Pedro "No Respect" Feliz

I feel like Pedro Feliz gets the short end of the stick. I, like a lot of Phillies fans, have really under-rated him in the past year and I feel like it's time for me to come out and say something. It's not our fault; it's just what we're used to. When you look at the Phillies infield, you see Ryan Howard, the slugging, clean home-run hitter; Jimmy Rollins, the face of the franchise who plays hard all the time; Chase Utley, the hustling second baseman who plays the game like it's the 1950s still; and Pedro Feliz...the third baseman.

The thing is, we used to have a third baseman who was going to be the next face of the Phillies. Scott Rolen came around in the late 1990s, the dog days of Veteran's Stadium. Back then there was no Utley or Howard; Rolen was pretty much it. However, for whatever reason, the Phillies management never got anyone to give him any support, instead surrounding him with has-beens like Travis Lee, and eventually, the whole "savior" thing faded.

Once Rolen was gone, we started to get some decent players at other positions, eventually leading to the roster that we have now. But third base has been a pretty empty spot in the Phillies line-up in terms of decent players.

The first person to replace Rolen was Placido Polanco. Polanco was a pretty good player, and since his departure from the Phillies he's done outstanding things at the plate, but during his tenure in Philadelphia, he was only so so. Polanco was more of a second baseman though, and he switched positions after only his first season. He was eventually traded to the Tigers for Ugeth "I Set People On Fire" Urbina.

Polanco was replaced by David Bell. Bell came to us from the Giants, but he spent most of his career as a journeyman bench player. but when he got here, he was suddenly the next big thing; he was going to be the third baseman that would complete out infield. His tenure here was marred with inadequate play and injury. His big contract and underwhelming play made the fans turn on him pretty quickly, and he fell out of favor and left the team.

During this time, there was also Tomas Perez, who was a decent bench player who was basically rotating time with Bell and third base. Tomas was the prankster of the clubhouse and was pretty much kept around to pie the player of the game. Seriously.

Next, the Phillies brought in Wes Helms, an older guy from the Marlins, who I like to call David Bell 2.0. Helms was, once again, supposed to bring the veteran influence to the clubhouse, but he ended up being another lame third baseman. The Phillies were paying him 5.5 million and he never hit more than .260. He also was pretty bad in the field, costing the Phillies a win at least once because of a fielding error.

The Phils also had some auxiliary players, some who are still around; Eric Brunlett, Abraham Nunez, and Gregg Dobbs.

Pedro Feliz had been on the San Fransisco Giants for his entire pre-Phillies carrier. He'd was an under-the-radar player for the Giants, overshadowed by Barry "Wow My Head is HUUUGE" Bonds. When the time came for the Giants to resign him, they let him go, snubbing a .255 hitter and one of the best defensive third basemen in the league.

His arrival in Philadelphia was went pretty much unnoticed, because people saw him as "another" third basemen who wasn't going to get the job done, and at first, it looked like they were right. Pedro only batted .249 and complained about a back injury for a lot of the season. But then the Phillies went on the magical run that was the 2008 playoffs and I started really noticing that Pedro was a really big staple in the line-up. He's solid, he's in a good spot, and he's someone you can count on. He's not one of the flashy names of the Phillies, but he gets the job done and doesn't seem to complain ever.

I started preaching the church of Pedro late last September, but no one believed me until Game 5 when he batted in Eric Bruntlett for the go ahead run; the run that eventually gave us a World Championship. That, my friends, is called a good point.

This year, which is closely approching the half-way point, he's batting .288, a new high for him on the Phillies, and only about 15 points away from his best average of his career. He's only got 38 RBI and 4 HRs, but he's having a career year in OBS.

Also, he's one of the most underrated defensive players on the team. He only has 4 errors, which means he's on pace for another career high.

We, as the Philadelphia Faithful, have spent years waiting for the next big talent at third base. Now, I'm saying that we don't need to worry about that. For the time being, Pedro Feliz is more than good enough; he's pretty damn good, and he deserves more respect than he gets. So next time you're at a game and someone around you goes, "Oh great, Feliz. Here comes out number 3", think about it. He's a lot better than David Bell.