There are some people who are just rubbed by Yasiel Puig in the wrong way. New York Mets pitcher Carlos Torres is one of them.
Torres joined MLB Network Radio’s Casey Stern on Saturday and was asked about Puig — specifically what it’s like to face him and watch him as a player. Stern set Torres up by bringing up how Puig is a mixed bag of good and bad.
In response, Torres focused on what bothers him about Puig.
“For me, personally, I’m a ballplayer. I’m an athlete. I am a guy who actually enjoys the game and competing. I don’t care to watch him,” Torres told Stern.
Torres then went on to compare Puig’s diving catch against the Mets to other ones he’s seen this year that didn’t receive as much attention.
“If you look at (Jason) Heyward’s catch where he was flying through the outfield, laying out, he actually made a way better catch than Yasiel Puig’s. And that was earlier in the season. But since it’s not Puig, nobody cares. No one is paying attention. If you watch [Puig] before a ball is hit, he’s just standing straight up and down. Maybe he might bend over once or twice. And he’s almost never ready to field the ball. So when you’re watching stuff like that, you just sit there, let him do what he does, and go from there and try to get him out when he’s hitting.”
Torres then went on to vent about how the media hypes up a guy like Puig.
“All I know is my own opinion. My personal opinion is I don’t listen to everybody that gets blown up in the media. A lot of times it’s what it is. The media picks their players for that year. The media picks their players for that month. And then they’re the best player known to man. Usually it’s followed by a big contract, or usually it’s followed by a bigger-market team. But, like I said, Heyward’s catch out in right field against us at our place was in my opinion a much better catch. So was the center fielder from Philly’s (Revere). That was tremendous. That guy had to extend farther by using his arm as leverage. But that’s not even considered in top plays.
“I mean, c’mon, man.”
I’m sure a lot of people share Torres’ opinion, which is why Puig is polarizing as a player. Some like him while many others don’t. And Torres is right about the Heyward play; I looked for it on MLB.com and didn’t even find it. How does that happen?
Transcription via NY Daily News
