Wow…Coste is currently OPSing more than either of our catchers. Much of that is due to his 60-point lead in OBP, which is a pleasant addition to the team if he can keep it up. I was just thinking to myself that we really could use some more OBP guys.

This is his fourth year in the majors…but he’s 36. Although it does look like we’ve added another World Series winner to the team.

This adds a bit of power to the bench, at the very least. A brief glance at old posts at The Good Phight seems to show that Coste gets overexposed if he gets too many AB. The folks over there also seem upset, since it means that the Phillies are keeping Paul Bako on board, who is doing significantly worse than Q and Pudge this season.

Anybody know anything about Coste’s defense?

I havve always thought of Coste as one of the better back up catchers in baseball. He is definitely an improvement on Quintero, offensively. My speculation is that this is a bad sign for Quintero’s future as an Astros. At age 36, it’s hard to get too excited about Coste, but a positive side is that he probably is too old to be considered a starter who might block Towles or Castro in the future. I also noticed Coste’s OBP. It may be above his average this year, but even in his lessor years the OBP is higher than a typical catcher. I recall looking at all those below .300 OBPs among free agent catchers during the off season.

I don’t know much about his defense, but I assume it isn’t anything special.

I hope he can do well without Q. I think he can, but you know how mental pitchers can be.

Other than that, I like the offensive upgrade.

I’m thinking it may mean Jason Michaels is gone. Astros need a bench player who can pinch hit.

I think Quintero’s toughness is appreciated by his teammates. Having him on the team is reassuring

um… I guess.

He’ll bring marginally better offense than Q, but that won’t be much of an impact. I doubt he’ll get used in PH situations, since you don’t typically like to burn your backup catcher unless it’s entirely necessary. Q was around for his defense anyways (what you tend to look for in a backup catcher). Hopefully Coste isn’t too much of a dropoff in that area.

I can’t imagine this is a replacement for Michaels, but what do I know.

Coste is the author of the book The 33-year-old Rookie, telling the story of his 11 seasons in minor league baseball before making the majors in 2006.

In 2004, Coste played in the Pirates organization for Class AAA Indianapolis, where Cecil Cooper was his manager.

is it possible a trade is coming with pudge or Q?

The Cubs put Soto on the DL and expect him to be out for over a month. According to the WGN broadcasters, the Cubs would have been interested in picking up Coste. But the Astros blocked that move.

“Not sure what they’re going to do to make room for Coste, but according to McTaggart, Wade said don’t assume they’re moving a catcher.”

That was pretty much Michaels role anyway….he can’t be much of drop off from Carlos defensively….:):):):0

That was Rosenthal’s theme just now on the Fox game of the week (Cubs/Cards). The Astros claimed Coste yesterday when the Cubs were just ahead of the Astros in the standings. Cubs put in a claim, too, but the Astros’ position in the standings gave them first dibs. After the Astros won last night, they passed the Cubs in the standings. Rosenthal points out that if Coste had been placed on waivers today, then the Cubs could have picked up the catcherr they wanted.