He saved us, dude. Honestly, I think it's probably because he doesn't strike out or pop up that much. I think the average baseball fan at Wrigley can identify that striking out means you're doing bad, and hitting an infield popup means you're doing bad, but it a guy hits 4 grounders to the second baseman in a game, I don't think the average fan would note that as particularly bad. I think they'd simply think that he didn't find a hole. unfortunately, since neifi swings at everything, he's constantly hitting weak grounders that probably won't find holes, and as such, is bad. But the average fan does not notice that.