Blog Kiosk: 10/18/2013 - Dodgers Links - Puig, Ethier's Outfit and Kershaw

St. Louis, I See You!  Pic via @Dodgers on twitter.

• Baseball Metrics.com provides an in-depth look at the pitcher vs. hitter matchups for tonight's game.  It's a stat driven analysis that looks at how Kershaw and Wacha have historically done against the opposition’s line up.
• "Exciting or infuriating? Understanding the still-mysterious Yasiel Puig," via SL Price at Sports Illustrated.

The best thing about the Yasiel Puig phenomenon is that we still know almost nothing. His early days, baseball and otherwise, sit behind the ragged Cuban curtain of embargo politics and Castroite impedimenta, and his 2012 defection remains a cocktail of charged terms -- smuggler, speedboat, Mexico -- that hint at much and reveal little. He speaks only Spanish, so middle America gets no purchase on his personality, and what he says, anyway, hangs heavily on the themes of thanking God, appreciating his teammates and having fun. Nothing wrong with any of that. He even seems to mean it. 

• "Puig's exuberance for game just fine," via Terence Moore at MLB.com.
• "17 Reasons Why You Should Be Rooting For The LA Dodgers," via BuzzFeed.
• "The Key To A Dodger Miracle: Two Lefty Starters Lined Up," via Mike Petriello at Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness.
• "5 Positives Don Mattingly Has Brought to the Dodgers," via Stacie Wheeler at Lasorda's Lair.
• Via the AJ Ellis on twitter, Andre Ethier imitates Craig Sager who imitates Don Cherry.

The Joke had arrived...off to STL pic.twitter.com/9iQV4frJFJ
— AJ Ellis (@AJEllis17) October 17, 2013

• "The Adrian Gonzalez that Isn’t Anymore," via Jeff Sullivan at FanGraphs.
• "Clayton Kershaw’s dominant slider-curve combo," via Alex Skillin at Beyond the Boxscore.
• "Kershaw lauds connection with batterymate Ellis," via Ken Gurnick and Chris Haft at MLB.com.

"A.J.'s huge," Kershaw said Thursday on a conference call with reporters. "Not only are A.J. and I pretty good buddies off the field, obviously, but on the field I have a lot of trust in him and what he calls. I know he's done probably more homework than anybody, other than [pitching coach Rick] Honeycutt."

• "The Cardinal Sin: Wacha is Tipping his Pitches," via Ari Berkowitz at Beyond the Boxscore.
• "Dispirited St. Louis? The Dodgers hope so," via Bob Nightengale at USA Today.

"I don't know why you guys continue talking about last year," says Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who killed two huge rallies in the first three innings. "It's different. We're facing another team this year.

"We're not thinking about that."

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