Welcome to Appy Astros, a blog dedicated to following current & former Greeneville Astros, the Appalachian League affiliate of the Houston Astros. Here you will find reports on current G-Stros, updates on the development of former G-Stros and occasionally an update on what has happened to the guys who have hung up their spikes.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Towles Chances Improved

A while back, I documented the up and down journey of J. R. Towles. Several times on his journey, he benefited from someone else misfortune. That is the way baseball works, just ask Wally Pipp.

It looks like Towles will get another shot at being the Astros catcher due to Jason Castro's knee injury. At first it just looked like he would get a chance to get more reps behind the plate during spring training but this morning, it is being reported that Castro tore has ACL and will be out most of the season.

This means more chances for Towles behind the plate and he can put those fielders gloves away for a while.

"That's my comfort zone, but I wanted to do whatever I could to make the team and help this team," Towles said. "You never wish anybody back luck. I know what he's going through from being out all last year, and it looks like he might miss some time. You don't wish anything bad to happen to somebody. You want him back in the lineup and wish him the best."
Here is what Ed Wade had to say about what Castro's ACL tear means to the catching situation.
"I think the first thing we have to do is evaluate the catchers we have in camp," Wade said. "We're fortunate to have J.R. and Quintero and Corporan who have big league experience. We've got Garcia and Esposito here. We'll evaluate what we've got, but as is always the case if there's opportunity to do something to improve the club we'll try to do that."
His chances look better today than they did at the start of the week but he still needs to perform well this spring. Towles is 1 for 4 this spring with his one hit being a double.

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