I don’t often write these sort of unfocused think-pieces. (Well, I happen to think that I don’t, but many of my commenters undoubtedly disagree.) Anyway, I’m thinking about Yasiel Puig today. After an impressive, intensely hyped first month, the Dodger wunderkind lost to Freddie Freeman in the fans’ vote for the All-Star Game. (Of course, with injury replacements and so on, he still has a chance of making the team.) Yesterday, Jeff Sullivan wrote about what he’s done. I’m more interested in what he represents.

I’m a Braves fan, so the immediate grumbling comparison in much of the Braves blogosphere was Jeff Francoeur. Here’s a comparison of their first 35 games:

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Next week, I’m rolling out the latest version of our annual trade value series. Before we get into this year’s list, though, I think it’s instructive to look back at where players were ranked a year ago, and see if there are any lessons to be learned from the placement of various players. I would rather learn from history than repeat it.

Let’s just start with the list itself.

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The Yankees, at present, are right in the thick of the American League playoff race, and like most teams hanging around contention, they’ve expressed interest in making a midseason splash. Recently there’ve been rumors about Joba Chamberlain, and about maybe trading Phil Hughes for a hitter. But Thursday, the Yankees went ahead and exchanged Travis Ishikawa for Derek Jeter. Jeter was inserted directly into the starting lineup, albeit as a designated hitter instead of a shortstop.

Whenever a team gets a player back from injury this time of year, someone will refer to it as a midseason acquisition, and that’s basically what this is. After not having Jeter for more than three months, the Yankees now have him for the stretch run, and in his first at-bat on Thursday, he swung at the first pitch and singled. Granted, it was an infield single, weakly struck, but a hit’s a hit, and Jeter took his familiar sprint to first base. The Yankees just don’t feel like the Yankees without Jeter in the order, so now, if nothing else, there’s more excitement. And there’s not nothing else.

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Glen Perkins has, somewhat quietly, become a dominating relief pitcher. He currently sits 5th among qualified relievers in FIP (1.84), 4th in xFIP (2.21), and he has 14 shutdowns against just two meltdowns. He’s into advanced statistics and knows what FIP and xFIP are. He’s going to represent the Twins in the All-Star Game next week, the team he grew up watching as a kid in Minnesota. And he’s signed to a well below market contract, one that pays him just $2.5 million this year, $3.75 million for the following two years, and then gives the Twins a $4.5 million option on his 2016 season. Because of all these things — okay, probably not the nerd part — the Twins are reportedly not willing to trade Perkins, as their preference is to keep him while they rebuild a new core of young players around him.

The Mets might do a similar thing with Bobby Parnell. He has also been excellent (2.16 FIP, 3.16 xFIP) since moving into their closer role, and as a 28-year-old under team control via arbitration for the next two seasons, the Mets are apparently disinclined to trade him. Neither team wants to send the message that their rebuilds are going to take years, and both are showing a preference to retain their young, cost controlled assets and simply move older pieces on larger contracts instead.

Here’s the problem. Closers — relief pitchers in general, really — are simply not worth building around. Today’s asset is tomorrow’s liability, and the Twins and Mets should learn from the mistake that the Royals made with Joakim Soria.

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Here, for maybe the first time in the history of the Internet, is a post inspired by Hernan Perez. Hernan Perez is a professional baseball player, currently for the Detroit Tigers. He has batted a few times, and is 22. Hasn’t been real good in the minors. Might be getting better. A few years ago he was a teammate of Wondy De Los Santos, who is also a professional baseball player, or was. Odds are, you don’t know a lot about Perez, if you’ve even heard of him, but this post isn’t about him. It only starts with him.

The Worst Of The Best is taking a little break, until next week, when we’ll reflect on the entire first half. That’ll be fun, but in the meantime, sometimes people still tip me off on Twitter about particularly wild pitches or swings. Earlier this week, I got a tip about a swing by Hernan Perez. Later, I got another tip from another person about another swing by Hernan Perez, in the same game. That was enough to drive my curiosity, and sure enough, Perez took two really bad swings in a game against the White Sox. One was at a breaking ball in the dirt. One was at a fastball, here:

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Table of Contents
Here’s the table of contents for today’s edition of the Daily Notes.

