Josh Anderson was a top prospect in AA last year, but struggled a bit in AAA this year. If Josh plays this well next year, he will be the Astros lead off hitter, forcing Pence to RF.
bye, bye brad ausmus - hello jr towles. he played an awesome game, he had more hits and rbis than ausmus has in a month!
I can't see Anderson ever leading off, even if he manages to work his way into the lineup. He has a career minor league OBP of .340. His high-water mark was .402 at Salem, but he's never broken .350 since. Those kind of numbers simply don't translate to a big league leadoff hitter - speed does not equate to batting first (or shouldn't, at least).
I don't know.. he might tear up Spring Training and outplay all other OF's, but they'll still send him back to AAA because there's no room! They decided to show Rangers over Astros from here on out in Lubbock - does Towles have a shot as a starter next year?
Apparently when Towles arrived the powers that be told him to follow Ausmus around and learn everything he could from him, so I'm guessing they're hopeful he's the '08 starter.
Ausmus said that if he decides to come back next year, he wants to be the backup. Maybe he'll be Oswalt's personal catcher and that's it. So yeah, it looks like the days of Ausmus as an everyday player are over.
i think towles as the starter(or whoever) and ausmus just catching oswalt and mentoring, is the way they need to do it. deshaies was talking about that the other day, said the only problem that could create would be other pitchers wanting to throw to ausmus too.
Towles was a triple short of the cycle. It was nice to see Everett get a hit at his first AB since June.
normally i would say that everett needs to go, but if towles replaces ausmus in the lineup, then i think the astros have enough bats in the lineup to keep everett at short. the stros problem is they need to sign some f/a pitchers (starting and a closer - lidge has got to go!)
Joe Nathan? Eric Gagne? SP market is very slim to none on guys that are legit #2. It would almost be a "good" decision to offer jennings 5-6 mil one year contract. FA SP's is much better after 2008 season. Johan Santana, Sabathia, Peavy, Sheets, Lowe, Penny
that's slim pickings. and to think if the stros still had hirsh and buchholz in their rotation. oh well.
Yeah... if only they had an injury-plagued starter with an ERA worse than Wandy Rodriguez and a mediocre reliever. Oh, what could've been.
Hmmmm, an injured starter with an 6.45 ERA or an injured started with a 4.81 ERA + a mediocre reliever who's better than a lot of what we've trotted out. What to do, what to do.
obviously the trade was terrible but our needs certainly wouldn't be filled with those 2 guys there, like theprivate is insinuating. i wouldn't take hirsch over rodriguez, backe, or sampson going into next season and the objective should be to get another starter or two better then them. i also don't get why we have to get rid of lidge and his 2.25 era? dude is pitching with a knee that requires offseason surgery and on top of that he rarely gets work, pitching only 10 times in the last month. i've ragged on lidge in the past, and i would have been happy to trade him last season or in the winter, but i don't see that now.
Wasn't making a comparison to Jennings. To my knowledge, no one was. Was making a comparison of how the combination of Hirsh and Buchholz would affect what the Astros do on the FA market... and I highly doubt they would have any impact at all, as ThePrivate seemed to insinuate. Neither is the kind of impact pitcher to take away that need, or even slightly reduce it.
WTF? So... now ANY player can just say who he wants to play with and it's done? WTH is that about? Doesn't management have the final say on things? "Yessir, Mr. Oswalt... since you're so good, we'll do what you say... you too, Mr. Ausmus" - management I know it happens... but... what's the point of having management lead the team, then?
I dont care if these games mean abosolutely nothing, it is always nice to beat the Cards. I hate them and their fans so much.
18 runs scored and Wandy throws 8 solid?? Can we hire Ed Wade again today? Let's hire him again a few times next year, too.
