well then color me delusional!! since they announced it was an open competition, if towles hit .150 this spring, and castro hit .300, there is no way in hell that they would have made towles the starting catcher anyway. none. use your noggin man.
It probably would of been Quintero if Towels struggled. Skipping complete levels of the minor league system can be dangerous. A few springs ago Pence was tearing it up, but even he had to get some more time at AAA. The same thing is currently happening with Strasenburg and Chapman.
that's fine. you are still making my point. towles won the job by going on a hot streak for his first 20 spring abs
So tell me, do you think Castro should be starting on opening day? Despite J.R.'s good spring, but also just throwing away the fact that starting him in AAA and letting him play down there for a bit delays Castros first year that he can go arbitration eligible?
not necessarily. i'd like a catcher behind the plate on opening day who helps us compete though. a team who is willing to throw a failed (thus far, if nothing else) project behind the plate on the opening day of a season has not done it's job over the offseason, or simply doesn't care. it speaks volumes about our upper management.
Well who would you start then? You say you'd want someone else, well who? I could understand starting Castro if J.R. just had one terrible spring and I mean - terrible -. However, to just throw the arbitration situation out the window when another catcher had a great spring also is just foolish. They are doing the right thing.
free agent, trade, whatever. not sure how anybody can view j.r. towles being named (read: unjustifiably handed on a silver platter) our opening day starter as anything short of disheartening or insane.
Yeah, I can tell you really did a good job of reading that article, which basically summarized what multiple advanced scouting and sabermetric systems expected of Towles going into this season. No different than a newspaper article that quotes experts on a given subject. The source isn't the writer with the byline - it's who actually computes and scouts the data. As for defense, that's fine, we can post expert opinions/statistics for that end of his game as well. I just honestly wasn't thinking about it because you're the first person I've ever come across who says he's "nothing" defensively.
And I'm not sure how anyone can suggest giving up on one of the top talents in your farm system and a guy generally all scouts said should be a solid major leaguer all over about 40% of one season's at-bats without being insane. I guess we're both stumped.
That's what we did last year with I-Rod. All it did was waste the opportunity to give a young player a year's worth of ABs. This team is not going anywhere - spending money or trading prospects for a catcher is just a waste of resources. This is the perfect year to give JR Towles a chance to play consistently at the MLB level.
We aren't trying to set up for some big playoff run. We are trying to get our farm system back to order. Why would we sign a free agent, and possibly lose a draft pick for it. We need to just let the young guys play, let Castro start in the minors for his arbitration purposes, and see what J.R. can do with a good amount of playing time.
Once again: Give up on every mid-level prospect who has failed miserably over his first 250 ab's, or name every one of them your opening day starter after failing miserably their first 250 ab's. which is the more logical course of action? and which one is completely mindless and insane? and quit acting like jr f'ing towles is joe mauer.
never said anything about signing a type a or b free agent. and you are either trying to contend or you aren't. considering they are keeping roy, berkman, caballo, wandy around (or not trying to move any of them), that indicates that they have some intentions of attempting to contend this season. it makes no sense putting those guys out there, while at the same time committing to jr towles as your everyday catcher.
First of all, prove that Towles is a mid-level prospect. Hell, how many mid-level prospects play in the All-Star futures game? You're just talking out your ass on that one. Second, why should there be a hard and fast rule? It depends on the makeup of your team - money, potential replacements, what position they play, etc. For this particular team, it makes no sense to rush your top prospect (Castro), risking his development curve (keep in mind Towles' basically had next to zero AAA time before he started with the Astros in 2008, and you saw how that worked out) and starting his "clock" for club control for a season the team isn't likely to contend. It also doesn't make sense to sign a veteran - there aren't any of note available, and we tried that last year. It's the perfect season, if you have a young player that scouts think has potential, to give him at-bats and see if he develops.
Lee/Roy/Berkman all have no trade clauses. With Lee saying he wouldn't wave it, Berkman stating he would like to stay in Houston, same with Roy.
you are going from talking in generalities to conveniently adding in parameters. i responded to this, where you implied a hard and fast rule by making this statement: "And I'm not sure how anyone can suggest giving up on one of the top talents in your farm system and a guy generally all scouts said should be a solid major leaguer all over about 40% of one season's at-bats without being insane." and nowhere since this argument started have i said that i had a problem with castro not being on the opening day roster. and we paid pudge almost nothing last year, he was serviceable, and we spun him off for a couple minor leaguers. i have no problem with that signing, and i think doing something similar this year and making towles your backup would have been the more sensible course of action.
look, it's more likely than not that Towles doesn't pan out. That can be said about any minor league prospect. And yes, in particular, ones that don't show insane skills their first few times up. However, limited ABs over multiple stints in the majors is not the best way to evaluate a guy, either. In the end, this team looks like it'll win somewhere between 60 and 75 games this year. Do you go out and spend another 4 mil on a vet to be the stopgap between now and Castro (who is by no means a sure thing)? Or do you pay the league minimum for a guy who was once a prospect with a good shot to be a legit ML ballplayer...and evaluate him and see if he can be that guy? This team isn't gonna win this year without some major luck...and one such stroke of luck could be getting unexpected production out of Towles rather than a known quantity that is mediocre production out of an career stopgap catcher. And even if Towles produces, it'd take more than just that to turn this into a playoff team...a lot more. The Cat said it...how you handle situations depends on team makeup, who's in the pipeline, viable replacements, etc. etc. I don't see how you can fault them for going with Towles this year and giving him a shot. You don't always give the prospect a full time gig if he has never proven anything at the ML level.. but in this case, it seems warranted right now.
How do you feel about a first baseman that hit .237 in his first 106 plate appearances? You probably would think he was a mid level prospect. This first baseman was sent back to AAA. A year later, Lance Berkman was in the bigs to stay. I am not saying that Towles is a Berkman. I am saying that judging a guy's future when he is young and has little minor league experience is a bad idea. Often those guys go back down and come back better than they were the first time up.
Bleh, my apologies to the OP for stearing away from the thread purpose. Time to get back on topic. Hopefully Wandy can have a solid outing tomorrow to finish his spring training. Not to worried about his performance during this Spring, probably just working on a few things. Go Stros!
Well, Wandy got roughed up once again. Giving up 9 ER in just two and a 1/3. I hope it's just spring training, and that he's working on things and it's not something as bad as tipping pitches.
