Leyland takes responsibility for Neifi Perez

On 1130 WDFN’s ‘The Stony and Wojo Show’ they interviewed Jim Leyland today. When asked about Neifi Perez he had some interesting answers. Below is a rough non-”word for word” transcript from my co-worker Jamie:

• Question: “One of the things you heard alot last year was why are you playing Neifi so much?”
• Leyland: “Good question. He was terrible, He showed us nothing.”
• Leyland: “It was all my fault.”
• Leyland: “We were desperate for a guy who could play some infield positions.”
• Leyland: “He has to show us something this year.”

Ouch! Not that it is not uncalled for. I know that he is owed quite a bit of money but I don’t care for the last comment. Maybe they’ll just give him a shot at Spring Training then move him off the 40-man after that. We’ll see what happens but I am glad to see them being honest about the situation.

Hopefully they will podcast the interview, if so I’ll post a link.

[UPDATE] The Detroit Tiger Weblog has a more complete and correct transcript and links to the podcast of the interview. Good interview outside of the comments on Neifi as well.