Yesterday was the first day to file for free agency and so yesterday is the first day we've been able to get a concrete idea of how the free agent market will look. The other day when I polled you to see what you thought was imperative for the Astros to do this season, at least one of you mentioned that you wanted to find a FA catcher to fill in for the dream team of JR Towles and Humberto Quintero. In all honesty, when I posted the poll, I didn't even consider the idea because I believed the FA catching market to be weak, old, and over-priced.
The list of those who filed for free agents yesterday from MLBTradeRumors (the link has full list of FA by position) pretty much confirms that there's just not anything better/worthwhile out there:
Brad Ausmus (40)
Paul Bako (37)
Rod Barajas (33) - $2.5MM club option for '09 with a $0.5MM buyout
Josh Bard (31)
Michael Barrett (32)
Henry Blanco (37) - $3MM mutual option for '09 with a $0.3MM buyout
Johnny Estrada (33)
Toby Hall (33)
Jason LaRue (35)
Paul Lo Duca (37) - Type B
Miguel Olivo (30) - $2.7MM mutual option for '09 with a $0.1MM buyout - Type B
Ivan Rodriguez (37) - Type A
David Ross (32)
Javier Valentin (33)
Jason Varitek (37) - Type A
Gregg Zaun (38) - Type B
Is there any untapped potential in this list that I'm not seeing?