J.R. Towles

King of Queens · Post by **King of Queens** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 4:37 pm

Cecil Cooper announced during the Spring that Towles and Ausmus would be splitting the catching job. A lot of people chose to ignore this, and drafted Towles thinking they were getting a full-time catcher. Now, I know it's only one game, but why would Ausmus start tonight's game if Towles was to be the primary catcher?

Towles' owners might have been better off drafting this guy:

i70.photobucket.com/albums/i109/picklestein/towlie.jpg

B&B · Post by **B&B** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 4:49 pm

Ausmus is Oswalt's personal catcher. That's why he started.

rkulaski · Post by **rkulaski** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:36 pm

"J.R. Towles rode the pine in favor of veteran Brad Ausmus in the Astros' season opener on Monday and the team is going to work their future star in slowly, according to the Houston Chronicle. Manager Cooper stated, "The reason why I'm doing it is I want my starting pitcher to be comfortable. This is a big year for us, and I want to make sure that he is comfortable and slowly kind of work the kid in catching Roy instead of just dropping the hammer on him, because that's not the right way to do it. We're going to slowly work him in. He'll catch the other guys for the most part. He and I have already talked about it. He is just happy to be here and be a part of this team." Towles should get plenty of at-bats this season, and being worked in slowly will be good for him."

If you believe the above statement, then no reason to worry about Towles' playing time.