Puig vs. Trout Topic

One year into Puig's career, he's beating Trout in all the rate stats and OPS+ over their careers.  326/405/559, 169+ to 311/401/544, 165+.

Is he the best young player in baseaball?



Votes: 19
(Last vote received: 6/24/2014 4:02 PM)
6/3/2014 2:42 PM
Are you looking for a discussion here?  Or just going to bash someone who says Trout?

Based on their performance over their careers, I'd prefer Trout because he plays a premier defensive position very well and is also a better baserunner.

If Puig is a 1.000+ OPS guy moving forward (what he's doing this year) then I'd probably prefer Puig.
6/3/2014 3:02 PM
A discussion.  I just wasn't leaving options as a joke. 

I don't think there's much difference between the two, overall, but I haven't heard anyone state that Puig might actually be better.    I don't know if it's the old school mentality(DO THINGS THE "RIGHT" WAY, BOY) or the statnerds saying "Trout has a better WAR and UZR" that drives the Trout car.
6/3/2014 3:14 PM
I think Puig rubs a lot of people the wrong way, that's true.  But the fact that Trout plays a much more difficult defensive position, and plays it well, puts him over the top, even removing Puig's immaturity from the equation.
6/3/2014 3:17 PM
That's the thing.   CF is tougher than RF.   No one can argue that.  But how much value comes when a runner stops at 2nd/3rd when normally they'd take an extra base?   I won't pretend that I've seen dozens of Dodgers game in the last year but Puig has a cannon.   I imagine runners just aren't bothering to take the extra bag these days.   Is that measured when determining how "difficult" a position is?
6/3/2014 3:28 PM
I won't pretend to gauge his arm strength and how many less players didn't take an extra base from 1st to 3rd.  And while Trout has great range, he doesn't have a good arm.  I think I'd still prefer Trout, unless I was shown evidence of some sort that suggests that many fewer runners were getting to 3rd base compared to the average right fielder.  
6/3/2014 3:36 PM
I don't know that we have a way to measure that.   Yet.  But doesn't good ol' common sense suggest that players run on weak armed OF and stop against strong armed OF?  

Anybody that has played at any level has stood on a bag, surveyed the OF and said "Go, go, stop" when looking at them before the next pitch is thrown.
6/3/2014 3:54 PM
Lots 'o racists up in here. 
6/3/2014 3:57 PM
To put it another way, we look at catchers with strong, accurate arms and say "He saves them x-number of runs per year because teams don't steal against him".

Never crosses our minds with OF.
6/3/2014 3:59 PM

Who do these two play for?

6/3/2014 4:14 PM
Kings and Rangers.
6/3/2014 4:21 PM
I'd probably go Trout because he's done it over 1700 PA while Puig is only at about one season worth of playing time. And Trout plays a premium defensive position.

It's likely Puig will regress a little. His wRC+ this year is 191. Over the last twenty years, the highest cumulative wRC+ is 186. By Barry Bonds.

Unless we think Puig is better going forward than the best offensive player in the history of the game?
6/3/2014 5:26 PM
Trout is a year younger and already has 2 MVP runner-ups to his name.  Puig has basically one year's worth of stats.  I will say this, though - Puig's game has changed DRAMATICALLY from last season to this.  So far he has yet to shed the labels he earned when he first entered the league - overzealous, aggressive, impetuous, makes mistakes, wild swinger, etc. - but he really doesn't deserve them at this point.  Last year Puig swung at 37% of balls out of the zone according to the PitchFX system.  This year it's 25%.  That's still not quite as good as what Trout has done the past 2 years (23.2%/23.3% 2013/2014), but it's very close.  He still swings at more balls in the zone, but he also makes more contact when he swings at balls in the zone (much worse contact rate on swings at balls out of the zone - he's still chasing some bad pitches, vulnerable to good sliders running away).  He's still getting caught stealing far too often - Trout has 5 steals, 0 CS, while Puig has the same 5 SB with 4 CS) - but isn't giving up as many outs trying to take extra bases on balls in play.  Overall, while you still certainly wouldn't call him a controlled player, he's not hurting the team with his mistakes the way he was last season.  He's not a "loose cannon" anymore, and that makes this a much closer argument.

It would certainly be hard to argue for guys like Harper, Machado, or Andrelton Simmons over Puig anymore; last year any of those arguments would have been quite valid.
6/3/2014 9:38 PM
Unjtil Puig matures, he's still a massive problem waiting to happen.

My gut feeling says: expect Puig to have a short shelf-life before his immaturity and mistakes wears out his welcome in LA, and he starts to become the problem that nobody wants.
6/3/2014 10:00 PM
I think your gut is wrong.  Talent always wins out.   I could start a list of clubhouse cancers, bad citizens, general pains in the ***, etc, etc, that can always find a job.   Until the headache outweighs the talent.    Start with A-Rod and then glance at Bonds, Clemens, Sosa to name a few.   The list in the NFL could stretch across the US. 
6/3/2014 10:19 PM
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