Analyzing Yasiel Puig’s First 21 Games

Yasiel Puig has appeared in just 21 games with the Dodgers, and he already has totaled 7 home runs, 14 runs batted in, and 2 stolen bases- with a batting average of .420! Since his debut, he has been noted as a baseball specimen, a player who succeeds in all areas of the diamond.

His combination of speed, strength, fielding (he has an amazing arm), contact hitting, and power hitting makes him comparable to the likes of Ken Griffey Jr., Vladimir Guerrero, Willie Mays, and a young Barry Bonds. Except for the fact that he weighs 50 lb. more than Junior, 10 lb. more than Vladdy, 75 lb. more than the Say Hey Kid, and 60 lb. more than a young Barry… and the most amazing part of this is that Puig, at 245 lb., is basically all muscle. Considering this muscular development, the best comparison could be Bo Jackson.

In today’s day in age, when the Oakland A’s are successful in using Bill James mathematics (“moneyball”), there are only two ways to determine if a player is very good: 1) watching them play, and 2) using mathematics.

I will compare Yasiel Puig’s numbers thus far to those of other rookie phenoms in baseball history. I will do this by using a formula called BBI, or Baseball Index, which incorporates hits, RBIs, home runs, hits, and walks. Considering that most phenoms, such as Mike Trout, played in about 6.5 times as many games as Puig, I will multiply each of Puig’s stats by 5.5, considering that it is HIGHLY unlikely that he, or anybody, could keep up on this pace. The higher the BBI, the better the player is offensively.

Anyway, here are the numbers:

Albert Pujols: 1134.0
Yasiel Puig: 1075.2
Mike Trout: 923.9
Buster Posey: 923.2
Bo Jackson: 839.5
Jason Bay: 805.2
Evan Longoria: 729.9
Bryce Harper: 585.1
Dustin Pedroia: 474.1

This shows that out of some of the most heralded and accomplished rookie phenoms of the last 30 years, Yasiel Puig only trails Albert Pujols. Pujols became the best player in the MLB, and is now the closest thing to a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame.