FanHouse Taylor Buchholz

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.

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Humidor! Seriously, didn't you hear that Colorado now stores their baseballs in a humidor and Coors Field is no longer a hitter's park? If someone in your league really believes that, just let them. You'll know the truth -- which is that Coors Field bore witness to the third most runs scored and third most home runs in baseball last year. In 2007? Third in runs, fifth in home runs. You can't just negate thin air with a cigar-housing device. It's a hitter's park, and it's consistently one of the most hitter-friendly.

The last few years it's kind of become a winter tradition here in Chicago. The White Sox season ends, and then the team tries to trade Jon Garland. If every trade rumor surrounding Jon Garland came to fruition, the guy would have been on 25 different teams already. Last winter he was traded to the Astros for Taylor Buchholz and Hunter Pence, but the deal apparently fell apart at the last second.

So now that the Sox are almost finished wasting an entire season, the organization is obviously thinking about the future. So are the players, including Garland, who is pretty sure he's going to be traded this offseason....again.

''If I had to guess right now, I would say that I'm more likely to get traded than to sign back,'' Garland said this week, ''only because looking around this clubhouse and depending on which way they want to go with the team -- whether [general manager Ken Williams] wants to go young or build a winner here -- at least on the starting staff, I bring the most attention.''

Keep in mind, nobody has said anything to Garland about this. It's just his gut feeling.

Garland will tell you it's because he would garner the most interest, but there are other factors that could contribute to him being dealt. If the Sox are going to fill the many holes on their roster, they're going to have to move a pitcher to do it.

Mark Buehrle has a no-trade clause, Javier Vazquez has been the staff's ace this season, John Danks is young and cheap, and nobody in their right mind will trade for Jose Contreras. That leaves Garland. There's also the fact that Garland is a free agent at the end of next season, and he's already told the team any extension would have to be done before the start of next season.

Well, the original reports from the weekend turned out to be wrong. We knew that Josh Fogg would miss his scheduled start on Sunday (Taylor Buchholz pitched in his place). However, optimistic reports from Fogg indicated he would avoid a stint on the DL. So much for that. The Rockies will play it safe and stick the right-hander on the DL, allowing Rodrigo Lopez, who is fresh off the DL, to start on Thursday.

It was one of those things where I thought this Friday was a realistic goal, but giving me the extra four or five days isn't going to hurt," Fogg said. "There was still a question mark in the trainer's mind and the team's mind. And I can't go out there and put the team in a bad position when we might already be short on relievers."

So let's see shall we, the last time we had a Rox pitcher DL party, Byung-Hyun Kim, Ramon Ramirez, Rodrigo Lopez, and LaTroy Hawkins were all invited. Now, Josh Fogg becomes the fifth pitcher to join the group. Colorado may not have been bitten as hard by the injury bug as the Yankees, but they've certainly taken the shaft this year. Luckily for them, it looks like Fogg won't miss more than his allotted two weeks.

Previously at FanHouse:
Invitations to the DL, Rockies Pitchers Are Invited
Injury Bug Is Biting the Rockies