FanHouse Freddy Garcia

Ever since the Chicago White Sox traded four pitchers to the San Diego Padres for Jake Peavy in a trade deadline shocker, they've been pretty cautious with their newest acquisition. Even though adding him to their starting rotation would be a nice boost for a team trying to reach the playoffs, they don't want to risk injuring Peavy's ankle, which he strained in June, any further.

However, after another successful rehab start in Charlotte on Monday night, Peavy's time may be drawing near.

Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action with a quick nod to what is ahead.

You Oughta Know ...
That the Cubs are probably going to have a new closer Tuesday morning.

"I think we're going to make some changes as far as what we're going to do in late innings," manager Lou Piniella said. "We'll have some word [Tuesday]."

The reason for the change? Incumbent closer Kevin Gregg blew his sixth save of the season Monday night in San Diego, turning a 1-0 lead with two outs in the ninth inning into a 4-1 loss.

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So far this season it seems like the Chicago White Sox have been trying to go back in time. After getting off to a bad start to the 2009 campaign, the Sox went out and signed Scott Podsednik to a minor-league deal -- even though most scouts would have told you he was done. Well, it's worked out pretty nicelyl for Chicago as Podsednik is back on top of their lineup and playing surprisingly well.

Then, this week the White Sox signed another player from their 2005 team who most people think is washed up: Freddy Garcia. It seems like the team thinks if they get as many players as they can from 2005 they'll win another World Series. Which is why it's too bad that the Rangers had to go and destroy Chicago's "brilliant" plan.

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You know Carlos Zambrano. He's the Cubs starting pitcher who can swing a power bat on occasion. He actually sports two Silver Slugger awards for his exploits with the lumber. Anyway, considering the Cubs have a rash of day-to-day injuries -- meaning they don't want to put any of them on the disabled list and, thus, have a short bench -- would the Cubs consider using him as more than a pinch-hitter? He was, after all, spotted taking ground balls at third base recently.

The Mets essentially named Livan Hernandez their No. 5 starter Tuesday. Hernandez beat out Tim Redding (injured), Jonathon Niese (deemed not ready) and Freddy Garcia, who accepted a minor league assignment.

Garcia is expected to stay in Florida for another month or so and then join Triple-A Buffalo once the weather gets a little better, and according to agent Peter Greenberg, Garcia feels by then he may be ready to contribute.

The Chicago White Sox didn't spend very much money this offseason, in part due to the nature of the economy, but also because they have a lot of young talent who they'd like to start locking up with long term deals in the near future, and they'd like to have the money around to do so. On Sunday afternoon they were able to do just that.

The White Sox announced that they signed pitcher Gavin Floyd to a four-year contract extension, buying out the remainder of his arbitration-eligible seasons, for the price of $15.5 million. As you'd expect from anybody who turned one solid season into $15 million, Floyd is pretty pleased with the new contract.

The Mets are currently holding a competition for the team's fifth starter spot in camp between guys like Livan Hernandez, Freddy Garcia, Tim Redding, and Jonathan Niese. There are some decent arms in there, sure, but none of them are exactly screaming "World Series here we come!" Which is why there are so many Mets fans out there who are wondering when the team is going to sign Pedro Martinez.

Well, those fans are going to be waiting for a while. More accurately forever, because according to ESPN's Buster Olney, there is "not a chance" that the Mets are going to bring Pedro back. They're happy with what they've got.

While Pedro Martinez was spinning three scoreless innings against the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic, his former team was busy watching a parade of ineptitude compete for the fifth and final starting rotation spot.

As outlined in the New York Post, all the candidates for the fifth starter spot are having a rough go as of late. Tim Redding -- the front-runner -- was knocked around by the University of Michigan, as was Freddy Garcia. Bobby Parnell allowed five baserunners in five batters faced against the Nationals. Meanwhile, Pedro threw three scoreless frames for the D.R.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the ...
Chokers. Sorry, folks, but until they can actually close out a regular season, that's the label they're getting. Fortunately for us fantasy folks, we don't really care about total team performance in the regular season, provided it doesn't impend on individual players' abilities to post statistics. And in that sense, the New York Baseball Mets are quite the enjoyable team to watch. They have a slew of top-tier players on the squad and generally almost always provide a ton of fantasy value. Not much will change in terms of that this year, although you may be surprised as to where it will come from.

It's amazing that a guy who has pitched only 73 innings the last two seasons can basically pick and choose where he wants to go. But these days when you come cheap, you're attractive. So Freddy Garcia has chosen to sign a minor league deal with the Mets, instead of the Yankees who were the other team that Garcia was considering at the end.

Garcia most likely saw more opportunity to crack the starting rotation with the Mets than with their Bronx counterparts. And if he does, and he reaches all of his incentives, he'll make $9 million this season. Garcia's only action since June of 2007 were 15 innings with the Tigers at the end of last season, when he went 1-1 with a 4.20 ERA and a WHIP of 1.13.