With Aaron Heilman and his elusive "upside" safely in Arizona the Cubs added yet another chapter to the Felix Pie saga. Saga may be too strong a word for a guy who was mishandled and put up crappy numbers in limited playing time, but the thought of Pie still frustrates me. It is very possible I'm holding on to the "what if" players far too much. Doesn't anyone else see a rotation headline by Rich Hill and Mark Prior and a lineup with Corey Patterson and Felix Pie setting the table leading the Cubs to the playoffs? Yeah, maybe that is taking it too far.

Even though Pie struggled in the big leauges with the Cubs, he still had some value. Last offseason he was part of Andy McPhail's plan to recreate the early/mid 2000's Cubs farm system in Baltimore, and was traded to the Orioles for Garrett Olson and Henry Williamson. My first reaction was that the Cubs could have done better, but despite Olson's struggles in the majors he had been a highly-regarded prospect, so it wasn't all bad. If you are trading "busts-so-far" that have a chance to make it right, I'd take a starting pitcher over an outfielder any day.

After enjoying 10 days of being a Cub, Olson was traded along with Ronny Cedeno to the Mariners for Aaron Heilman (who had enjoyed about a month and half of being a Mariner). With this trade Jim Hendry got a player he long-coveted in Heilman. I didn't get it at first. Olson seemed to be the prize for Pie, the guy who could harness his talent and make us all forget about Corey Patterson II. Cedeno confused me as well. Here was a guy who didn't do so well starting for the Cubs, but seemed to show some promise as a backup infielder in 2008. However, I drank the kool-aid that Heilman could be dominating with all his movement out of the bullpen and felt okay about it.

Now that 2009 is in the books, we can know for sure that none of the players involved in this action fared very well. Pie was pedestrian for the O's (.266/.326 9 HR's, 1 SB), Olson was bad for the M's (5.60 ERA in 80 IP), Cedeno ended up being the Pirates starting shortstop but was just awful at the plate (.208/.256) and I won't even post Heilman's stats because any Cub fan knows how bad he was. So what did the Cubs end up getting for Felix Pie?

- 24-year old righty Henry Williamson, who ended up in AAA last season but posted a 9.32 K/9 in A+

- The return for Heilman: 24-year old lefty Scott Maine and 23-year old first baseman Ryne White

So for Felix Pie, one of the most heralded prospects in the Cubs system in recent memory, the Cubs got three mediocre, about to be too old to matter prospects. I could be very wrong, but I don't think it is a stretch to say none of these guys will ever make it to the big club let alone have an impact. The Heilman trade had to be done and it never hurts to add some depth to the system. But it is really disappointing that a guy who still had some value at the time he was dealt (Pie) was sent away for peanuts.

Photo courtesy rodellsrambles.com.

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