Box score for today's game. Final Score: Houston 4 Atlanta 9 http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2010_03_07_houmlb_atlmlb_1
Box Score for today's game. Final Score: Houston 1 Toronto 4 Spring Record: 2-3 http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2010_03_08_tormlb_houmlb_1
yeah i'm really surprised by both of them so far this preseason AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG AVG J Castro 12 0 6 1 0 0 2 7 0 2 0 0 .462 .583 .500 J Towles 12 4 8 5 0 0 2 13 0 1 0 0 .714 1.083 .667 I hope Towles starts off as our catcher because I don't think Castro is just quite ready yet. If towles struggles early on like two years ago then we could call Castro up in May or June just like what we did with Hunter Pence. These are great signs so far from both of our catchers though.
I seriously don't want to have to watch Towels play a starting role in the majors for any given length of time. He's always been able to put up nice stats in the minors and then completely vanish in the big leagues. I guess I might be able to handle it for a month or two, but any longer than that and I might throw up. Castro is our future, not Towles. Just hope we don't ruin Castro by bringing him up to early.
Funny... the same thing was said about not wanting Q to start over Towles two years ago, and how Towles is our future. I know Castro is a MUCH better prospect, but I think you have to temper your expectations on a fast-tracked youngster who has never even seen AAA ball. Question: what if Castro fails in his first stint? Is he no longer the catcher of the future? Of course not. If the organization feels he needs to improve on certain things prior to him becoming an everyday player in the majors, its probably because they feel (like most teams) that they want the first time to call the player up to be the LAST time. I don't think much is gained from having a player fail in his first stint in the majors, sent down, called up again, sent down, etc.
Towles was ranked #53 on BA's top 100 list in 2008. Castro was ranked #53 on BA's top 100 list in 2009. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/prospects/13.shtml Our 2010 rankings: 41 - Castro 73 - Mier 91 - Lyles
That should tell you a lot about prospect lists & the hype surrounding them. Even if Castro as a hitter never develops the way they think he will (his swing is a thing of beauty, classic smooth balanced lefty), he is light years better than Towles behind the plate. He has a chance to be an incredibly good all-around catcher, something Towles just doesn't have the tools for.
It just tempers my expectations. Towles certainly doesn't have the typical cather's build, but I think he could have been a Jason Kendall type talent if he maxed out his potential.
3/18 @ Detroit 3/31 @ Atlanta (tape delay) http://houston.astros.mlb.com/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=hou&m=3&y=2010
I love the coogs and all, but can anybody tell me where I can find the 'stros on my am radio dial at lunchtime?
Towles, over 3 years, has had a total of 234 at-bats. That's about 2.5 months worth of total time for a regular. I don't know how that's remotely enough to judge him at the MLB level.
Wouldn't he at some point have gained more playing time though? Perhaps the small sample size is because he hasn't been able to break back in?
I'm not sure. In 2007, he came up and was great, which earned him the starting job in 2008. Then he sucked for 2 months and went to the minors where he did well (I think). But he only came back up for minor spurts and played only sporadically. Then in 2009, we got I-Rod, so he stayed in the minors and did well, and then came up for a month at the end of the season and sucked again. Part of it is that he's struggled in his limited playing time. Part of it is that whole "we're pretending we're contenders" thing, so they have a short leash with him because the team can't afford to have him struggling. I would like to see them just throw him in and say "look, you're starting for the next 3 months no matter what" and see how he does without the pressure of feeling like a few bad games is going get him benched. This is the value of these "we suck" seasons - letting your young guys play without pressure. But we don't seem to do that - at least with Towles. As bad as Bourn was offensively in his first year, I think the fact that we let him play all of 2008 despite his sub-0.600 OPS really helped him improve in 2009.
are there any working links i havent been able to watch a game all spring an help would be appreciated :grin:
