The Difficult Life of Felix Pie

It has been noted elsewhere that Felix Pie, 23 year-old erstwhile center fielder of the future for the Cubs, has been losing starts to useful player and known quantity Reed Johnson. Unfortunately, it feels like that when Felix starts, the Cubs are playing against the best starting pitchers in the game. Could it possibly be that the Cubs would mess with a young player's development by only playing him in the games in which he is most likely to fail? I decided to find out.

Felix Pie has started against the following pitchers:

Ben Sheets
Jeff Suppan
Dave Bush
Chris Sampson
Matt Morris
Aaron Harang
Nelson Figueroa
Aaron Cook
Ben Sheets
Jeff Suppan
Adam Wainright
Johnny Cueto

First of all, that's all of 12 starts in 32 games. If you exclude the first four games of the season, all of which Pie began in the starting lineup, that makes 8 out of 28 games.

Furthermore, of his 12 starts, Pie has faced Brewers ace Ben Sheets twice, Reds ace Aaron Harang once, Rockies ace Aaron Cook once, and Cardinals ace Adam Wainright once. That's 5 starts out of his 12 against pitchers currently ranked fifth, sixth, tenth, and thirteenth in ERA in the National League.

Of his remaining seven starts, one came against Reds phenom Johnny Cueto, who sports a 5.17 ERA but also 49 strikeouts in 47 innings, a 5-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and a 1.15 WHIP.

Of his remaining six starts, two came against Jeff Suppan, who is pretty much the very definition of a league-average innings-eater.

Of his remaining four starts, two came against Dave Bush and Chris Sampson, neither of whom is without promise but both of whom have been solidly bad pitchers so far this year.

The last two starts were against monumentally bad pitchers Matt Morris and Nelson Figueroa, although to be fair, the latter hurler isn't at all as bad as the former.

To sum up:

• Despite his youth and obvious need to get playing time in order to develop as a hitter, Felix Pie has barely started more than a third of the team's games
• When he does start, he often plays the best the opposition has to offer, with fully half of his starts coming against the aces of the opposing team, plus Johnny Cueto
• Only four of his starts have come against pitchers that would qualify as bad

Lou Piniella desperately needs to stop forcing Pie to cool his heels on the bench for days on end, only to play against the best of the National League. That's not fair, and more importantly, it's no way to develop a player.