pie down, pagan up

as previously speculated as a possibility in the comments, the cubs sent down felix pie, some three weeks after he was called up.

for better or worse, the kid was not playing -- and if he's not, there's little point in running his service time clock. pie would have to miss another five or six weeks of the majors to safely skirt super-two designation following 2009, and that is probably a concern in the minds of the cubs' front office.

beyond that, perhaps lou piniella considers the defensive decline that comes with having jacque jones in center as offset by an offensive advantage (regardless of how poorly he's hit to date -- in terms of win percentage added, jacque has been the most destructive player on the club). or perhaps piniella is simply unwilling to play a rookie in a key position with a lot of ground to make up. or perhaps pie happened to be on the bench when the club started winning, and no one is willing to mess with good fortune.

in any case, angel pagan was called up to be the last man off the bench. he has hit 250/310/414 in 116 at-bats in iowa.

Depth	SP	RHRP	LHRP	C	INF	OF
1	Carlos Zambrano	Ryan Dempster	Scott Eyre*	Michael Barrett	Derrek Lee	Alfonso Soriano
2	Ted Lilly*	Bob Howry	Will Ohman*	Henry Blanco	Mark Derosa	Jacque Jones*
3	Jason Marquis	Michael Wuertz	Neal Cotts*	Geovany Soto	Ryan Theriot	Cliff Floyd*
4	Rich Hill*	Rocky Cherry	Clay Rapada*		Aramis Ramirez	Matt Murton
5	Angel Guzman	Roberto Novoa			Cesar Izturis**	Daryle Ward*
6	Mark Prior	Kerry Wood			Ronny Cedeno	Angel Pagan**
7	Juan Mateo	Wade Miller			Scott Moore*	Felix Pie*
8	Sean Marshall*				Brian Dopirak	Buck Coats*
9	Carlos Marmol
10	Jeff Samardzija