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Puig from ESPN the Magazine
Things are never quiet on the LA sports beat, but neither are they usually this in turmoil either.
First, Angels general manager Jerry DiPoto apparently resigned yesterday after feuding with Mike Scioscia about the old-school manager and his coaches not respecting and making use of the data from the analysts in the front office. It went public, became a power struggle and it appears as if Scioscia won. No official word from Anaheim, but that seems to be a formality of the spin machine. "He's definitely out," a Major League Baseball source said of Dipoto. ESPN
Not that things are so great at Dodger Stadium. Molly Knight's new book, "The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers' Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse," is getting its first surge of publicity and it's all about Yasiel Puig. Seems that in his third season he's lost the respect of several teammates. Moreso than has been reported here in LA. From Jeff Passan at Yahoo Sports, citing Knight's book:
Inside the Los Angeles Dodgers' clubhouse, the contempt some teammates hold for outfielder Yasiel Puig is no longer a secret limited to whispers. They discuss it openly, resigned to the fact that the Dodgers don't plan to trade their mega-talented right fielder no matter how deep the animus runs.
"We've talked about this," one Dodgers player told Yahoo Sports. "At this point, it would be addition by subtraction….While some issues, like his habitual tardiness for games, have abated this year, according to sources, Puig's work ethic in batting practice and the weight room continue to bother some teammates. Much of the hostility stems from a general sense of entitlement shown by the 24-year-old. During spring training this year, as Knight writes and multiple sources confirmed to Yahoo Sports, Puig argued with teammates over who should be allowed on a plane ride that typically includes wives and girlfriends. The subject of someone from Puig's entourage joining the traveling crew came up, and sources told Yahoo Sports that Puig argued with pitcher Zack Greinke and nearly came to blows with infielder Justin Turner over the matter.
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Puig already made teammates wary by engaging in a relationship with a minor league coach's daughter. His inability to show up on time was another constant problem….The Dodgers have gone out of their way to help Puig, according to Knight's book, assigning a private security firm to watch over him because of threats from the drug cartel that smuggled him to Mexico from Cuba. The organization is constantly trying to balance assuaging Puig while not showing him preferential treatment, aware his value to the team goes beyond his statistics. As Knight wrote: "Whatever Puig's issues were, he was one of the best players in the game, he sold tickets, and he was relatively cheap."
The Kings have their own soap opera going on. A former star player, Mike Richards, has a long-term big-money contract but his level of play has fallen so low he was demoted to the minor league. The team began the process of buying out his contract, then abruptly announced this week it was unilaterally terminating the deal because of some upsecificed "breach" by Richards. Now the media in Canada, following TMZ, say it involved Richards trying to bring the prescription painkiller oxycodone across the border.
Meanwhile, the Clippers may lose center DeAndre Jordan, who is a free agent and wants a four-year deal with the right to opt out during the contract. He's reportedly talking to the Mavericks and Lakers, among others.
Also this: Longtime LA sportswriter Jack Disney died at age 80. He covered sports for the Herald Examiner, and after the paper closed he became a publicist for Hollywood Park and later Santa Anita.
