2011 Leaf Valiant Yasiel Puig Autograph

I had several cards I could throw up on my blog today, but I am feeling like doing a new prospect card today.  I missed Opening Day for the Durham Bulls, but managed to make it to my first game of the year yesterday afternoon.  Sure I miss living in a Major League city, but the minors are really fun to follow and see some of the really good players before they get up to the big league.  I will do a post in the next week or two on a few of the players on the Bulls, but I will at least share my view of the game with you before I get into my card for the day.  

While I am pretty convinced that the Durham Bulls might flatten most other minor league teams this year (seriously-not being a homer) the most intriguing prospect in the minors belongs to the Chattanooga  Lookouts in the form of outfielder Yasiel Puig.  Puig is a Cuban and defected from the Cuban National Baseball team sometime in 2012 ending up as a resident of Mexico.  He became a free agent and signed a seven year contract with the Dodgers.  Puig played in the lower minors last year and hit for average (.354) and (.634 slugging) with 5 homers in 23 games.  Leaf managed to put him into their Valiant release last year and he was even included in the autographs.  

2011 Leaf Valiant Yasiel Puig Autograph

I managed to snag a green version of the autograph, in a trade, which is the most common.  This spring Yasiel Puig did everything he could to make the Dodgers and basically hit the cover off the ball during Spring Training.  The Dodgers sent him to AA to start the season, but he is hitting over .500 with power.  It's the first week of the season, but it will be interesting to see what becomes of Mr. Puig as the summer continues.  I had a chance to see a glimpse of him during a televised Dodgers Spring Training game and it was hard to get a read on how good he was with my own two eyes.  However, it would not shock me if the Dodgers are in contention that Puig will be the teams de-facto trade line addition to help push the team into the playoffs.