Comparing Yasiel Puig's Antics to Johnny Manziel's

Talented athletes can make otherwise rational people, whether it's a head coach or manager, overlook a lot of things for the benefit of the team and hopes of winning a championship. 

Two of the most talked about stars in all of sports this year are Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig and Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel.

Some of the discussion involving these two incredible talents has been about what they can do/have done on the field, but most of the conversation centers around things relating to their attitudes/arrogance. 

But are the two directly related? Should fans and analysts be so quick to jump on one or both because of things they do on the field? 

Let's take a closer look at what makes Puig and Manziel such lightning rods, then think about what all of it means. 

Yasiel Puig's In-Game Mental State

There is a certain machismo that seems to drive both Puig and Manziel.

Given the parallel ways both came to superstardom—Puig was playing professional baseball in this country for less than a calendar year and came up from Double-A, and Manziel was a redshirt freshman who had never taken a college snap before 2012—it isn't a surprise that they would be a little full of themselves after the media christened them the "Next Big Thing." 

Puig seemed to take to the fame and glamour of Hollywood right away. He started to get negative attention after hitting a walk-off home run against Cincinnati on July 28 because of a bat flip and slide into home. 

The 22-year-old has been pulled in the middle of games for a lack of effort or preparedness, depending on what you read. 

For instance, during a game against Chicago on August 28, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly took Puig out after the top of the fifth inning. The move came after the outfielder casually caught a fly ball in right field, then in an almost angry fashion flipped the ball into the stands without taking it out of his glove. 

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports wrote after Puig was pulled that concerns about his effort level played a role in Mattingly's decision. 

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Puig’s readiness might not have been the only issue Wednesday. He also didn’t slide into second in the first inning to try and break up a double play. He made a couple of showy catches in the fourth inning. And he repeatedly was the last man to leave the bench at the start of defensive innings, one player said.

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Puig, through an interpreter, was quoted in Rosenthal's piece after that game as saying that he "wasn’t preparing well for each pitch (defensively)," and he believed the benching "was a good decision."

A week before that game, in a series against Miami, Puig was fined for showing up late to the stadium and reportedly had a one-on-one meeting with Mattingly afterwards.

Puig was also kept out of the starting lineup that day, though Mattingly said the decision was made before Puig showed up late to sit him. The star outfielder would make his presence felt in that game delivering a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning, so his behavior that day couldn't have been that bad if Mattingly let him play. 

There are also times where Puig tries to make the impossible happen, whether it's a throw from deep right field to third base or going for the extra base on a ball hit right at an outfielder. You like to see that kind of aggressiveness, and there have certainly been times when that pays off for him and the team. 

Unfortunately, when you play aggressively, it can also turn into reckless and ignoring some fundamentals. Puig knows he can make those great throws, but there are times when you have to hit the cut-off man to prevent the runner on first base from going to second. Speed is a great thing to have, but in Major League Baseball stealing bases is more about the pitcher than the runner. 

Puig's focus does seem to drift in and out of the game, depending on the moment or opponent. That is certainly something he has to work on, and based on the quote from Rosenthal's piece, he at least understands why he gets pulled from games early. 

Johnny Manziel's In-Game Mental State

While a lot of Puig's issues have come on the field, Manziel has been fairly limited when you look at things to pick apart. 

Sure, there was that moment at the beginning of this season in a game against Rice when Johnny Football was jawing with the defensive player or decided that it would be a good idea to mime signing his autograph into the air after everything that had just gone down with the NCAA. 

In the same game, moments after throwing a touchdown in the fourth quarter, Manziel was talking to Rice players, pointed up at the scoreboard and drew a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. On his way back to the bench, the star quarterback bumped head coach Kevin Sumlin, who was trying to talk to him about the penalty. 

Manziel was benched for the rest of the game, not that Texas A&M needed him because the final score wound up being 52-31. 

After the game, Sumlin sounded like he had concerns about his quarterback, telling reporters, via ESPN.com, that he would have "hoped that at this point he'd have learned something."

During a press conference a few days later, also via ESPN.com, Sumlin sort of backed off those comments. 

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"For people to say 'You know what, he's not listening to his coach and there's no discipline on this team,' they're not around this football team. They're not around this program. A lot of people who have made statements about that weren't anywhere near the sideline. I haven't heard one guy or any person who was near that sideline, who heard (what) was said, speak up about what happened..."

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That is an interesting perspective, because there are things that we (fans and media) don't get to see on a day-to-day basis. We have no idea what Manziel or Puig are like. All we get to see and hear are what happens during an approximately three-hour window when they take the field. 

And depending on what we hear, the picture could be entirely one-sided. Puig was the biggest star in the world until we decided he had gotten too big for his britches, so everyone had to bring him down to earth. 

Manziel, for all his flaws, has never done anything that you could say hurts Texas A&M or prevents the team from winning games. In fact, he has helped put that school back on the map.

We were laughing at the idea of this mid-tier Big 12 program going to the powerful SEC. Now, Texas A&M is ranked in the Top 10 of both polls, getting ready to play a game against an Alabama team that only the Aggies have defeated since the start of 2012 and could compete for a national title. 

A lot of that is a reflection of what Manziel does on the field for this team, but there are other areas of concern that we will get into shortly. 

