalgic exercise or a grand homecoming. Yasiel Puig stretches in the outfield Thursday night at The Epicenter. ![]()
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