While Dodgers rookie Yasiel Puig continues to astound entering his second month in the big leagues, at least one observer doesn’t take kindly to suggestions the phenom be named to the NL All-Star team on the basis of a mere 26 games. Sadly, the person arguing otherwise once proposed himself as an AL All-Star game closer ahead of Mariano Rivera because after all, who’d just had a better year? From CBS Philly :
“To me, it’s an absolute joke. It’s reall kind of stupid if you ask me,” Philadelphia reliever Jonathan Papelbon said on MLB Network Radio, as he had trouble even saying Puig’s name correctly. “The guy’s got a month, I don’t even think he’s got a month in the big leagues, and just comparing him to this and that, and saying he’s going to make the all-star team, that’s a joke to me. It’s just really what happens in baseball when… to me it really does an injustice to the veteran players that have been in the game for eight, nine, ten plus years, and it kind of does them an injustice because they’ve worked so hard to stay there.”
The last lines of the CBS and ESPN stories both do a really good job of clowning Papelbon though.
CBS: “Papelbon looked like he was a favorite for the team until a recent string of blown saves. In 26 games for the Dodgers, Puig is hitting .436, with seven home runs and an OPS of 1.180.”
ESPN: “The Philadelphia Phillies closer did not pitch against the Dodgers this past weekend, when Puig went 7-for-16 and scored five runs.”
WHO is comparing Puig to “this and that?” and what kind of numbers did “this and that” have in his career?