When Yasiel Puig began this season with the Chattanooga Lookouts, he drew comparisons to Bo Jackson.
Puig reminds former Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda of someone else.
"I compare him to Raul Mondesi," Lasorda said Wednesday night at AT&T Field. "He's big, strong and fast, and he has a great arm. He's a good hitter and looks to me like a twin of Mondesi."
Lasorda, who serves as a special advisor to Dodgers chairman Mark Walter, is in Chattanooga this week for a second time this summer. He watched the Lookouts win a fourth straight game Wednesday, as an Angelo Songco home run to center ignited a three-run eighth inning in a 3-1 victory over Jacksonville.
Mondesi was listed at 5-foot-11 and 225 pounds during his 13-year playing career, which is smaller than Puig's 6-3, 245-pound frame, but he also made a splash by hitting .306 with 16 home runs and 56 RBIs during his first full season with the Dodgers in 1994. He hit .285 with 88 RBIs in 1995 and hit .297 with 88 RBIs in '96, which was Lasorda's last season as Dodgers manager.
When asked how he would have handled Puig off the field, Lasorda said, "I would have to sit him down and talk with him and let him know what's going on. I believe communication is the best thing for a manager to have with his players, and I think Jody Reed here does that as well as anybody."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.