Buyer Beware

Dodgers’ outfielder Yasiel Puig will be a free agent come 2020.  Any takers?

I ask off of what Puig did Thursday night in the top of the eighth inning after the Astros’ Alex Bregman line a ball down the right field line.  Puig dove only to have the ball bounce off his glove into the seats for a ground-rule double.  Puig then jumped up and threw his glove to the ground in disgust.  Endearing or worrisome?

I choose #2.  Yes, Puig knew the ball was out of the field of play, this time.  But if he does this once, the odds are good he’ll do it again.  Imagine Puig throwing/kicking his glove as the ball rolls along the warning track.  One run scores, another and here comes number three.  All I hear from Joe Buck and John Smoltz is how Puig has learned to focus his energy this season.  Maybe, but if I’m a general manager I keep that video clip in mind before making an offer to Puig two years from now.

For that matter, if I’m the Dodgers’ front office I’m making a list of all the World Series pitching moves by manager Dave Roberts.  In game two, Roberts went to his bullpen in the top of the fifth inning because it was rested and he wanted to protect a two-run lead.  Oops.  The lead disappeared, and Roberts ran out of rested pitchers in extra innings.  Then, in game three, he had to go to his pen in the second inning out of necessity after starter Yu Darvish gave up four runs and couldn’t stop serving up line drives.  Five relievers later and Roberts has a taxed bullpen going into game four with his team down two games to one.

This is how Roberts explained his thinking before last night’s game:  “When you do things that aren’t reactive and do things that we do as an organization to get ahead of things, you open yourself up to criticism.”  And when you make stupid moves, they come back to haunt you.