I don’t understand what you’re trying to say here, Brian. He has lost ome weight and has had a lengthy major league career, so you’re jealous. Yeah, me too, but that doesn’t have anything to do with anything. So what was that about relativity? What are you talking about? Neifi is awful, has always been awful, and there are many players out there who can give you the same thing – halfway decent defense at a couple of positions and awful hitting. He spent some time in Colorado during the peak of the hitting boom, put up batting averages and doubles numbers that appeared, to those who don’t know any better, to be anywhere from tolerable to promising, and he’s gotten a major league career out of it. A serendipitous mixture of ignorance and luck has conspired to grant him a major league career. You’re damn right we should be jealous.

Ramon Santiago is, at worst, the same as Neifi, except he is in his 20’s and therefore might have some upside. Neifi’s upside? Zero, no matter his weight, which he still won’t hit.

It doesn’t matter what he looks like in spring, or if he ate rice and beans or not, or whether or not you like him personally or are jealous of him. He is a bad baseball player.

I just can’t stand faux wisdom like this from people pretending to be the ones who have really taken a step back to size up the situation. “Gee, he may be the worst player in baseball history, but it’s all relative.” That’s nonsense! Of course it’s all relative. He is perhaps to worst ballplayer of all time RELATIVE TO EVERY OTHER BALLPLAYER.

Am I missing something here?

Dan I completely agree.

See, he’s not the worst baseball player. He may be the worst major league baseball player and there’s a difference, but he’s without a doubt not the worst player ever.

And what you’re missing is, the guy played 12 years in the big leagues, which a lot of career minor leaguers or guys who never made even made it that far would kill for. He’s hardly a failure, which you basically allude to him being.

It is nice to have you back though.

I saw something startling in Neifi’s spring numbers – 9 walks in 41 AB’s. Projected to a full season of about 500 AB’s that’s about 100 BB’s for one season.

We usually dismiss spring numbers because of the small sample size but walks are different. I am used to seeing fewer of them in spring because players are trying to get their timing down or are tinkering with their swing. And you can’t get your timimg down or tinker with your swing unless you, you know, swing the bat.

Apparently Neifi is not swinging as much as he ususllay does. The huge increase in walks probably indicates a concious effort on Neifi’s part.

I’m still not crazy about him being on the roster, but a new, more patient Perez is better than the old Perez.

I disagree, Brian. We are talking about two different things, mostly because, I would argue, you’re not even sure of what you’re trying to say.

He is a failure, from a Major League Baseball perspective. I do not care to think of it from his family’s perspective, which has nothing to do with me. I’m sure they’re well fed. What I’m concerned with it the success of the Detroit Tigers, something that is hindered by his presence. It is hindered because Perez is a ballplayer who costs his teams a lot of runs. Are you going to disagree with that?

And Doug, I’ll take my chances without Perez. The number of players who have completely changed their offensive profile at age 34 is somewhere very close to zero. I would be willing to bet you any amount of money that Neifi goes back to being Neifi, exactly what he has been for 11 major league seasons and 5000 major league at bats.

Nope, no arguement. I specifically say above that I’d rather have him on another team. What I’m trying to say is, who the heck are you (whoever you are) to say he’s a failure when he’s put together a 12 year major league career. You must know way more then those managers do then. Or are you Sparky Anderson in disguise?

And I know what I’m trying to say, I’m just trying to be nice about it, which is probably getting in the way.