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Three Up, Three Down: Flouting the written and unwritten rules of baseball
Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig continues to rile up opponents. Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Three Up, Three Down: Flouting the written and unwritten rules of baseball

Welcome to this week's edition of Three Up, Three Down — your weekly catch-up of the three best highlights (and lowlights) from around the league. We're here for all of the cheers and the jeers, because it's baseball. You can't have a winner without someone losing along the way.

This week, we talk a lot about the written and unwritten rules in baseball, along with position changes and teams moving in opposite directions.

Up: Yasiel Puig continues to act like Stone Cold Steve Austin


The New York Mets weren't thrilled with Yasiel Puig admiring his home run and taking his time rounding the bases. Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

For the second week in a row, Yasiel Puig has managed to make his way into the "Up" part of this column for being vulgar and awesome at the same time. This time, the victims of his Stone Cold Steve Austin tribute tour were the New York Mets. As usual, the consternation came as a result of a team surrendering a dinger to Puig. Yasiel Puig hitting a home run is never really a huge shock, nor is seeing him admire it a bit.

What was a shock was Puig's reaction to the Mets not being pleased with his admiration of his handiwork. According to Wilmer Flores, after he himself told Puig to "run the bases," Puig responded with a succinct and speedy f-bomb in Flores' direction. Again, this is a week after Puig gave some hecklers in Cleveland a double-barreled middle-finger salute. It's clear that Yasiel Puig is going to play the game how he wants, and if you don't like it, he'll let you know just how much he cares about your opinion. It's vulgar, but it's admirable in a way.

Down: Freddie Freeman could be moving to the hot corner


Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman may move to third base when he returns from the disabled list. Jason Getz/USA TODAY Sports

There's good news concerning Braves star first baseman Freddie Freeman — he's reportedly ahead of schedule when it comes to his recovery, and he could very well return by early July, which is way ahead of the 10 weeks that he was supposed to spend on the shelf. That's great, but he may end up returning as a third baseman instead of a first baseman. That's because the Braves have been so impressed with what Matt Adams has done as Freeman's replacement at first base that in order to keep both of them in the lineup, they'll continue to play Adams at first while putting Freeman at third base.

This is the type of move you'd expect a team that figures to be in the playoff hunt to do, but alas, the Braves are currently far behind Washington int he NL East and even further behind in the Wild Card race. Perhaps this is a ploy to build up Adams' trade value. Also, you have to give credit for Freeman for being a true team player for going along with what appears to be a bit of a wacky experiment. After all, he hasn't played third base since high school! This sure seems like a shortsighted way to take advantage of the hot bat that Adams is wielding, but hey, I'm not the one in the front office making decisions so what do I know?

Up: Jarrod Dyson does not care about your unwritten rules


Seattle Mariners center fielder Jarrod Dyson bunted for a base hit against the Detroit Tigers during the sixth inning to break up Justin Verlander's perfect game bid. Joe Nicholson/USA TODAY Sports

Jarrod Dyson and the Mariners are catching some flak for a strategic decision that ended up helping them win a game. In the sixth inning of Wednesday night's game against the Tigers, Seattle was in the process of getting perfecto'd by Justin Verlander. It was a vintage performance from the veteran, and Jarrod Dyson decided to ruin the fun by laying down a bunt. The bunt beat Detroit's defense and broke up the perfect game bid. It also ended up leading to a three-run inning for the Mariners, and what was once a 4-0 deficit for Seattle eventually turned into a 7-5 victory for the home team.

Of course, there were complaints that the Mariners broke an unwritten rule after bunting while the other pitcher had a perfect game, but what do you expect them to do? Change the way that they're playing and potentially lose a game just because the other guy has a shot at history? It wasn't like this was a blowout either — it was 4-0 at that point. The game was still in doubt, the Mariners played to win and it paid off for them. Hats off to the Mariners, who clearly don't care about unwritten rules.

Down: Joe Maddon does not care about your written rules


Anthony Rizzo collided with Austin Hedges and was out at home in the Cubs-Padres game. Patrick Gorski/USA TODAY Sports

While the Mariners couldn't care any less about your unwritten rules, it appears that Anthony Rizzo and Joe Maddon don't care much about one rule in particular that's actually written. We're talking about the "Buster Posey Rule" here, which has nearly wiped out home plate collisions from the game. Anything that can take out needless risk of injury from baseball is a good thing, but alas, we ended up seeing a home plate collision this week at Wrigley Field when Rizzo barreled into Austin Hedges.

Hedges held on to the ball, so Rizzo would have been out no matter what. Still, Hedges ended up getting injured in what was a needless collision, and the Padres weren't pleased. Joe Maddon didn't seem too concerned, and baseball didn't seem concerned either when it decided not to punish Rizzo for breaking the rule. The good news here is that the Padres decided against playing beanball to get revenge. Here's hoping that this continues to be just an isolated incident and not the start of other players deciding to test the limits of the Posey Rule.

Up: The Colorado Rockies are having a blast right now


The Colorado Rockies continue to keep pace with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West. Isaiah J. Downing/USA TODAY Sports

This is shaping up to be a very good year to be part of the Colorado Rockies. They're in the midst of a tough fight in the NL West with the Dodgers and Diamondbacks, but that they're even competing at this point in the season is a bit of an upset. Very few pundits figured they'd be in contention for the divisional title, and the fact that they've nearly got 50 wins in the bank at this point is a huge win for them.

The most exciting point of the season so far has to be when Nolan Arenado capped off a monster afternoon with a walk-off homer to sweep the struggling Giants in front of a raucous Coors Field crowd on Father's Day. What made Arenado's homer even more special was the fact that it also capped off a cycle. There's winning games, and then there' winning games in style — and Arenado did just that. If you're a Rockies fan, then I sincerely hope you aren't waiting for the other shoe to drop and that you're enjoying every moment of this. It's only going to get more fun for you as the season goes on!

Down: The Tigers are already beginning to fade away


Detroit Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera has not been his usual self at the plate this year. Rick Osentoski/USA TODAY Sports

Speaking of the Tigers, they've had themselves a rough June and are currently fading while Cleveland has woken up and appears to be getting ready to make a serious run at defending their divisional title. While Minnesota and (surprisingly enough) Kansas City appear to be ready to fight back, Detroit is going away, and it feels like it might be the end of the line for a lot of the vets on this team.

Miguel Cabrera has been playing through back woes, and his numbers reflect that. Other veterans are continually playing despite struggling. It's the type of situation that has some fans figuring that it's time for a rebuild, and they may be right. If the Tigers do decide to go down this path, they could be one of the most interesting trade deadline sellers that we've seen in a few years. Either way, this could be the end of the line for this core in Detroit.

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