It's been quite a first half for JR Towles. He opened the season with the Astros, billed as one of the best catching prospects in the majors. For all of April and May, he hit like a cheap version of Brad Ausmus and earned himself a demotion to AAA. In AAA, he mashed to a .278/.380/.574 line, with eight of his 17 hits going for extra bases. Now he's back in Houston after Humberto Quintero went on the DL with a concussion. From the Houston Chronicle: "Reality is reality," he said. "I wasn't doing very well. Certainly, I was disappointed and frustrated. But I realized I wasn't helping the team. They felt the need to send me back down to get things back straight. I feel good. I'm here to take advantage of the opportunity."
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"I've made some adjustments, and hopefully things will go well," he said.
With the Astros badly sliding right now and sitting 11 games out of first place, they're going to be better served playing Towles than Quintero, concussion or no concussion. Towles and Hunter Pence represent just about the only young talent that Ed Wade has to build around, so they might as well figure out if Towles is the real deal as soon as they can.