Yasiel Puig's Off-Field Actions

Unlike Manziel, who makes headlines for what happens off the field, Puig hasn't actually made a spectacle of himself or his career off the field. 

The worst thing Puig has done that didn't cost the Dodgers a run or an out during a game is snubbed Luis Gonzalez's attempts to chat before a game against Arizona. It was the Great Disrespecting of 2013, if you read Dan Bickley of USA Today Sports. 

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There's a big difference between rivalry and respect. Dodgers star Yasiel Puig should learn the distinction, Bickley wrote.

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Puig reportedly didn't look up or bother to acknowledge Gonzalez when the former Diamondbacks World Series hero tried to talk about his family roots in Cuba. Dodgers hitting coach Mark McGwire saw what was going on and intervened, letting Puig know who was talking to him. 

Arizona catcher Miguel Montero, who apparently has an issue with anyone who does anything based on past incidents with former teammate Trevor Bauer and Puig's teammate Zack Greinke, told reporters that Puig is immature. 

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"Right now, I'm not going to say he's the best because he hasn't proved anything yet. Does he have talent? Of course. Does he have the tools? Of course. He's got so much talent, it'd be really bad if he wasted it doing the stupid things that he's doing. You have to respect to earn respect. If you don't respect anybody, you aren't going to earn respect."

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Of course, Montero's manager in Arizona, Kirk Gibson, has said he doesn't have a problem with Puig. 

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"I still rub people the wrong way. People in today's society always worry about someone else and I got no problem with him. He is just playing, some people say he doesn't know any better, well why would he know any better? He hasn't even been here that long, so give him a break."

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The other notable off-field incident(s) have involved Puig and the media. He has had several brushes with reporters, ranging from criticizing them for overreacting to him going out with LeBron James to shouting vulgarities at a group of press standing around his locker prior to a game. 

Not to defend Puig because there are some things he brings on himself, but he doesn't speak English and came from a country where he could just show up, play baseball and go home. 

Being thrown into the L.A. market, and talked about in ways that no rookie with this franchise has been since Fernando Valenzuela, can work a number on your mind. 

Does that excuse some of the things Puig has done and said? No, of course not. But it makes it easier to understand why he can be stand-offish at times. 

Johnny Manziel's Off-Field Actions

Manziel made a living—poor choice of words?— this spring by being fodder for media talk. He had to make the rounds during SEC Media Day for missing time at the Manning Passing Academy before leaving the event earlier than expected. 

Rumors & Rants posted a story, citing an unnamed source, providing a detailed account of what exactly happened that Friday and Saturday morning leading to Manziel going home before taking part in the event. 

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Basically it boils down to this: Manziel apparently lied to his own mother about his reason for missing camp meetings on Saturday morning, misled the media on SEC Media Day and threw Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron under the bus by forcing him to answer questions about why he didn’t wake Manziel up on Saturday morning. What McCarron had to avoid saying was the truth: he couldn’t wake Manziel up, because Manziel wasn’t in their room.

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Some have called into question whether Manziel couldn't take part in the event because he was hungover from partying the previous night, though the R&R report does note, as anyone with a modicum of common sense could infer, that these are college kids in the middle of summer, and "they would have to send just about everybody home if that were the reason."

But it did become a huge story that called into question the character of Manziel, leading to Peter King of Sports Illustrated to ponder whether the star college quarterback would become another version of Ryan Leaf. 

There was also an incident in 2012, before Manziel had ever played a down at Texas A&M, where he was arrested and jailed for his role in a fight and carrying a fake ID. 

Then we have the story that bled into the 2013 season because Manziel was suspended—I say that half-jokingly, of course—for the first half of the game against Rice as the NCAA investigated him for potentially profiting off personally autographed merchandise. 

We can laugh at some of the rules the NCAA has, or half-heartedly attempts to enforce, but it is a rule that anyone with a pulse should know better than to break (or at least take a more concerted effort not to have video cameras around when you are signing things). 

Manziel and Texas A&M wound up avoiding stiffer penalties because the NCAA concluded that it couldn't find any evidence Manziel received payment for merchandise, but he was suspended for a half because, as the ESPN report noted, "student-athletes cannot permit their names or likenesses to be used for commercial purposes, including to advertise, recommend or promote sales of commercial products, or accept payment for the use of their names or likenesses."

Like Walter White constantly escaping death at every turn, Manziel manages to avoid the crosshairs of the NCAA. 

Conclusion

Both players are extraordinary talents, no one will deny that. Puig has the potential to be a superstar for years to come, but there are concerns that his raw talent gets in the way of his baseball talent. 

Manziel may or may not be a future NFL star because his size is not prototypical for a quarterback. 

But based on their respective actions, I believe that Manziel has been more detrimental to his team than Puig to his. Manziel forces Sumlin to do damage control more often than I am sure he would like, and even though he got off without any real punishment, if the NCAA had found he made money off merchandise, not only would Texas A&M be without its best player but the program would be subject to sanctions that could limit scholarships and take away bowl games. 

Puig is someone who came from a poor country, got handed a ton of money even before he played a game for the Dodgers, made an instant impact that captivated a nation and we were surprised when his game and public image were raw. 

Say what you want about Manziel just being 20 years old, but he is more than aware how the media works in this country. He should know better than to constantly find a way to make a public spectacle of himself. 

If you want to talk baseball, feel free to hit me up on Twitter with questions or comments.