OrangeWhoopass.com Forums

General Discussion => Talk Zone => Topic started by: JaneDoe on July 20, 2008, 07:56:33 am

Title: Q update
Post by: JaneDoe on July 20, 2008, 07:56:33 am
Q went 2-5 with an RBI double in a rehab start in Corpus last night. 

So, Coop, what are your thoughts?  "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."  (http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080719&content_id=3156360&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou)

That bridge is on the horizon.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: matadorph on July 20, 2008, 10:12:12 am
And from where Q sat last night, it's in RF.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Mr. Happy on July 20, 2008, 01:37:38 pm
Q went 2-5 with an RBI double in a rehab start in Corpus last night. 

So, Coop, what are your thoughts?  "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."  (http://houston.astros.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080719&content_id=3156360&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou)

That bridge is on the horizon.

No. I want to see more buck-forty-five rook play.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: David in Jackson on July 21, 2008, 09:26:19 am
Here's a question I'd like to get responses: Will Towles be a productive major leaguer or not?  I haven't seen him play enough this season to know if he's just had a bad run in his first extended major league time, or if he really stinks.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Duman on July 21, 2008, 10:01:39 am
Here's a question I'd like to get responses: Will Towles be a productive major leaguer or not?  I haven't seen him play enough this season to know if he's just had a bad run in his first extended major league time, or if he really stinks.

IMO - he has what it takes to be a serviceable MLB catcher.  He was rushed this year and simply not ready for full time MLB
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: HudsonHawk on July 21, 2008, 10:06:35 am
Here's a question I'd like to get responses: Will Towles be a productive major leaguer or not?  I haven't seen him play enough this season to know if he's just had a bad run in his first extended major league time, or if he really stinks.

Personally, I think Towles will always be a marginal Major Leaguer.  His defense will be average and his bat will be decidely below.  He's a poor man's Scott Servais.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: JackAstro on July 21, 2008, 10:22:12 am
Personally, I think Towles will always be a marginal Major Leaguer.  His defense will be average and his bat will be decidely below.  He's a poor man's Scott Servais.

Oh, that's fucking disheartening. No offense, but I truly hope you're wrong, because I need to believe the organization would never push a player whose ceiling exists somewhere beneath an average year of Scott Servais.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: JimR on July 21, 2008, 10:33:54 am
Oh, that's fucking disheartening. No offense, but I truly hope you're wrong, because I need to believe the organization would never push a player whose ceiling exists somewhere beneath an average year of Scott Servais.

HH's comparison may wind up being an insult to Servais.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: strosrays on July 21, 2008, 10:34:32 am
Personally, I think Towles will always be a marginal Major Leaguer.  His defense will be average and his bat will be decidely below.  He's a poor man's Scott Servais.


Wow, and I always thought Scott Servais was a poor man's somebody.  Whoever owns Towles must have sunk a big chunk of his wad into the mortgage futures market recently.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Mr. Happy on July 21, 2008, 10:37:01 am
Towles's lack of batting prowess is reminiscent of Luis Pujols, although, in fairness, Towles does have more power.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: strosrays on July 21, 2008, 10:44:55 am
Towles's lack of batting prowess is reminiscent of Luis Pujols, although, in fairness, Towles does have more power.


Wow.  I had him more as a Skip Jutze type, or maybe Dave Adlesh or John Mizerock when he is really going good.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: HudsonHawk on July 21, 2008, 10:49:29 am
Oh, that's fucking disheartening. No offense, but I truly hope you're wrong, because I need to believe the organization would never push a player whose ceiling exists somewhere beneath an average year of Scott Servais.

I hope I'm wrong too.  I hope Towles hits .300, 30 dingers and plays great defense for the next 12 years.  I just don't think he will.  I think he'll be a 50-70 games a year guy, hit about .220, with a handful of HRs.  His career year, I think he can hit .265 with 20 HRs.  He seems to keep himself in good shape and doesn't clog up the bases, so I think he can stick around as a backup for nice 10 year career.  But that's his ceiling, as I see it.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Gizzmonic on July 21, 2008, 10:52:23 am
He just needs a little seasoning and he'll be fine. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbere" target="blank">Berbere[/url], perhaps?
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Noe on July 21, 2008, 10:56:09 am
A catcher can carve out a good major league career for himself if defense is the first order of business.  Forget what media and fans say, they have exhibited a huge lack of understanding and knowledge of the position any way, so let them pronounce whatever judgment they want.  They don't know squat... literally.

