Yasiel Puig might be the Dodgers leadoff hitter in 2014

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If Don Mattingly’s comments are to be taken seriously, the Dodgers might find themselves with the strongest leadoff hitter in all of baseball in 2014. We don’t mean that the Dodgers will have the league’s best leadoff hitter when we say ‘strong’, we mean literally, the most yoaked leadoff guy in the game.

And we would hate to see Puig’s fantasy baseball potential in any way dimmed due to this move, as silly as that sounds. The perfect world move would be if the Dodgers entered the year hitting Puig third in the lineup, a move that seems unlikely at this point.

If Puig begins the season as a leadoff hitter in Los Angeles, look for it to go one of two ways. Puig ends up phenomenal and the Dodgers end up moving him to the middle of the order around midseason once the offense hits a lull like all lineups do; or Puig struggles a bit in his sophomore season and the team moves him down to the 6 or 7 spot in the order. We don’t look for him to stick all season long as a leadoff hitter. It just doesn’t match his skill set well enough.