Puig says Cardinals are Dodgers’ biggest adversary

Yasiel Puig is really close with a particular family in Los Angeles, and that family has a 10-year-old Cardinals-loving boy who has made it his mission to exasperate the Dodgers’ eccentric outfielder….

“His mom calls him ‘The Cardinal,’” Puig deadpanned. “We don’t even know his name anymore. … I take him to the stadium, I put the tickets under my name, I introduce him to all of my teammates, and he shows up with a Cardinals shirt. He’s driving me nuts. I can’t win with him. His cousins all have [Dodgers gear]. Not him. We have to do something. I have to make him change his mind. We won the second game and that’s it. He cried, and after that, he started laughing at us again.”...

Puig spoke highly of the Cardinals, how great their team is and how smart their manager is. He thanked them for teaching his team the proper way to play baseball and said they’ve become the Dodgers’ truest adversary, more so than even the defending-champion and division-rival Giants.

Judge denies Puig’s request to throw out lawsuit

Corbacho Daudinot is no Mike Trout!

Puig’s attorney, Sean Santini, requested that the case be thrown out because Corbacho Daudinot failed to appear for depositions in Miami in August and September.

Puig’s Game 4 benching likely for more than just plate struggles | FOX Sports

Maybe Don Mattingly isn’t a big poopy head.

Slumping Puig Benched by Dodgers for NLDS Game 4 - NYTimes.com

Puig benched. Statheads outraged!

Bill Plaschke apparently only hates acts of aggression when Yasiel Puig is involved

This morning we saw Bill Plaschke get the vapors over Yasiel Puig “clearing benches, raising tempers, risking everything” in “a first-inning plunking incident that nearly started a brawl.” This was bad, see, because the brawl could’ve injured someone or gotten someone suspended and represented an irresponsible loss of cool. Bad, Puig. BAD, BAD Puig!

Vox.com: Major League Baseball’s human-trafficking problem

Cuba is one of the biggest sources of international baseball talent. But, because of the US embargo, most Cuban players have to use smugglers to get themselves to the United States. What’s more, due to a quirk in Major League Baseball rules around contracts, those Cuban players often first have to travel to a third country, like Mexico — a difficult process.

And that’s where traffickers come in. In recent years, some Major League Baseball players have revealed that a variety of criminals have been kidnapping and extorting talented Cuban players before they can get a major league contract — in order to get a cut of their future earnings. Some of these traffickers may even have ties to Mexican cartels.

This issue is only just starting to get attention from courts and investigators — the first conviction of a smuggler for trafficking Cuban ballplayers happened in 2011. These trafficking cases involve dozens of Cuban ballplayers, most of whom never even make it to the major leagues.

This year, Cuban-born Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig became the poster boy for ballplayer trafficking. In his journey to the United States, Puig was kidnapped and extorted — and some of the traffickers he was involved with have even resorted to murder as they try to get a share of his salary. Puig’s lurid story, and his stature as a star, have brought the trafficking issue to the attention of baseball commentators.