The Houston Chronicle reports that Astros' GM Ed Wade is not confident in going with J.R. Towles as the catcher for next season. "Were going to pay attention to whats in the catching market and see if theres a guy out there who can make sense for us and slide in here and at the very least do a good job until J.R. gets his feet under him or until other things happen, Wade said. The catching market is always tricky because its usually thin and the guys that are out there seem to sign pretty quickly.
Our View:Towles is 24 and he is expected to come around soon, but it appears Wade wants to bring in more spring training competition other than Humberto Quintero. The prospect hit just .137 over 146 at-bats.
The Houston Chronicle reports that Astros GM Ed Wade feels Michael Bourn should remain in center field next season. "The fact weve got (Darin) Erstad back and signed and people like (Reggie) Abercrombie and anything else we might be able to do during the offseason, theres going to be some level of competition out there. But I think we saw the last week of the season what Michael can bring from performance and excitement to a ballclub, Wade said.
Our View:In his rookie season, Bourn struggled at the plate. He hit just .229 with a .288 OBP. Once he got on, he was able to make things happen by stealing 41 bases and scoring 57 runs. He did improve as the season went on but he has a long way to go. His potential to steal 60 bases keeps him on the roto-radar.
The Houston Astros would like to re-sign pitcher Randy Wolf in the offseason, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Our View:Wolf won six games and had an ERA of 3.57 after being acquired from the Padres last year. Though far from elite, he is always an attractive option to fantasy owners, at least in part because of his strikeout potential (7.66 K/9 this year).
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