That being said, Towles lack of good defense is disconcerting.  At least Yadier Molina's 2006 campaign of suckitude with a bat was not a hinderance to the team that won a World Championship.  Molina helped shut down the other team's running game, blocked the plate well and called an extremely good game (and even if he did not, Dave Duncan did!).

Houston needs to continue to push a good game calling catcher to the forefront, especially if attracting a Free Agent pitcher is an order of business.  If they continue to seek offense from catcher and will sacrifice defense for it, it will not bode well for those pitchers who know what they want from a team.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Kent's Moustache on July 21, 2008, 10:58:49 am
The Rangers currently have a glut of relatively young catchers (Laird, Salty, Ramirez, and Teagarden).

Anyone interested in casting for one of those fish?
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: MusicMan on July 21, 2008, 11:00:14 am
Given that Salty and Ramirez have both been projected as "maybe we'll move him to 1b", and Teagarden's shoulder injury made his throwing a question mark, I'm going to say no.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: MusicMan on July 21, 2008, 11:00:35 am
I will not be surprised if the Stros make a run at Pudge as a FA.
Title: Q update
Post by: geezerdonk on July 21, 2008, 11:10:41 am

Wow.  I had him more as a Skip Jutze type, or maybe Dave Adlesh or John Mizerock when he is really going good.

He's no Dog.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Mr. Happy on July 21, 2008, 11:11:53 am

Wow.  I had him more as a Skip Jutze type, or maybe Dave Adlesh or John Mizerock when he is really going good.

He's no John Bateman.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Noe on July 21, 2008, 12:55:12 pm
I will not be surprised if the Stros make a run at Pudge as a FA.

After acquiring Miguel Tejada this year, the Astros talking to Pudge would not surprise me one bit.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: David in Jackson on July 21, 2008, 01:17:06 pm
After acquiring Miguel Tejada this year, the Astros talking to Pudge would not surprise me one bit.

Me neither, which is why the team has been in decline since 2004.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: JimR on July 21, 2008, 01:21:51 pm
Me neither, which is why the team has been in decline since 2004.

WFW
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Kent's Moustache on July 21, 2008, 01:47:49 pm
After acquiring Miguel Tejada this year, the Astros talking to Pudge would not surprise me one bit.

That's what happens when your front office is more concerned with the PR splash of its transactions than their baseball soundness...
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: JimR on July 21, 2008, 01:48:48 pm
That's what happens when your front office is more concerned with the PR splash of its transactions than their baseball soundness...

oh, BS.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Noe on July 21, 2008, 02:03:28 pm
That's what happens when your front office is more concerned with the PR splash of its transactions than their baseball soundness...

Actually, the baseball operations side is very concerned with baseball soundness.  But they have to pick and choose their battles with the other side of the fence where McLane sits comfortably in a lead chair.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Andyzipp on July 21, 2008, 02:07:37 pm
Any catchers (besides Jason LaRue) own land in Texas?
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: austro on July 21, 2008, 02:11:16 pm
Any catchers (besides Jason LaRue) own land in Texas?

Or pitchers?
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Andyzipp on July 21, 2008, 02:12:27 pm
Or pitchers?

For that purpose, Louisiana will suffice.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Kent's Moustache on July 21, 2008, 02:19:13 pm
Given that Salty and Ramirez have both been projected as "maybe we'll move him to 1b", and Teagarden's shoulder injury made his throwing a question mark, I'm going to say no.

I'll agree that Salty and Ramirez are hitters first and backstops second (perhaps, a distant second).  However, both Laird and Teagarden seem cut more from the Ausmus cloth, in terms of their ability to handle a staff and their work behind the plate.

Teagarden had a bum shoulder in the past, but he threw out the only attempted base-stealer he's seen in the Show thus far, and his shoulder is apparently healthy enough to earn him a spot on the Olympic team.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Noe on July 21, 2008, 02:21:58 pm
I'll agree that Salty and Ramirez are hitters first and backstops second (perhaps, a distant second).  However, both Laird and Teagarden seem cut more from the Ausmus cloth, in terms of their ability to handle a staff and their work behind the plate.

Teagarden had a bum shoulder in the past, but he threw out the only attempted base-stealer he's seen in the Show thus far, and his shoulder is apparently healthy enough to earn him a spot on the Olympic team.

He is hoping somebody up North gets ideas that a Gerald Laird is expendable and makes him available.  That is one very good backstop indeed.
Title: Re: Q update
Post by: Matt on July 21, 2008, 04:05:41 pm
Teagarden has to be a fake alias.