The Dodgers, Yasiel Puig and staring straight into cold reality

So did you read that thing I wrote about Yasiel Puig that said the Dodgers should add another “6” to his jersey, have his name stricken from their record books, send him back to Cuba or maybe fed to the fishes?

No?

Me, neither, though you would think I had judging by some of the comments. Come now kiddies, can’t you disagree without the name-calling and ugliness? Play nice.

It’s not like I was making such an outlandish suggestion. The Dodgers open their biggest series of the season Friday in San Francisco with a two-game lead over the Giants and the calendar screaming Sept. 12.

Every game is crucial, every game needs to be played to win now.

And Puig is in a massive slump, a truly horrendous one. After a spectacular May that saw him hit eight homers and drive in 25 runs, he’s hit two homers and driven in 20 in the 3½ months since.

That’s crazy. That’s someone who should be benched. So I suggested that the Dodgers sit him and see what Andre Ethier can offer. That’s not taking shots at Puig, that’s being realistic.

“We’ve looked at him like Superman and we’ve built him up, and he’s struggling and now we all want to tear him down,” said Manager Don Mattingly.

Not really. When athletes do well, good things are written about them and when they do not the story line is obviously not the same (see: Matt Kemp).

The suggestion is not that Ethier is more talented than Puig; he’s not. No one else on the team is either. It’s certainly not that Puig should be relegated to the bench forever. It’s not a permanent suggestion, it’s for this moment in time. A moment when the Dodgers can’t afford to wait for Puig to again deliver on his great potential.

You cannot fall so in love with talent that you turn a blind eye when it stumbles. Next April, Puig should be in the lineup. He’ll have plenty of time to work things out. But this is not that time. This is the time to win right now.

No one is guilty of building Puig up and making him sound like Superman more than the Dodgers. He had scarcely arrived on the scene and got off to his sensational start when the team’s marketing engine went into overdrive. He’d barely played 100 games in his entire major-league career and the Dodgers were plastering him on billboards all across town and in newspaper ads, adding him to a group of players on the media guide.

They’re invested in Puig now, beyond that $42-million signing. You have to wonder if Mattingly isn’t getting pressure from upstairs to keep playing him.

He’s not likely to sit Puig this weekend, where his speed can at least be utilized in AT&T Park’s cavernous outfield.

But if he doesn’t respond this weekend (he’s hit .143 in his last 19 games), then reality needs to come crashing down. It doesn’t matter if he’s the most talented player in the league — and he may be — if he’s not producing, it’s time to sit. It’s the middle of September, not June. And you have to manage like it.