i’m a massive believer in Thames. I think he should be out there every night. The guy can hit. If Monroe is hitting then he should be in there. The odd man out is Young. The nefi Perez lead-off experiment has got to stop. baseball prospectus prettym uch labels Perez as the worst player on the planet.

by the way, massive win for the tigers last night. 1 more win in this series and we can pretty much put a fork in the sox. tonight is our best chance with GArcia going.

from Baseball Prospectus

Oh, the humanity, etc. There’s something fundamentally ugly about letting Perez glom on to a good ballclub and get handed the ninth slot in the lineup with a post-it asking that he not be any worse than usual, but that’s what happens when you’re born under the right stars, I suppose. I can accept some sort of argument that there’s virtue in leaving Omar Infante in a utility role, and I think we can all accept that Santiago is one of the few utility infielders who might be worse than Perez. (We’ll get to the return of Manny Alexander in the Pads section.) I just don’t really buy into it all in concert: the Tigers would be best off with Infante in the lineup, and if you stick Perez in a reserve role as an infrequently-used reserve, that’s not the end of the world. The decision to make Perez the team’s everyday second baseman, however, might actually cost the team just enough runs and outs that a hot streak by the White Sox or Twins starts making things interesting. I know, it’s a stretch, but Neifi’s one of the game’s all-time execrables.

My biggest concern isn’t making the playoffs now. My biggest concern is Perez basically being four or five easy outs in a playoff game where ever run counts.