The Neifi-Meter

[goonys evil twin]

I care, because I think it is major hyperbole to repeatedly claim he is "the worst player in the league, worst in history of MLB, etc."

 

But it's not. There are guys who could be worse, and there's no way to tell if he really is THE worst, but it's not hard to support the claim that he is among the worst. The defense that he can't control his playing time doesn't mean a thing. He got the playing time, he negatively affected his teams simply by playing. That's enough to judge the player. Just about any reasonable replacement player would have done better.

 

A spoiled little brat of a kid might not be to blame for the way his parents raised him, but that's not to say you can't criticize the kid's actions.

 

If Neifi didn't play for the Cubs I wouldn't care about how crappy he is. But he does play, and he has hurt the team because he's been so bad. So maybe Macias is worse. But he's not in the game anymore. Augie Ojeda is worse, but he's in the minors. It says something when the few guys that are worse are guys that can't compete at the major league level.

 

As a rule, you can assume that every criticism of Neifi is a criticism of how the Cubs use him and the fact that they even employ him. But the complaints about his play are very real, and very much justified.

[Sammy Sofa]

Hey, you leave Augie out of this!

[CubColtPacer]

I care, because I think it is major hyperbole to repeatedly claim he is "the worst player in the league, worst in history of MLB, etc."

 

But it's not. There are guys who could be worse, and there's no way to tell if he really is THE worst, but it's not hard to support the claim that he is among the worst. The defense that he can't control his playing time doesn't mean a thing. He got the playing time, he negatively affected his teams simply by playing. That's enough to judge the player. Just about any reasonable replacement player would have done better.

 

A spoiled little brat of a kid might not be to blame for the way his parents raised him, but that's not to say you can't criticize the kid's actions.

 

If Neifi didn't play for the Cubs I wouldn't care about how crappy he is. But he does play, and he has hurt the team because he's been so bad. So maybe Macias is worse. But he's not in the game anymore. Augie Ojeda is worse, but he's in the minors. It says something when the few guys that are worse are guys that can't compete at the major league level.

 

As a rule, you can assume that every criticism of Neifi is a criticism of how the Cubs use him and the fact that they even employ him. But the complaints about his play are very real, and very much justified.

 

Ok, here are the players who have roughly comparable stats, or in some cases, significantly worse to Neifi, and play as much as he does or more this year.

 

Jose Guillen

Vinny Castilla

Kazuo Matsui

Geoff Blum

Yadear Molina

Mike Matheney

Reggie Abercrombe

Jason Larue

Adam Everett

Brian Schneider

 

 

This is just a sample of players who have had comparable production to Neifi. This is also with Dusty's misuse of him. Just against lefties, Neifi is around these players

JD Drew

Paul Lo Duca

Barry Bonds

Andruw Jones

Chipper Jones

 

Neifi is not even close to the worst player in the league. When not used correctly, he would be one of the 5 worst starters in the majors, although not necessarily the worst. For bench players, he is slightly below average-but his work against lefties would make him a great bench player. Even using his career numbers against lefties make him a pretty good bench player.

As far as the comment about .275 average not being decent, if every hitter on the team had a .275 average, they would rank 10th out of 30 teams. So how is a .275 average not decent? Yes, the OBP is low-that is why he is a bench player, just like all the benches around the league.

[Andy]

Neifi cannot be called insignificant as long as he starts the majority of baseball games for the Cubs and bats 2nd in the majority of those starts. A guy on pace for 300 ABs cannot be called insignificant in any sense. The fact that Neifi plays (almost always over someone who could play better and usually without cause) and the fact that he hits in a prime position in the lineup that is meant for setting up opportunities for Lee, Aramis, Barrett, Jock, etc. makes him VERY significant.

[Irrelevant Dude]

As of 7/6, Neifi Perez is on pace for 311 At Bats this season. Stay tuned for daily updates.

After last night's game, the pace has dropped to 309. I predict it will go back up today.

[J.R.]

If Neifi didn't play for the Cubs I wouldn't care about how crappy he is. But he does play, and he has hurt the team because he's been so bad. So maybe Macias is worse. But he's not in the game anymore. Augie Ojeda is worse, but he's in the minors. It says something when the few guys that are worse are guys that can't compete at the major league level.

 

All that scum, including one Doug Dascenzo, have played for the Cubs. Consider what THAT says about the organization.