Never, Ever Let Another Dodger In The Home Run Derby

Earlier tonight, Chad wrote something very, very smart:

Puig enters with a .915 OPS, but only 12 homers. And he’s in the middle of a pretty bad homer drought, with only one since May 29. So the hype shouldn’t be all that significant, but it’s Puig and it’s bat flips and it’s the big stage, so it’s time for either total letdown or MAXIMUM PUIG. 

Guess which one happened. I barely remember Puig even stepping up to the plate, honestly. He might very well have seen the minimum seven pitches. If that’s not true, it’s because he was up and gone so quickly that by the time my brain was able to process math again, he was done. It was like he was never even there. Maybe I hallucinated it. Maybe he’s still going to hit later. But there was no MAXIMUM PUIG. There wasn’t even MINIMUM PUIG. How does one bat flip without a homer? (…he says, knowing this is Puig and that’s a silly question. But still.)

The last three Dodger appearances in the Derby — Puig this year, and Matt Kemp twice — have resulted in a total of four homers. In seven total appearances, they have 10 homers. Jose Bautista hit 10 homers in about eight minutes. Hee-Seop Choi is the Dodger HRD leader, now and forever. I don’t ever want to see another Dodger in the Home Run Derby again. It is the worst.