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Astros and the Free Agent Catching Market

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)


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Brad Ausmus 81 216 15 47 8 0 3 24 25 41 0 2 .218 .303 .296

Paul Bako (37)


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Paul Bako 99 299 30 65 11 2 6 35 34 90 0 2 .217 .299 .328

Rod Barajas (33) - $2.5MM club option for '09 with a $0.5MM buyout


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Rod Barajas 104 349 44 87 23 0 11 49 17 61 0 0 .249 .294 .410

Josh Bard (31)


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Josh Bard 57 178 11 36 9 0 1 16 18 25 0 0 .202 .279 .270

Michael Barrett (32)


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Michael Barrett 30 94 9 19 3 0 2 9 9 16 0 0 .202 .274 .298

Henry Blanco (37) - $3MM mutual option for '09 with a $0.3MM buyout


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Henry Blanco 58 120 15 35 3 0 3 12 6 22 0 0 .292 .325 .392

Johnny Estrada (33)


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Johnny Estrada 23 53 0 9 0 0 0 4 1 4 0 0 .170 .200 .170

Toby Hall (33)

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Toby Hall 41 127 7 33 3 0 2 7 6 19 0 0 .260 .304 .331

Jason LaRue (35)


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Jason LaRue 61 164 17 35 8 1 4 21 15 20 0 0 .213 .297 .348

Paul Lo Duca (37) - Type B


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Paul Lo Duca 21 34 3 10 2 0 0 3 6 2 0 0 .294 .400 .353

Miguel Olivo (30) - $2.7MM mutual option for '09 with a $0.1MM buyout - Type B


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Miguel Olivo 84 306 29 78 22 0 12 41 7 82 7 0 .255 .278 .444

Ivan Rodriguez (37) - Type A


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Ivan Rodriguez 33 96 11 21 4 0 2 3 4 15 4 0 .219 .257 .323

David Ross (32)


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - David Ross 8 8 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 .125 .125 .125

Javier Valentin (33)

Jason Varitek (37) - Type A


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Jason Varitek 131 423 37 93 20 0 13 43 52 122 0 1 .220 .313 .359

Gregg Zaun (38) - Type B


G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2008 - Gregg Zaun 86 245 29 58 12 0 6 30 38 38 2 1 .237 .340 .359

Is there any untapped potential in this list that I'm not seeing?