Tonight, the Orioles face the Angels and starter Ervin Santana. As Roch Kubatko mentioned earlier today in a post about Luke Scott (who's returning to the lineup), Felix Pie has three hits in five career at-bats against Santana. One of those hits was a triple.
Predictably, Pie's in the lineup tonight, batting eighth and playing left field. Because Scott's back to fill the DH slot, Nolan Reimold's on the bench. Reimold is having a much better season than Pie and is clearly the better player, but this is probably why he's not playing tonight:
(Career) Reimold vs. Santana: 0-2, 1 BB
(Fake Buck Showalter: "Way to not get a hit against Santana in limited at-bats, Nolan. And who cares about that walk?")
That has to be why Showalter is playing Pie instead of Reimold. He can't believe Pie is better than Reimold, right? Or maybe it's just because Pie is left-handed. Yeah, that has to play a part as well.
I've probably written something similar to this before, but whatever. There's no legitimate reason why Pie should be in over Reimold. It's not like Reimold is a star or an amazing player, so I'm getting tired of having to harp on this point over and over again: He's a competent, above-average hitter. That's more than anyone can say about Pie, who, in only 140 plate appearances this season, has racked up a -1.7 WAR. Every at-bat he's receiving is a wasted opportunity that should be given to Reimold.
Or bring Matt Angle back up from Norfolk and designate Pie for assignment. Angle may not end up being a very good player, but at least we all know right now that Pie is awful.
No comments:
Post a Comment