It's been an up and down season for Felix Pie as he disappointed early and found himself firmly entrenched on the Orioles bench once again typecast as 4th OF. He was sitting at .195/.271/.310 through May but had just 87 AB's through his first 36 games with the Orioles. The lack of playing time continued in June and July with just an additional 34 AB's, but Pie's fortune turned around as more balls started finding holes. But the real turn-around came on August 17th when Aubrey Huff was traded to the Tigers. This opened up 1B for Luke Scott and allowed the Orioles to give Pie playing time as an OF while DHing some of the other OF's; the opportunity was later expanded when Adam Jones went down with a hamstring injury.

Since that point in time Pie's started 10 of the last 12 games and gone 13-33 with 3 2B's, 1 3B, and 3 HR's  raising his season line to .271/.332/.442

Sure it doesn't seem like a lot, but he's basically providing league average production (his OPS+ is right around 100), but this comes with the move to the league's toughest division in the AL East. His extra base hit rate has jumped to 8.8% after posting just a 6.9% XBH Rate with the Cubs. This is much closer to his 10% rate in the minors. His .40 BB Rate is mirroring the .39 BB Rate at the minor league level and his BABIP at .315 is very normal.

He's not likely to be a star because of the poor plate command, but at 24 he's already become a competent league average CF in the toughest division in baseball while continuing to play good defense. For $10 Million less a year he could've produced somewhat similar overall value than Milton Bradley had the manager and organization had a little more patience and some willingness to give Pie consistent playing time.

Instead of focusing on all the holes in his swing and weaknesses in his game (the glaring lack of plate command), the Orioles have just let Pie play and use his strengths (good gap power) to become a pretty solid young ballplayer.