Carlos Febles signed a one-year, $775K contract with the Royals on Monday to avoid arbitration. Febles still has a good deal of potential and could likely be worth more than twice this much in 2002. However, he has had serious trouble staying healthy, including everything from knee troubles, ankle injuries, and shoulder problems to a bad wrist and a broken pinkie finger.

He remains the Royals' best option at second base this season over Luis Alicea and Chuck Knoblauch, so he should see plenty of playing time if he can stay off the DL. I believe this was his first season of arbitration eligibility, and Kansas City should not even really consider signing him to a multi-year contract before he has proven himself capable of staying healthy for at least 130 games in a season. So far, he seems to have some plate discipline problems and those are normally only corrected after a player has an opportunity to practice over an extend number of plate appearances.

Hipolito Pichardo, who retired last August, signed a one-year contract with the Astros on Monday. In order to add him to the 40-man roster, Houston had to DFA Wayne Franklin. I've been very disappointed with the Astros off-season moves and this acquisition just adds to my frustration.

Pichardo had Tommy John Surgery in the spring of 1999, missing all of that season and a few months of 2000. After he returned in 2000, he suffered pain in his lower right forearm that ultimately put him on the DL to end that season and keeping him out for the beginning of 2001. He pitched for a few months last year before a broken blister on a callus on his right thumb landed him back on the DL. During the first outing after his return, he went through an Anaheim shredder, pitching a third of an inning with 3 hits and 4 ER, and earning the loss. Consequently Pichardo decided he no longer had what he needed to compete and retired.

He hasn't been completely healthy in years and pitched no better than average before he was beset by injuries. The Astros have a minor league system teeming with pitchers who deserve a shot at a position in a big league bullpen. Franklin isn't overly special, but there's no reason for Houston to discard him when at least a dozen pitchers more qualified than Pichardo have settled for signing minor league contracts this off-season.

When you combine this signing with that of T.J. Mathews, Brian Hunter, and Jose Vizcaino, the Astros' off-season transactions start to look atrocious. Gregg Zaun might be their saving grace, but he hardly balances out the others and decisions like adding Doug Brocail to the major league roster after he signed a minor league deal.

Houston has a lot of old and injury-prone players, coupled with a bunch of young pitching in a very good to great hitters' park. They've not made the necessary moves this winter to protect against injury or add innings-eating starters that would provide a cushion for the youngster in the rotation, so they could be in serious trouble if just a few things start to go wrong.

Meanwhile, the Texas Rangers signed Ed Sprague to a minor league contract on Monday. Of all the teams that could have acquired Sprague, the Rangers seem to make the least sense. Texas has a full bench at the major league level with Mike Lamb and Herbert Perry as well as over a half-dozen players competing for time at DH, and at AAA they have Hank Blalock, Travis Hafner, John Hart and eventually Mark Teixeira manning the corner spots. They will likely make a trade or two, but there are still more players than roster spots to go around. Sprague's primary value is as bait at the trading deadline, but he won't garner much interest if he hasn't seen any playing time, and it hurts the club to take at-bats away from the prospects at AAA. What the Rangers really need is a little more support in the middle infield, so I'm just not sure what John Hart was thinking here.

Commissioner Selig remodeled his schedule on Monday. He not only announced that the owners' meeting set for Tuesday would not take place in Chicago but instead convene via conference call, he also let it be known that he would not be testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

The impetus behind the change in Tuesday's meeting was an apathy on the part of the owners to fly to Chicago for a meeting where the results were basically a foregone conclusion. No one had any doubts that the decisions surrounding the sales and purchases of the Marlins and the Expos would receive fast and uncontested approval. Some owners reportedly even mailed in their votes on the matter.

As for not making the trip to Washington, no reasons were given, but Selig will instead send his chief legal officer to represent their position to the committee. Bob DuPuy will join MLPBA head Donald Fehr, Florida AG Bob Butterworth, Minnesota Deputy AG Lori Swanson, and lobbyist Stan Brand, representing the group that governs the minor leagues, the National Associate of Professional Baseball Leagues.

At this time, there does not seem to be any connection between Selig's schedule changes, so I'll wait to see the results of his actions before making additional comments on these matters.