FanHouse J.r. Towles

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2010.

After hanging in contention until early August, the Astros bottomed out with a 23-36 finish in the season's final two months. That culminated in Cecil Cooper's firing and Brad Mills' hiring. The squad Mills inherits is full of both veteran players and holes that will make it hard for him to returnthe team to where owner Drayton McLane thinks it belongs -- the top of the NL Central.

That's because the Astros are currently caught in Ed Wade Purgatory. He can do just enough to keep his veteran squad in pseudo-contention, but probably not quite enough to get them into a real playoff race. That won't stop him from trying, though.

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The Houston Astros were going to enter the season with two largely unproven catchers. J.R. Towles and Humberto Quintero were in the middle of an epic "let's see who is worse at hitting" battle in Spring Training. Seriously, this was a war of futiltiy if I've ever seen one. Quintero is hitting .182 with a dismal .546 OPS through 11 games. Towles, not to be out-sucked, sports a .133 average and .521 OPS.

Now, I'm not sure if the combined lack of offensive prowess behind the plate caused Astros' GM Ed Wade to sign Ivan Rodriguez, because the Astros have a recent history of clinging to their veterans and going all out for the current season anyway. Regardless, Pudge (Part II) is now in the fray. Is he worth owning in fantasy baseball this season?

With Pudge Rodriguez raking the ball for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, it seemed like only a matter of time until some major league team would finally cave and give him a job. In the league right now, there are two GMs that stand out as guys that love overpriced veterans way too much. Bengie Molina is firmly entrenched in San Francisco, so Brian Sabean's hands are tied on this one. That leaves Ed Wade.

The sun came up in the east for approximately the 1,657,100,000th time this morning. Now, ESPN is reporting that Pudge is signing a one-year deal with the Astros. At this point, I want to write a phrase starting with, "The only way this could be more predictable is ..." but I can't. Ed Wade signing an over-the-hill veteran for a position he has a decent young player at could not possibly be more predictable.

From now until the regular season begins, Fantasy Flings is where you'll find interesting story lines about your favorite teams from Spring Training. If there is a position battle, a nagging injury, a comeback story or a youngster making a surge for the "big club" we'll let you know the fantasy implications.

Chicago Cubs
Sean Marshall is the favorite to win the job as the Cubs 5th starter in the rotation, but he's going to have to fight off a slew of others including Chad Gaudin, Ken Kadokura and Jeff Samardzija. Marshall went a long way towards proving he's the right choice on Tuesday as he threw three perfect innings. In five spring innings he's given up one run, four hits, struck out two and walked none. With the addition of Milton Bradley, Kosuke Fukudome only has one option in the outfield; center field. He'll be competing with Reed Johnson for that job. Johnson is the only one in camp as Fukudome is participating in the World Baseball Classic.

That's right, MLB Power Rankings. You do know that that means, right? It means we're only a few short weeks/months (depends on you how you want to look at it, you pessimistic jerk) from starting the 2009 baseball season. Spring is nearly here, everyone has a bounce in their step and there's not an illegal, injectable steroid in sight!

So without further ado, let's get down to business and rank every single Major League Baseball team right freaking now. Because baseball can't wait any longer to get going.

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 ...
Team who refuses to rebuild. Seriously, Drayton McLane, just keep holding out hope you can win the World Series and making your general managers deal every prospect you ever stumble across for the likes of Miguel Tejada and an overrated closer. It just keeps setting the franchise back years at a time. For now, they are solving a broken leg with a band-aid by winning 86 games and treading water.

Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.

Everyone expected the Astros to be awful in 2008 and indeed, they were out of the playoff race by more than ten games as July wound down. Oddly, Ed Wade decided to reload at the trade deadline and acquired Randy Wolf and LaTroy Hawkins. Somehow, they very nearly sprinted from Pirate territory at the bottom of the NL Central to a wild-card berth. In the end, they were derailed both by Hurricane Ike and by just not being good enough.

That's put them in an interesting situation. The general feeling is that they're going to try and reload around this team and make another run at the playoffs in 2009. That's a potentially disastrous plan, but rebuilding around middling veterans and just missing the playoffs is what general manager Wade is known for. This is an important off-season for the Astros. They're not nearly as close to contending as people think they are and what they do this winter could set the course for the team for the next several years.

July 31 is rapidly approaching. Buy or Sell lets each team know where they stand.

It is absolutely, completely 100% unfathomable to me that we have to answer this question for the Astros. They're currently standing at 44-51, in last place in the NL Central, 13 games behind the Cubs and 8.5 back of the Wild Card. They've got no pitching staff to speak of and their offense is old. This team isn't a contender and they're in serious danger of falling into a huge rut because of the emptiness of their farm system. The answer here is an emphatic, "SELL! SELL! SELL!'

And yet, Ed Wade isn't convinced. He seems to think that there's a way for him to patch the team together and make a run at something this year. At the very least, he's refusing to rebuild this year. That's a dangerous idea for a team that's top two prospects (Hunter Pence, J.R. Towles) are already in the majors. Of course, Wade is the guy that sent a passel of prospects to Baltimore for Miguel Tejada over the winter, so don't doubt him on this one.

The other problem the Astros face is that they don't really have any terribly attractive "sell" candidates. Their best players (Lance Berkman, Roy Oswalt, Carlos Lee, and Tejada, I guess) are all kind of old and locked up until the 2011/2012 neighborhood. Really, the Astros kind of look to be painted into a corner for the near future, and having Wade at the helm isn't going to help things.

One of the forgotten rookies of the early season has been Astros' catcher J.R. Towles. He was one of the most heralded rookies this spring and he's off to a pretty decent start, overcoming a .207 batting average with a .395 OBP and 3 homers in 38 plate appearances. That's been mostly ignored because he plays for the Astros. And unfortunately for him, he also took a pitch right on his hand last weekend and it looks like he's going to miss some time.

... Towles was examined Monday team physician Dr. Tom Mehlhoff, who confirmed Sunday's diagnosis that no bones were broken.

"But he said there is a good chance he's going to be pretty sore and may be limited for the Philadelphia series," said manager Ed Wade today from Philadelphia, where the Astros open a three-game series against the Phillies on Tuesday.

The Astros say he's going to be OK, but their actions indicate otherwise, as they've called up Humberto Quinto from AAA in case Towles can't catch during the early-week series. It's good that his hand isn't broken, but any time he's missing is kind of a bummer for Astros' fans because if their start is any indication, watching a guy like Towles develop is going to be one of the high points of their season.

Damage Control is a list of injuries that you need to be thinking about as you're sitting at work, trying to set your fantasy lineup for week two. I'm categorizing the injuries in three pretty obvious slots below (good, worth the risk, don't bother) for your perusal the rest of the afternoon prior to submitting your lineups.

If there is anyone you have a question about, drop a note in the comments or send the Fantasy FanHouse crew an email. Please note that as injury news regarding the upcoming week is released, this list will be updated.

Safe to Roll
Francisco Rodriguez, CL, LAA -- He pitched Sunday, so you kind of have to start him if you own him.
Carlos Guillen, SS, DET -- Supposedly he's questionable, but I see no reason to bench him. He hits too well and is too valuable in terms of positional eligibility to keep on the bench.
Elijah Dukes, OF, WAS -- How you gonna bench me, dawg? (Seriously, if you are so inclined to own/use him, he should be back, dawg.)