Diamondbacks 3, White Sox 7: Good Barry Enright Shows Up Late

First, I don’t see how that is intellectual dishonesty (has anybody EVER been sued for cherry-picking stats in a baseball discussion?). Second, the only way that that qualifies as accusing you of a lack of understanding is, well, if you take it that way. Instead of focusing on what I “accused” you of, the alternative is finding another couple of examples, or since B-R is so awesome, sorting out multiple examples.

Additionally, the prospect status of Petit while in the minor leagues was a huge topic for a while because of the significant clash between his minor-league statistical track record and his scouting reports. So when his name is brought up in comparison to any prospect, that’s the first, and typically most logical, reaction to have – trying to compare a prospect to another whose stats in the minors and poor results in the majors were so dramatically contrasting.

Really, the only reason I threw that “cherry-picking” term out there is because I thought you were straight-up comparing the two as a way of saying Barry was destined to fail, because that’s sure what it sounds like (comparisons of ages, numbers, the phrase “Unless … he is never going to be anything more than Yusmeiro Petit.”). If that’s what I wasn’t “getting,” then great, I didn’t get it, and as blue bulldog mentioned, we seem to agree on this a lot more than our arguing would indicate.

I reached that conclusion because you put in a lot of effort comping the two’s numbers and minor league track record. After all, all but about half of one paragraph of your first reply to me talked about Barry’s stats and the Petit comp. See how I could have been easily misled there?

When I mentioned the spring training numbers, I also mentioned the scouting report, which I had weighed more heavily (although based on the amount of time I spent discussing the ST stuff, isn’t obvious – admittedly, that is my bad). However, seeing a cavalcade of numbers but no mention of scouting reports leads to the easy assumption that the scouting reports aren’t being used. If you have people who you know and trust who have negative reports on Barry, then fine. I understand the reasons why those reports exist, but there are also contrasting reports based on recent showings that have a more optimistic tune, and are worth seriously considering rather than saying that the scout “needs to be enlightened.”

I agree that if he repeats his peripherals from last year, he’ll probably tank. But I also don’t think that a sample of 99 innings in the major leagues should start producing the name “Yusmeiro Petit.” That’s truly all I’m trying to argue here.