Mills:
“Those guys have both played real well. We're still evaluating and seeing how things are going. We still have a few weeks to go yet before we have to make those final decisions, and I expect it will come down to really almost near the end.”
Towles, on how he has prepared himself:
“I went out with Roy (Oswalt) one night, and (Brian) Moehler and I plan on going with a few other guys. It's really going and talking with them to see what I can do different, what I can do that they would like to see me do to help them out.”
Castro, same question:
“It's really just a matter of just getting in the game and getting to catch. (Tuesday) I caught Brian Moehler for the first time, and it's really not until you get in those situations where you can see how guys like to work and discuss things and really build off just experiences.”
Ed Wade:
“This is not rotisserie league baseball or anything like that. We've got to take roster status, contractual status, service time, everything into consideration to try to make the right decision both for now and the long term.”
A-ha! Now we get a nugget. You can bet that the Astros wouldn't be terribly interested in rushing Castro to the majors, with one reason being service time. If Castro makes the team or gets called up before right around the middle of June (it's a flexible date), Castro will get an extra year of arbitration, which cost the Astros approximately $3m with Hunter Pence.
I still think that Towles has shown enough that he will make the team out of Spring Training, Jason Castro will head to Round Rock to get regular time and, since he's never played in Triple-A, get a little more seasoning.
The race so far:
Catcher
| Name | AB | Avg/OBP/SLG | K:BB | XBH-RBI |
| Castro | 15 | .467/.526/.533 | 4:3 | 1-2 |
| Towles | 20 | .550/.609/.900 | 1:0 | 6-2 |
