Have Your Pie and Eat It Too? Well, Not Quite...

The Chicago Cubs are in the thick of the playoff race...

They reeled in the flounder Brewers and have every opportunity to start throwing daggers at the hearts of the loyal Brew Crew...

Their star hitter Alfonso Soriano, one of the best hitters in the Majors, goes down with a torn quadriceps...

So, what would you do if you were the Chicago Cubs to replace Soriano? Bring up stud prospect Felix Pie of course, right?

Errrr....No.

In an amazingly surprising move, the Cubs brought up all-around talent Eric Patterson to replace Soriano. Patterson leaps Matt Murton and Cliff Floyd on the depth charts and will receive at least 1/2 of the at bats over the next month in left field. The fact that Patterson's bat and speed are in the majors right now is not the surprising part. The surprise is that Patterson doesn't even play the outfield! He is a SS by trade, with the ability to play 2B as well. But, passing over a player in Felix Pie, whom many scouts believes is one of the top-5 OF prospects in the Minors for Patterson seems like an odd move.

I think Patterson is an enormous talent that many people don't know about. So much so that I would make a friendly bet with anyone that Patterson easily surpasses Pie in regards to statistics in the Majors.

It is going to be interesting watching Patterson out there in left, a foreign position to him. I think the Cubs know what they are doing here. It is just a matter of whether everyone else recognizes that.