Don Mattingly calls Yasiel Puig best right fielder in the majors

[Sportsguy9695]

Yasiel Puig has quickly emerged as the best right fielder in baseball, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said Monday.

The high praise for the 23-year-old Cuban comes with the one-year anniversary of his major league debut just a week away.

"We feel like, right now, Yasiel is the best right fielder in baseball," Mattingly told reporters. "This guy dominates right field."

Puig's speed and athleticism in the outfield were on display again last week, when he made a spectacular catch in right-center to deny Wilmer Flores of the New York Mets of a hit. The play even drew an ovation from many of the 23,416 pro-Mets fans in attendance at Citi Field.

Throw in Puig's cannon of an arm and you have a right fielder who no one in the majors wants to test, his manager says.

Source: ESPN LA

 

[navamind]

I'd go with Joey Bats or Stanton on the top of my head, but Puig seems like a defensible choice.

 

[HammerDown]

The high praise for the 23-year-old Cuban

23. Right.

 

[TDs3nOut]

Puig is clearly a unique talent. Best defensive RF is baseball? I'm not sure that he's even the best defensive RF in the NLW, though, since I think that Gerardo Parra is probably better.

 

[LALakersboy24.7]

Yasiel Puig is a beast & clearly playing at another level right now & his only getting better, stop hating fake ass hater's.

 

[TDs3nOut]

Yasiel Puig is a beast & clearly playing at another level right now & his only getting better, stop hating fake ass hater's.

I don't "hate" Puig. He has obviously shown that he has the ability to become a great player. Mattingly's comments in the OP, however, read to me as if Mattingly is saying that Puig is the best defensive RF in baseball. I've seen Parra make a lot of great plays in RF and not nearly the number of mistakes that I've seen Puig make in RF. Puig might become a better RF than Parra is, but I don't think he is right now.

 

[navamind]

Puig is clearly a unique talent. Best defensive RF is baseball? I'm not sure that he's even the best defensive RF in the NLW, though, since I think that Gerardo Parra is probably better.

Heyward and Reddick are in the conversation as well.

 

[StanMarsh51]

Yasiel Puig is a beast & clearly playing at another level right now & his only getting better, stop hating fake ass hater's.

So saying Puig isn't the best defensive RF in the game (he isn't the best) makes one a hater? I'd say thinking otherwise makes you a homer.