To express such hostility when you can hide behind the curtain of your computer monitor. If you focused 10% of your energy on making well thought out and respectful comments, rather than short and sharp remarks, you would probably have good points that are taken seriously.

You sound as if it’s an impossibility that the DBacks won’t beat the Cubs. Still many, many games to play son, you should know that.

That’s why John Kruk obviously knows so much more about baseball than Bill James.

that would be great. As much as the Edmonds/Johnson platoon has worked, for the long-term stability of the position, it would be great to see Felix find some success and confidence, starting with yesterday’s game.

These teams are really different in my book. Just because they win and lose games at the same time doesn’t make them similar. One team is almost 30 games over and the other is 20 games over.

Of course, that’s what he’s paid to do. Get on base at or near a .400 clip, and score as many runs as possible with the big bats coming up next.

I agree completely about Lee’s empty batting average – it’s been a very poor season for him. His SLG is way down – and he’s being paid for his power. His stats with RISP and 2 outs are eye-poppingly bad.

A couple of October HR, and all is forgiven. But I’m not expecting it – and I’ll bet that the front office already has plans to make a change at 1B in the near future.

I will be very surprised if Howry is not on the post-season roster.

He may need 100 pitches to get through 5, but he at least he ain’t some 2-PITCH pitcher who belongs in AAAA.

And Lucy is in it…with diamonds.

blood.

No one has said anything other than he had a good game, and they hope he can build on that success.

when Pie was written off earlier in the season after a 4 games. Hello, goose, meet the gander.

But, seriously, SWL is right – the theme of the posts here have been – wait and see, but as we wait, it sure was nice to see a nice night from Felix.

First you said he wouldn’t be on the roster. Then you said he wasn’t called up to do any hitting. He started a game. Maybe we’re not vindicated, but you’re sure as hell wrong.

is how you come in and acknowledge your shortcomings?

say something like. “Okay maybe I jumped the gun but I don’t think it will continue”.

And in true troll fashion, he ignores the fact that NO ONE said Pie was vindicated, puts up an inflammatory strawman argument and goes to work disrupting intelligent discussion. You never fail to disappoint, my friend!

CROW PIE, YOU ARROGANT….

Ahem. Please look at the pretty picture.

FIRST AT BAT he HITS MAJOR LEAGUE PITCHING and DRIVES IN THE TYEING RBI!

Want a shovel? There’s this pile of sand, see, and we hear YOU hold the final destination WITHIN.

are getting a little embarrassing.

Keep it up MDBNIU.

…the evils of Nosferatu!

same reason I go fly fishing even though I get skinked every time.

1. 23 isn’t really all that old.

2. Those almost 250 MLB ABs have been scattered over two seasons and very inconsistent playing time.

3. As this thread makes clear, no one is really arguing that anyone should get excited about Pie based on one game. That said, I don’t see how you can say he has no patience when he drew two walks on Wednesday night.

When all is said and done, it seems like the only disagreement here is about whether Felix should be labeled the “biggest disappointment” of ‘08. You’re obviously welcome to that opinion, but I don’t think he qualifies. Then again, maybe I’d be more apt to lean more in that direction if the Jedmonds/Johnson two-headed centerfielder platoon beast hadn’t been such a success.

1) Many top prospects take at least 250 MLB ABs to figure out ML pitching. The kinds who succeed from day one and don’t struggle at all in year one (e.g. Ryan Braun) are more rare than the kinds who put up ugly AVGs for a while until they figure it out (e.g. Evan Longoria).

2) No patience and no power? Are you serious? One of Pie’s problems early in the season was too much patience – he watched borderline pitches go by and was called out on strikes. You could argue he has immature plate discipline – and that I’d agree with, but then a) Pie is clearly trying to mature that plate discipline and b) while plate discipline is preferrable, other players have succeeded without it. If Felix Pie becomes a cheap, better running, better fielding Jacque Jones, that may frustrate Cub fans who want Curtis Granderson, but that’s still a successful farm development. As for the power – I really don’t know what player you are talking about. You can watch him or look at his stats and see power.

3) Given how long it took this guy to get going, how long is “enough” to be more pessimistic than optimistic on Pie? When are there enough MLB ABs that when predicting Pie’s future performance you start ignoring his minor league numbers? I agree there is a time, but even after the time you’d have written a guy off, sometimes you end up with a Ryan Ludwick who reminds you why he was a top prospect long ago. Is it relevant that Pie’s ML playing time has been as scattered as can be and under a manager who’s not supportive of his development? I think so.

4) If anything should have demoralized Felix, it wasn’t going back to AAA where he could actually play. What would demoralize any normal human being was his treatment at the big league leavel – getting a “chance” that lasted 4 days, getting hot and then being benched for a week, being benched against RHP when he was hitting better v. them than Reed Johnson (again, how can anyone believe Lou “plays the guys who hit”?).

Here’s where you and I completely agree: Pie has to produce. Here’s where my perspective is different than others – Pie has produced consistently in the minors and that should buy him time at the ML level. Lou may not like Pie’s swing, but dozens of scouts and people within the Cubs own organization disagree. I don’t think we’re anywhere close to having found out if Pie can produce at the ML level. When Pie was sent down, he and Evan Longoria had the same batting AVG. Look where Tampa’s greater wisdom led them.