But Quintero hasn’t exactly been tearing it up in AAA. He’s only batting .235.

Some people are calling for us to offer Lofton a contract and get rid of Bourn and Towles…

i think his offense would be rejuvenated with a call up to houston – .235 BA and .273 OBP i’d gladly take over a .145 BA / .270 OBP!

lofton, not so sure that’s a great idea…

just saw this article today:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080603&content_id=2833481&vkey=news_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=hou&partnered=rss_hou

it does mention that Q has 7 hits in his last 6 games…

i’m not opposed to making the switch at catcher, especially with the assumption that when(if) Towles comes around and starts hitting at AAA, that he get the call back, regardless of what Q is doing. i still believe the hype that Towles is the catcher of the future.

i don’t like the idea of signing Lofton, but i guess if the argument is that we’re an offensive upgrade at one position away from the playoffs, i can see where somebody’s coming from (not that i think that’s enough of an argument). Lofton would be a downgrade defensively from Bourn, as he’s not the super-speedy, slick-fielding center fielder anymore. also, Lofton wants what he made last year, which even prorated for half a season is $3MM.

Bourn’s hitting .284 since the middle of May, with a .324 OBP (although only a .299 SLG and with almost as many K’s as hits). i think he lengthened his rope a bit with a few clusters of very positive games in mid to late May. hopefully he’ll continue to improve, and i do think that resting him against some lefthanders until he gets his confidence up a bit, wouldn’t hurt. unfortunately, Erstad doesn’t appear to have great numbers versus lefties for his career (2 for 5 this year though), so there’s not an obvious platoon (or semi-platoon) option (can’t find a site to give me career splits).

Benito Santiago is only 42.