Jay Bruce isn't the only major prospect playing in the National League Central this year. Before the season started, JR Towles was ranked by everyone as one of the best catching prospects in baseball, set to end the Astros' years of Brad Aumsus-induced offensive ineptitude at the position. Unfortunately, he's off to an Ausmus-like start, hitting only .149/.276/.289 before Sunday's game. Still, he says he's not that worried about his ugly start. "Definitely, my hitting is struggling a little bit right now," Towles said. "There's no way of hiding that. But the one thing I can do is do well behind the plate and not let my hitting affect my defense.
"One thing I take pride in is doing well behind the plate. I'd rather, like I've said before, do extremely well behind the plate than go 4-for-4 at the plate. Any time I can help those pitchers out in any way, it makes me feel good. It makes me feel like I've had a job well done."
It's true that much of a catcher's work is behind the plate, rather than at it, but I think that most pitchers would like to see a 4-for-4 night from their catcher and the resulting run support and might even sacrifice some of the behind the plate stuff for that kind of offense.
