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Yasiel Puig’s Wild Ride and the Dodgers Deadline Deals

A lot of things happened yesterday but the wildest thing happened towards the end so shall we address the elephant in the room or shall I say Puig in the room? Sure why not let’s go. First there was this that was first reported by Ken Rosenthal but has since been deleted

So of course because that fit the narrative that Yasiel Puig is a locker room cancer or a bad teammate so everybody assumed straight way that the report was true but after some thinking things didn’t look right. From what I’ve known of Puig that just isn’t him, he’s been a really good dude this year, even going so far as to extend a hand out to a player in another sport that said some mean things about him, so why would he storm out?

Luckily things came out to be true but false at the same time. The whole “storming out” of the office thing was untrue but the rest of the story was true, the Dodgers front office did notify Puig that they were trying to trade him and if they were unable to do so they would send him to the minors, if they were unable to find someone to replace him.
The only thing I’ve been able to find from the front office is that they’re unhappy with the production out of right-field, nothing person and to be honest it’s true, Puig hasn’t been performing consistently this year and I have to be believe that all that talent and potential is still there and the Dodgers want that on their team but maybe not, who knows. I just hope this all gets rectified and one of my favorite players on the team stays.

Since then, Rosenthal has apologized:

and it takes a big man (pun not intended) to admit he was wrong and correct his mistake, unfortunately the narrative and story is out there and there are a lot of people who will stick to the first version, even when they’re unable to find the tweet that Rosenthal published because they have their own beliefs.

Ok, enough of that, now onto the rest of the day starting with the big one.

Josh Reddick: He’s a left-handed hitting outfielder who plays right field, yes Puig’s position and that’s where he’ll be for the time being. Dude mashes right-handed pitchers(.341/.408/.547) but is poor vs left-handed pitchers (172/.254/.172) ok, he’s very poor. Reddick is also supposedly a very good fielder as well, winning a Gold Glove as recently as 2012 but if you know anything about Gold Gloves you know anybody can win them for well I dunno. I mean Matt Kemp has two and Andre Ethier has one and they were never the best defensive players.

Rich Hill: He’s good this year, well REALLY good, probably the best pitcher in the American League going by stats but he’s 36 and is currently on the DL with a blister injury but nothing structural. Hey at least he’s getting a lot of rest. Hill’s not your traditional pitcher, he throws a lot of off-speed pitches and his curveball is dynamite. He’s more than likely just here until the end of the year, maybe he gets an offer from the Dodgers, they did want to sign him in the off-season and maybe not. Hill is basically here to ease the pain of Clayton Kershaw being out and to provide another high-profile arm for the playoffs. Excited to see him out there.

Now onto the next trade:

Jesse Chavez: A converted reliever to a starter and back to a reliever this year Chavez brings some versatility to the bullpen that was currently being occupied by Ross Stripling and although I love Stripper, having a guy that’s been there done that will be nice. Chavez throws pretty hard, can get it up to 94, but usually sits 90-92 and mixes in a Cutter, Slider and Change-Up. Don’t be surprised to see Chavez get used in a few starts to help stretch the rotation out a little and give some guys rest but also be used in some long relief roles. While he’s not flashy, he will definitely help this bullpen that saw over 100 innings pitched in the month of July alone.

Cash Considerations: You can always use a little mo’ Cash, while Cash will help make sure players get on the field, he never steps foot on the playing field itself.

Last but not least this was announced a couple of hours after the deadline:

Josh Fields: While on its surface it seems like a “what were the Dodgers thinking” type of move, this is a very intriguing move by them. Fields currently has a 6.89 earned run average (ERA) in the majors but he has a 2.81 Fielding Independent Pitching or FIP which measures how well the pitcher gets batters out outside of the defense, like home-runs, strikeouts, walks, etc and Fields gets a lot of strikeouts. Over his major league career he has averaged 11+ strikeouts per 9 innings and walks very little, so basically this guy is coming at you and throwing strikes but he’s only given up 2 home-runs this season but 23 hits which honestly is weird for the type of pitcher he is, you’d expect more home-runs.

He will be sent to AAA where he’s had a 1.65 ERA and will more than likely be first call up when a relief pitcher is needed or we’ll see him in September when rosters expand

All in all I give this trade deadline a B+, not flashy but fills some much-needed holes in the outfield, starting rotation and bullpen. While getting someone like Chris Archer or Chris Sale would have been really nice, Rich Hill is not a bad consolation prize and while we gave up some intriguing names, we kept our best and brightest and will still be able to compete the rest of the way.

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