28-year old righty swinging J.R. House never gets a chance to prove himself in the majors. He has to feel pretty bad that the Astros passed him up for Humberto Quintero despite House playing much better than him in AAA. What does he have to do to get a legit chance to prove himself in the majors? He has nothing left to prove in the minors. House has played in 65 games in AAA this season and he is 70 for 227 (.308 avg, .831 OPS) with 27 runs scored, 5 homers and 28 RBIs. It will be interesting to see if House gets a call from the Astros before September when rosters can expand to 40.

Watching Roy Oswalt pitch makes me think he is hurting somewhere. He has started 14 games this season for the Astros and he is 5-6 with a 5.06 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP. Oswalt has allowed 104 hits and 17 homers in only 89 innings this season which sends off signals that something just isn’t right with him. Oswalt has never had a season where his ERA has been above 3.49 at the end of the season so this is very odd. Maybe he’ll turn things around soon but I wouldn’t be surprised if something is wrong with him.

It’s shocking that it took so long for the Astros to figure out that Cruz can’t cut it anymore. Cruz played in 38 games for the Astros this season and he was 6 for 49 (.122 avg, .426 OPS) with 6 runs scored and 1 RBI. The Astros have called up 26-year old righty swinging Reggie Abercrombie to take Cruz’ place on the roster. Abercrombie has played in 56 games in AAA ball this season and he is 61 for 212 (.288 avg, .793 OPS) with 29 runs scored, 9 homers, 25 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. Abercrombie has also whiffed an amazing 71 times in AAA ball this year. Abercrombie has played in 146 games in his major league career now and he is 69 for 331 (.208 avg, .593 OPS) with 55 runs scored, 7 homers, 29 RBIs and 13 stolen bases. He has also whiffed an astounding 100 times in his major league career. Don’t expect Abercrombie to be a huge improvement over Cruz.

The Astros finally had enough of watching starting catcher J.R. Towles get dominated by major league pitching so they have demoted him to the minors. He played in 42 games for the Astros this season and he was 17 for 117 (.145 avg, .552 OPS) with 9 runs scored, 4 homers and 14 RBIs. Humberto Quintero has been recalled from AAA ball and he might finally get his big chance at the major league level to show what he can do. Quintero has played in 32 games in AAA ball this season and he is 28 for 118 (.237 avg, .638 OPS) with 13 runs scored, 3 homers and 18 RBIs. He has played in 1 game for the Astros this season and he was 2 for 4 with a double. He has now played in 94 games in his major league career and he is 54 for 227 (.238 avg, .592 OPS) with 18 runs scored, 3 homers and 23 RBIs. Quintero will likely get his big chance to show what he can do because Brad Ausmas also hasn’t been able to hit his weight this season either. He has played in 31 games this season for the Astros and he is 16 for 82 (.195 avg, .480 OPS) with 5 runs scored, 1 homer and 6 RBIs.