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Keith Law, ESPN Senior Writer 8y

The performance decline of Yasiel Puig

Yasiel Puig's demotion to Triple-A has somehow been rewritten into a narrative about his personality, his social media activity, his impact on clubhouse chemistry, but only marginally about the real reason he's in Oklahoma City and not with the Dodgers. Puig has become a massive liability at the plate, one of the easiest guys to pitch to in any lineup due to vulnerabilities that are easy to identify, leading to a plan that's just as easy for pitchers to execute.

The problem with Puig is not his personality or #PuigYourFriend or #PuigNotLate -- actually, his hashtag game is strong. Simply put, he's no longer the hitter he was in his first two seasons -- and it's not even close. When he showed up for his first spring training in 2013 in what was quite literally the best shape of his life, his bat speed had gone from good to electric, and pitchers couldn't throw a fastball by him. His plate discipline itself was raw, but his mechanical approach was simple and quiet, so he found he could adjust even if he didn't recognize a pitch type or location right away. Eventually pitchers found they could attack him with off-speed stuff away and maybe get him to expand the zone a little, but that approach was more of a "least bad option" than an actual way to get Puig out consistently.

In the past year-plus, however, that has completely changed.

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