Yasiel Puig Stinks At Baseball

Resident White Sox fan/heel/dunce Kenwo fired off this tweet to a 22 year old social media intern yesterday as if one, the account would respond and two, he spoke for the entire fanbase.

Now I'll make this loud and clear - I don't totally give a shit about the behind the scenes antics of athletes.  So long as they produce on the field, that's all I give a shit about 99% of the time.  You can be the biggest asshole on earth but I care about the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back.  I feel like Ari Gold when he's at the therapist's office with Mrs. Ari and he snaps on the therapist saying, "they're allllll just a number to me, like wife number 1 and therapist number 7. GOOD DAY!"

But at the same time, I don't want to mess with good juju.  Let's take it back to the summer of 2016 when the White Sox had a roster that was cast from the Island of Misfit Toys.  Mat Latos, Jimmy Rollins, Adam and Drake Laroche, Adam Eaton, Todd Frazier, Chris Sale, blah blah blah.  A lot of those players fucking hated each other's guts, and it affected performance on the field and led to what was arguably the least liked White Sox team like... ever.

Now fast forward to 2020.  The Sox have a really likable roster.  Tim Anderson, Jose Abreu, Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito, etc. etc. etc. are all pulling from the same rope.  They haven't found success in terms of wins and losses yet, but it's clear even watching on TV that this team that they do rub off well on each other and get along.  

With that said, I do NOT want to add a Yasiel Puig type attitude to the team.  If he were some 5 win stud?  Sure.  I'd deal with his bad attitude all day, and I'm sure the White Sox front office and coaching staff would to some extent too.  But he is NOT.  Going back to me viewing players as walking, breathing statistics, Yasiel Puig is just not that good at baseball.  

Here are his stats since 2016:

Fine, by all accounts.  Above average power numbers, walks at a decent clip, good doesn't strike out too often, and has performed 10% better than league average offensively.  Would I take those numbers in RF and in the bottom half of the lineup?  Typically, yes.  All day every day.  

But then we get to 2019:

Drop in power output, drop in walk rate, increase in K rate and he's exactly league average offensively, for all intents and purposes.  Pair that with his storied history of being a completely me-first player, as someone who sucks ass in the clubhouse and widely vilified by Los Angeles, I don't want him anywhere near the Sox.  

The juice just isn't worth the squeeze.  He's been an okay player for 4 years and that's it.  Again, if he were putting up similar numbers to what he did his first two seasons with the Dodgers, I'd be all for it, but he's not.  He's an average player and well below average clubhouse presence.  

But it's not just that Kenwo (and others) want him for because they think he's some stud.  They think he's electrifying on the field and because he's not some boring player and is flashy a la Jose Abreu that that would resonate with his teammates.  I don't totally disagree, but at the same time I weigh statistical output WAY more than how flashy a player is, and I really hope I don't have to explain why. 

It's not too dissimilar to me "hating" Joker or Will Ferrell movies at this point.  Do I think that movie actually completely sucked ass?  No, not at all.  People just go straight up Nancy Pelosi on me and rip me to shreds when I tell them "I thought it was okay".  All it does is make me say "fuck that, the movie sucked ass".  

Puig?  He's okay.  But the faction of White Sox fans that are hellbent on signing him make me say, "fuck this guy he completely sucks ass" because I refuse to abide by any sort of hive mind and trust my own brain with respect to baseball.  He's AT BEST a moderate improvement for a year or so.  But with his clubhouse presence being dog shit and him about to be on the wrong side of 30, no thank you.  I'd rather gamble on Frankie Menechino being able to tap into 24 year old Nomar Mazara's raw talent in 2020 then go BIG for Mookie Betts next winter (lol).  

That's my take and I'm sticking to it.  Yasiel Puig STINKS at baseball.  Fuck outta here with him.