Pudge Finds Home With Astros

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.

Pudge is 37 years old right now and he hasn't had an above-average offensive season since 2004. In fact, he hasn't had an OPS+ of above 90 since 2006. He's certainly a future Hall of Famer, but he is completely worthless as a hitter at this point in his career. Despite his awful year at the plate last year, J.R. Towles is only 25 and he actually hit quite well in a stint with Triple-A Round Rock.

The Astros have no real hope of contending this year, despite what Wade and Drayton McLane may think. Signing Pudge to play over Towles is not only indefensible from the standpoint of talent development, it doesn't even guarantee a better result on the field.

Man, I love Ed Wade.