1. Concerning Danny Salazar’s Debut
2. Today’s MLB.TV Free Game
3. Today’s Complete Schedule

Concerning Danny Salazar’s Debut
The Purpose of This Post
The purpose of this post is to announce how right-handed Cleveland prospect and fixture in the present author’s weekly Fringe Five column Danny Salazar is making his major-league debut at 12:05pm ET today against Toronto.

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Reports surfaced Tuesday on ESPN.com that Ryan Braun refused to answer questions posed by Major League Baseball’s lawyers when they interviewed him as part of the Biogenesis investigation. Alex Rodriguez is scheduled to be interviewed this Friday and, according to ESPN, also will refuse to answer MLB’s questions. Despite silence from Braun and Rodriguez, MLB apparently plans to suspend the two players — and perhaps 20 others — sometime after the All-Star break. But Braun and Rodriguez have been called out for special punishment: Not only does MLB plan to suspend the pair 50 games for possessing or using a banned substance, the league will reportedly add on another 50 games for lying about their use of banned substances.

ESPN’s report generated lots of questions and commentary. Who leaked this information to ESPN and why? Did MLB leak it to put pressure on Braun and Rodriguez to cooperate? Did Braun or the players’ union leak it to show the league’s heavy handedness? How can the league already have decided to suspend Rodriguez for 100 games before he’s even met with investigators?

But perhaps the most pressing question is: How can a player be suspended for lying when he remained silent in response to questions from MLB’s investigators? And the corollary: If the “lying” didn’t take place during the investigation, does MLB plan to rely on years-old public statements? Wouldn’t that open a huge can of worms? Craig Calcaterra, over at Hardball Talk, had some interesting things to say on these issues:

Last year Melky Cabrera famously — and quite ridiculously — attempted to pass off a phony website as an excuse for his positive PED test. It caused MLB to actually have to conduct an investigation into the phony company, purchase phony products and, at least according to some reports, travel to the Dominican Republic. This, apart from its hilarity, was blatant lying, deception and fraud. And yet, at the end of it, Melky Cabrera was given only a 50-game suspension.

If what Melky Cabrera did wasn’t worthy of double discipline, how on earth could Braun offering denials or, more likely, not saying anything, justify it?

Craig’s comments sent me scurrying back to the Collective Bargaining Agreement and the Joint Drug Policy to see if I could figure out MLB’s 100-game suspension plan. I’ve actually written on this point before, back in June, in my primer on all things Biogenesis. In that post, I pointed to two different “just cause” provisions — one in the CBA and one in the Joint Drug Policy — that MLB would likely rely on.

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Ben and Sam discuss batter-pitcher matchup stats, ancient players on the comeback trail, and the underdog Yankees.

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Maybe you haven’t heard quite as much about Yasiel Puig lately. I don’t know, I don’t know who you read and what you watch. But it’s hard for a player to sustain that level of coverage and interest, as Puig seemed to be absolutely everywhere for his first few weeks. Justifiably, of course. But Tuesday was a big day for Puig, in a sense — against the Diamondbacks, he drew two unintentional walks, for the first time in his young career. Previously, he had just four. And in case you thought Puig was slowing down, this month is new but he’s slugged .500. He hasn’t spent a day in the majors with a three-digit OPS. Puig is still excelling, and the Dodgers are still succeeding around him.

About those two walks, though. Walks aren’t as sexy as singles or doubles or triples or dingers or outfield assists, but walks are indicative of some degree of patience, of discipline. There’s reason for the Dodgers to be particularly encouraged by the bases on balls, because Puig is new, and because Puig is new, pitchers are in the process of adjusting to him. Baseball, as we’ve come to learn, is a game of constant adjustments, all career long, but perhaps the biggest adjustments come early on, and there’s word out on Puig. At least, that’s what the numbers are saying. Puig hasn’t stopped hitting, but pitchers have changed the way they attack.

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